Very welcoming overnight stay at the motorcycle friendly Bogong Moth Motel in Mt Beauty. The day started with us easily locating the winner of the worst coffee experienced in Australia to date, which went to a cafe that must remain unnamed, situated in Mt Beauty.  Hideous......Bacon and eggs was top notch however.

Straight out of town on to the C546 over to Bright, an awesome road, scenic and twisty. This put us on to Victoria’s famous Great Alpine Road.

Consensus......if there was a competition for motorcycle riders, which is the best road, NSW Alpine Way or Victoria’s Great Alpine Road, NSW would win hands down, just saying.

Anyway, fair to say the Great Alpine road has 4 distinct sections, climbing the Bright side is steep and full of twisties up through Eucalyptus forest.  When Marie and I rode this 10 years ago the forest had been decimated by a huge fire.  Good to see the regrowth the last 10 years has seen, masses of new eucalypts now 2-3 m tall where 10 years ago there was ashes. Anyway this ride was going real well till half way up we came up behind 3 Harleys, 2 up with luggage.  Let’s do the math, the Harleys are what? 2 meters long, there was 15 meters each between the 1st and 2nd and the 2nd and 3rd bike, that’s 36 meters in total,  right?  OK so the rest of the ride up the mountain we may as well have been following a 36 m motor home.  It was a good experience for us riding at that pace though, we got to say gidday to some indigenous insects, count growth rings on trees, examine the content of the seal on some corners and all sorts of stuff we wouldn’t normally do.

At the top, at Hotham Ski village, 10 degrees, we thought it would be colder.  Coming up the Bright side is Section 1 of the Gt Alpine Road.  A great ride if not following a Motor Home.!!!!!!!!

Section 2, different again, going down the other side, Hotham to Omeo, steep but nice clean road gentle sweepers, next to no tight turns, another awesome ride.

Section 3, another wee treasure, Omeo to Bruthen, a 100km per hour highway all the way twisties but more sweeping gentle curves follows a river valley beside the river much of the way, another very enjoyable ride, scenic and relaxing, quite a few motorcycles, but I suspect we saw more cyclists tackling the mountain than we did cars and motorcycles.  Good on you Aussies, out there doing it at Easter.  I think the Harley dogs would enjoy this side of the mountain better than the “Bright” side.......if I was a gambling man.

Section 4 of the Great Alpine Road is Bruthen to Bairnsdale, I won’t comment on that bit eh?

We arrived in Sale, had a look through town and then checked in at our accom.  OK then, enough about Sale , so will check in again tommorrow.

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.

Day three dawns with a bit of a sea fog, I get up to go for a jog along the seafront walkway and run into another kiwi, Mark Batty in fact, there ya go.  Small world, he is on the same bike trip as me. !!!!!

$15.00 breaking at the very good establishment we stayed in, Mariners on the waterfront before heading south in a frisky 19 degrees down the Princes Highway toward Bega.  Great motorcycling road, sweeping corners rolling up and down over ranges, lotsa gum trees funnily enough, traffic very light despite being Easter Friday.

147 Kms later we turn right onto the Snowy Mountains Highway, absolute winner of todays Riders Choice Road, we ascend to 17.5 degrees at the summit, awesome twisty roads for a steep 10 km climb before dropping down to the intersection with Monaro Highway toward Cooma.  Wow what a change of scenery.  From 17.5 degrees to 28 degrees in about 10 mins.  See the pics of the desert looking scenery, bit like the desert road at Waiouru, this is the Monaro Highway into Cooma.

After a spot of lunch its another 60 km to Jindabyne,  the scenery changes yet again, a bit like the earlier Monaro highway but now lotsa rock formations then into a treescape and browned off farmland like Omarama really, only suitable for Marino’s.  Saw a few mobs of these before dropping into Jindabyne at about 800m above sea level on the Lake.  Trendy wee town, a cross between Tekapo and Wanaka we decided.  Accom at Kookaburra lodge, bit more up market than last night. Not too many motorcycles out and about, very unusual.  Trees starting to change with the autumn colors here so lots of yellow, looks good.

Day two dawns crisp and clear and 22 degrees.  After a hearty breakfast at Dean and Carla’s we head off down the Hume, a delightful scent of eucalyptus leaves mixing in with just a hint of Kangaroo roadkill and exhaust fumes, we were truly at one with nature. Funny thing over here, turns out the Aussies also celebrate Easter same time as us and they also go hit the road on the Thursday...........Yes we suffered.......

Anyway, we see a sign that says “the great southern hills wine region” so we take an off-ramp into the wee village of Mittagong.  We decided we would like to immerse ourselves in the culture and language of this country and mix with the locals at a cafe.  Low and behold in front of us, right there in Bong Bong street was the coffee house.

After the expected language comprehension difficulties you can imagine with tourists in a foreign country, we consumed our two flat whites and carried on, happy we were blending in,

and no-one knew we were tourists.

We had a great day, before and after the wee village of kangaroo Valley, a delightful ride with relatively little traffic.  This route was recommended by the locals in Sydney and proved well worth the ride.

Just before Fitzroy falls we saw a Police Car on the side of the road, red and blues flashing, turns out he was wagging his finger and giving some tourists in an SUV an absolute earful about their obvious behavior.  I have no idea what nationality they were, but from the physical attributes I spotted as I cruised sedately past, they looked to from a country to the North and East of Australia..............just saying.  Good man Mr Policeman.

Arriving in the delightful village of Batemans Bay, couple beers on the waterfront, once again we had language and comprehension difficulties, the barmaid had never heard of IPA or Pilsner.  She now knows all about them.

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Mark and Keith

Day One we arrive in Sydney to be picked up by Dean Te Rito to find Dean and Carla live 50 km south of Sydney which is half of our next days ride.  Cunning plan, called BikeRoundOz and Yep, its OK to uplift the bikes at 5.00 pm instead of tommorrow, saves us the grief of the morning commuter traffic.  Greeted at Bikescape with the bikes ready and waiting on the curb, two immaculate 1200GS water heads fully panniered, good to go.

Kitted up heading south on the M5, hideous commuter traffic, made the Auckland motorway look like rush hour in Gore, Mucus (Mark Batty) got grumpy with my erratic lane changes and gave me a burst.  All good after 2 hours we had commuted the 50 km to Dean and Carla’s at Camden, Mount Annan.  Carla put on a delicious green curry to which I added too much chillie, enough said.

Looking forward to the trip to Batemans Bay via Kangaroo Valley today, short day, numerous coffee stops, watch for more footage.