This year the crew for the road trip consisted of Marty, Bill, Phil & myself. The motorcycles were respectively, ZX14 Kawasaki, ZX9 Kawasaki,Suzuki V Strom with road tires and my ever reliable VFR800 (which ticked over 70,000kms on this trip).
Sunday evening 20 Feb saw Marty & I catching the ferry over Port Philip Bay to stay at Bill & Margy's overnight to miss the peak traffic bottleneck over the Westgate Bridge in Melbourne on Monday morning. Monday morning we hooked up with Phil at Tooradin, then headed down the South Gippsland Hwy to Orbost, in light rain most of the way.
Many thanks to Marty for planning yet another great route and to Bill & Phil for being such great fun and reliable riding mates.
I will post some maps and more text when I have time. I'm flat out at work now so will just do some bits and pieces to the write up and label the pics when I can. Also I have some thoughts about a motorcycle dealership that offered no help when it was needed and a small engineering works who stepped up and were brilliant. Any of the shots with me in them are Marty's pics.
All the high resolution pics at
THIS LINK.
From Orbost the weather picked up and was pretty much perfect thereafter. We ran up the Bonang Road with it's 1080 bends in 90 kms (and 'Roos & deer so we were told later) for 3 nights in the tiny, but motorcycle friendly, town of Bombala (NSW).
Bombala's heritage guesthouse was our base for daily raids out through Southern NSW. We actually rented the near new house next door for 3 nights rather than taking room in the B&B. The owner, Les Atkins & his partner Priscilla were excellent hosts and made us feel very welcome.
I'd highly recommend this place for traveling motorcyclists.
Heritage Guest House
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Mt Darragah Rd near the scene of a gravel strewn corner, hidden in the shadows! |
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| Bill & Phil at Eden. the wharf area has lots of great cafes. |
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| Boys at the Imlay Creek. |
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| "They took our parks"- the ZX10 was ridden by a female, former A Grade racer. |
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| Touring Oz in a 50 year old Kombi. Left drive as originally bought in CA, USA. (Then shipped to England for 2 year rebuild, then to Aust). |
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| Bermagui NSW |
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| Old man of the sea ...... Jules taking a break |
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| Commercial apple crops under nets at Batlow (NSW). |
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| Side of the road photo op near Batlow |
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| Elliot way, one of my most favorite roads! |
Marty, Bill and Phil ready to hit Elliot Way. Not far from here we saw a large mob of wild brumbies to the side of the road. Much to my regret I didn't stop and photograph them!!
We then headed through the Snowys for 2 nights, staying in Corryong (Vic), and again, a couple of day trips from there before heading home.
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| Corryong butcher. |
There seemed to be roadworks just about every road we took. Guess they have to do it before snow season. Cooling our heals for "...just 5 minutes mate....!"
Alpine Road. Bill aboard the Kawasaki ZX14
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| Hard to believe that you're looking at Mt Kosciusko- the hill on the left! |
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| Adaminaby NSW, yep it's the big trout! |
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| Phil & Marty discussing the size of sunglasses! |
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| Road to the Snowys from Corryong |
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| Marty kicking back at our motel in Corryong. |
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| New memorial to the Man from Snowy River |
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Near Hume Dam
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Hello! Glad you had a great time, guys.
ReplyDeletePictures are great too. All the different kinds of bikes you have there, considering the power and comfort.
VFR was always among my favorites, V-4 engine is fantastic, behaves great, and I've heard many stories about its reliability. That's an aftermarket seat on it, right? Looks good and looks comfy... what is it?
Best regards!
A weekend away with mates on the bike...........nothing better I say. Looks like you had a fantastic time. Some great pictures there also. 70000kms is good going , how long u had it, did you get it from new?
ReplyDeleteNice post, I would love to see the Man from Snowy River statues in person someday.
ReplyDeleteMotoCraze- yes that's a Sargent seat which is much better than standard, but still not 'great'. I think some of the guys who re-build your own seat probably produce a better product.
ReplyDeleteRaftnn - Roger, I bought the VFR with 23,000 kms on it so I've just about done 50,000 kms myself. I've had no mechanical issues with it at all - none. I'm after a new bike this year though and the new Kawasaki Ninja 1000 with ABS is a the top of the wish list right now.
Ken it's beautiful country. Out of the way and not much traffic - just how I like it!Some of it is quite a lot like a mix of northern CA and the Sierras.
Magnificent photos and road trip Jules - can only echo what everyone else said. We're truly blessed with great biking roads down this end of the world, eh?
ReplyDeleteI presume you have to tie your bike down on the ferry? On our inter-islander, there are really good anchor points for bikes, but most people carry their own ratchets rather than rely on on the often dubious ropes provided.
Nice trip and nice bikes. Love the Kombi, last time I heard the name Kombi was 26 years ago while still living in South Africa :-)
ReplyDelete90kms of twisties? nice :-)