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So...I am sleeping....and life is good that way...seems a good trick to stay up 40 hrs or so before you go to bed after a long trip. It seems to work. I woke up at good time and did the usaul hose off and crub a dub dub before hitting the the restaurant for breaky. Definitely and English influence.....eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans.... all were up for grabs at the buffet. They do have a weird bacon...not as good as back home....but edible. They roll it up and cook it that way...kinda weird. Either way I was rested, clean, and had a full belly. Time to hit the road. I wandered down to the bike and was absconded by a couple of other riders. They bent my ear for a while suggesting places to go etc etc....crap...everyone is so nice here. According to me map I had a hotel in a town called Bright. I read the write up that they sent me and it sounded like it was going to be a nice ride. Today I tackle the Snowy mountains. If any of you remember the movie The man from snowy river, yup...this is the place. Kinda cool.
So I have to say I brought the mins on this trip and its paying off already. I try to not take anything out of a bag unless I need it. In the mornings it makes packing up so easy. Was packed up with me clean cloths and good to go in about 10 minutes. There are not too many bugs either so cleaning up my helmet and bike windscreen is real easy too. It was a bit brisk and I was warned I was going to get chilled today as I was going into the mountains....I really don't think they realize how big our mountains are...cuz....what I can see here are not too big at all. So I got me lucky scarf on and added me warth layer. Was good to go. Did me room check and seems nothing was forgotten to get packed. Have to say I have become anal retentive about checking the room....I have forgotten so many things in hotel rooms. All good. Hopped on the bike and went to pay me bar tab. Asked the gal bout the weather and she checked for me seem the clouds I was now seeing would clear up and should be sunny and 26 by the time I get over the mountains. I was a bit not sure as the clouds looked wet and in mountains you come around a bend and who knows what you will hit. Either way power of positivity to the rescue. No point in worrying about what Y'all canna effect...so farg it! Time ta go.
With that I hopped on the bike sparked her up loaded up the gps route for the day...rolled off and did a right turn onto the road. Not any traffic and off I went....just humming a silly tune in me head. I was on a 4 lane divided road and I was rolling along and came over a hill and saw a couple cars coming...odd.....they are in my lane....thats bizarre...dumb sods......FRIGGIN 'ELL I'M ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!! I saw a gap in the divider and aimed for it. K' mental note in morning must remember what freaking lane to be in. The drivers of the other cars didn't flip me off or anything....thought that was nice. Humbling.........I turned me head and pointed to me canuck flag....least an excuse.....
The ride out of Jindabyne started right away with a turn off that started to climb the mountain range. Right out of the gate the ride was turning out to be great. Nothing but rising sweepers, s-bends, Hairpins, and switchbacks. the sun came out and I was having a blast. No one was on the road. Just a narrow thrill ride. I finally got some confidence in the Metzlers and was finding grip. Only lost the front end a couple of times but it seemed to catch right away so all was good. I knew my lean limitation....couldn't scrape the cylinder heads with these tires but no chicken strips either. I was having a blast. I only had to add the watch for Wombats and Roos dimension to the mix. I had the video cameras going too. Should be some neat video. If ever pulled over I eat the micros sd card but must remember to chew it on the way down..... with my recent recovery I am also aware of the brittleness of me bones and may be dialing back a bit. I am just having fun riding this road...not really trying to test the bike to its most extreme limits. I just want to know my safe spot. It seems to be a bit farther out than most folks from what I seem to see. Eventually I came across another biker. He was kinda slow so blew past him with a wave and kept the rhythm. After a bit I saw a turn out for a look out point and needed a break anyways so turned in.
