Day Four, Easter Saturday, Jindabyne NSW to Mt Beauty VIC
We decided this has to be the best days motorcycling we have likely ever done!!!! 475 kms of Twisties which was motorcycling Nirvana. Day a bit long ( 10 hours in the saddle including lunch and coffee stops) given a lot of it was at slower speeds due to the Twisties and if we had pillions, we were thinking this might be a two day ride. Check out the route:
Leaving Jindabyne it was 12 degrees, ascending Alpine Way it was 5 degrees going through the entrance station into Kosciuszko National Park. A wee fright with a nut job deer that had clearly been drinking from a puddle of Red Bull. He jumped off a bank onto the road in front of me, dunno how he knew I was a kiwi, but the Aussie deer showed off some classic rugby bodyswerves in the middle of the road, pathetic they were, before darting off into the scrub. It was the bike engine that startled him, 5 km faster I would have been roadkill.
Anyway about this time the temp said 5 degreees, 5 mins later we turn into Thredbo, that’s frost on the grass and it was 1 degree. Crisp.
Thredbo was packed with Mountain bikers, no parks, no chance of a coffee. Slutty wee village though. Carried on.
Continue on Alpine way, what an awesome ride, the wee video is typical terrain and a smile crossed our faces to see a sign indicating twisty roads for the next 65 km. How sad.
Much much later, coffee and sticky bun at Khancoban then off along the Murray Highway with the temp now up to 25 degrees, great.
Lunch and Gas was at Tallangatta at Katys kitchen. It was our plan to take the C543 Omeo Highway but we needed gas so did the extra 5 km to Tallangatta. This was our chance to discover Tallangatta’s best kept secret, Lockhart’s Gap Road.
So about 1 km or so south of Tallangatta, take Bryants Gap road on the left, then left onto Lockhart’s Gap Road. What a treasure of Twisties and scenery this road is, bringing you back onto the C543 Omeo Highway. Down through Eskdale to MitaMita this is cruisy farm country but after MitaMita it turns twisty as you climb up to the summit of this Highway. A sign said they spent 14.6 m upgrading the Omeo highway, I missed the fine print but I’m sure it said “just for motorcyclists to enjoy this road” What an outstanding road. On ya, that council. The narrow road with gum trees picture is near the summit where there has been a bit of logging, about where Deer altercation number two occurred, this time she had not been drinking from a Red Bull puddle, eyeballed us and quietly drifted back into the scrub without showing off in the middle of the road. Good girl, a monster she was, beautiful back steaks and hind quarter roasts I spotted.
I digress, down the other side still heading toward Omeo, 25 degrees, Twisties for Africa to take a left toward Falls Creek up the Bogong High Plains Road. Here we go again, road narrows to one lane but the council optimistically inserted a center line....... amusing....... climbing through Eucalyptus Bush onto the High plains. Now this area strongly resembles Siberia and is a vast wind swept plain, see pics. Cold and windy, now back to 15 degrees, tourists and trampers everywhere, a veritable desert with so many people!!!!!
You cross a viaduct/dam thingy then ride through Falls Creek, a mini version of Thredbo with very expensive looking accom, another slutty wee ski village. Up here there are expanses of Dead mature gums with new young growth underneath. Some bug musta got them or the place has been the victim of a nuclear holocaust, unsure.
100 feet in altitude down the mountain and 1 degree warmer you are back into beautiful mature gum forest heading down toward Bogong.
Day ends with the last 30 km in to Mount Beauty and a well earned end to the day, a massive day on the bike but what awesome riding. A must do ride to be sure.