Hopped off the bike and went to the look out. Great view, very scenic. The chap I passed then pulled in too. He came over and we got to talking. Dwayne, great guy. He was on a walkabout and he was camping it. He was riding a Razr and it was loaded with soft bags. He was local and told me again about night and eve riding....at some point I mentioned I still had not seen a live Kangaroo yet. He laughed out loud. Seems about 10 km back off a little side road is where he camped. All night he heard the dingos and in the morning he popped his head up and he saw a huge herd of Kangaroos....in the same field he was in. He was amazed I had not seen one yet. I had seen about 4 dead ones so far....and a few dead wombats....and a dead wallaby. With that though it was time to go. The fun road seemed to just go on and on. Hit the top...not a tall mountain range, but it had snow markers so you could find the road in the winter. Seems like I was following the range. Eventually the descent began and I popped out in a valley that lead me to a small town...Wallawallawonkawillyadink .....or something like that I think. Time for a break found a cafe and sat outside for a latte and a wicked good piece of cheesecake. Lattes here seem to be good everywhere..... did some people watching and vehicle watching....they make em different here. They seem to most have hard core smaller trucks...big snorkels on the hood.....and serious suspension. They also love those subaru brat derivatives.
Butt felt better so was time to go. The landscape really changed from this rugged carved out a mountain road to a rolling hills prairies road with trees every once in a while. Then came into Tallangatta....they had to move the town back in the 50's because they were damming the river to make a lake. The lake is bizarre, it's full of standing dead trees. The ride was not as fun as earlier and the butt doth protest so rolled into Tangambalanga (serious...thats its name). Found a pile of bikes parked in front of a bakery...seemed like the place to stop. Could not even get in the front door with everybody saying hi and asking me things. Seems like they were having a weekend ride. Everybody was uber nice and they all wanted to know about Canada. After saying gday...was time to hit the road again. I ended up in Beauty. Found a park to take a break and just sprawled out in the park on the grass....was awesome. Looked up and holy crap...Cockatoos...everywhere. They were big and flying all over, they make a hell of a racket.
After another meet and greet with a couple that wandered over to bend my ear. It was time to do the run to Bright....over the pass. Looked like the best road of the day from the gps track.
Figured I would try a new spot for the Hero 2 cam put it on the front wheel fender. Thought it was a cool angle and tugged on the camera good, did not budge. So I hit the road....it started with a switchback....I was just warming up....and I hear a roar.....from behind...its a dude on a KTM 1190 with a pillion onboard...wanting to pass bad.... I moved left and off they went....I know what Lorenzo is feeling like these days when Marquez is on the same track..... they took off like I was standing still....I was blown away...and then two more guys ripped up from behind and I had no option but to pull over to let them through. I tried to keep up for a few bends but there was no way I did not have anywhere near the traction they had..just watched them walk away.
About here I thought I should check me camera.....stood up to take a peak and....frig...it was gone......crap. I hit the binders and did a quick 180.....did a slow ride down to the start point....nothing.....sigh... RIP lil buddy.
It must have flown off the edge after some of the tight corners. I loved that camera.....with that...I took off to do an amazing ride to Bright. Frig that was an awesome road counted on the map later stopped counting after 110 corners. It was a workout. I rolled into Bright and found another bakery and guess who was there...mr KTM and his buds. Seems they were all pretty hardcore and not the friendly type so I didn't bother to tell em how impressed I was. Sat down with me latte to chill. The hotel was calling.....found it easy. It was like a little island of tranquility. Got settled in and headed for the pool. Friggin ell....that was the coldest pool I have ever been in.....but I felt pretty good laying in the sun after. Once dried off I asked for a restaurant to hit....and was told to hit the Alpine hotel. Off I went. Was a great steak. Aussies like steaks that I have found out. I'm good with that. Was leaning back digesting when a gal asked me if I was a traveller.
Well that started a pretty cool convo. Catherine ....and her boyfriend Pete were from New York riding a GS. Turns out she was a hardcore rider herself but couldn't afford a bike here so was riding shotguy with her boyfriend. Well this guy was pretty cool he is a retired copper. He started riding australia in December....rode right around it then picked her up in Cains, He had some pretty cool stories. He got caught in floods and lightning storms of the likes he had not seen before. He got caught in a town that the police told him not to stay in for the night or he would be robbed blind. He miscalculated and ended up having to ride in the dark......scariest thing he has ever done. Swore to never do it again. Convinced me to not do it....He has an new RT at home so we could relate to a lot. He also rode from Ancorage to Patagonia one trip.....had a ton of stories. Was a late night before I got out of there.
Sleep came easy.
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