Solo single touring part 3 - From the mountains to the sea..

 

Woke up in the youth hostel in Bright, and to be honest I didn't really want to leave the place but I knew I had to just keep on movin' as per Jack Kerouc but minus the women, booze, drugs and travelling companion. After a good breakfast I'm on the way and turn off onto the Tawonga Road. This was a fantastically wiggly road; I could not average much more than 35mph or so. If you have the time check it out on multimap.com / Google Maps Just go to Australia and then enter Tawonga on the town search. There are leaves and bits of bark on the road, the trees are gargantuan on either side, the air is clear. After I while I get to Tawonga and turn left on the Kiewa Valley Highway.

This road leads me slowly out of the mountains and into merely hilly country, instead of forests its now more farming country. There are some quite fast bits on this road so I push it up a bit and the SRX keeps it's part of the deal to make it fun. I wonder how much petrol I have left?? Hmm filled up in Omeo I should have plenty eh? Look at the map and Kiewa is marked with a biggish red splodge - so that means on splodge measures it HAS to be bigger than say Dederang I passed which had a petrol pump...so I'll just get petrol at Kiewa.

Oh no I won't  Either the whole town has been removed from the face of the earth, or it's just a sign on the road - no shops, no nothing. Even now all these years later writing this I’m still convinced a sizeable town of say 2000 is hiding there somewhere. So now it’s critical - I NEED PETROL. So I sit and have a think and decide instead of turning off the way I want to actually go (east) in a few miles, I'll have to go north to the outskirts of Wodonga to be sure. Bugger it.

Get gas near Wodonga and then start east towards the Kosciusko National park. Go past Bonegilla. This was a migrant’s camp where more than 320,000 people lived before they were given Australian citizenship, it operated for 24 years from 1947 - many of the migrants have fond memories of the place despite it being literally in the middle of nowhere. These were also the years of the pretty shameful "White Australia Policy" - at one time our Deputy Prime Minister said "Two Wongs don't make a Wright!" and was applauded. We turned away many people who needed our help, including before WW2 many Jewish refugees....

Continue east past Lake Hume, and then past the turn off to Cudgewa, where I knew a bloke called Warren who was a high country farmer (we were at university together - he studied Agriculture of course), a real "Man from Snowy River" type bloke - except he rode a Honda, not a horse. I stopped at a local shop in Corryong for a break and a kitkat, and a cup of coffee. I asked the bloke behind the counter if he knew of Warrens' family, and of course he did!! After all they had been farming there since about 1900 when they had emigrated from Germany. It crossed my mind to go up and seek him out, but I thought better of it as I was already way behind schedule. Next time maybe? On past the reservoirs and tunnels of the Snowy Mountains Scheme - probably the biggest thing Australians have ever built. See, we don't have any water much to speak of, so it needs to be used well if we are going to grow anything. And that’s what the Scheme is all about, as well as a bit of hydroelectric power on the side.  Stop in Cabramurra for petrol, and then on to Kiandra. There were once tens of thousands of men looking for gold here, now only their ghosts remain...not a building, not even a memorial or anything.. Random weird fact; the first skiing club in the world was formed at Kiandra, according to legend, in the 1850s by Norwegians....

   Now on the Snowy Mountains Highway heading down to Adaminaby, trout fishing capital of  Australia, and a place that has left no impression on my mind at all, other than I tried root beer for the first time there and hated it.  I had some sort of meal there, probably a pie or something quick, but I do remember stretched out on the grass there trying massage feeling into my hands and shoulders, as the SRX had a bit of a vibration problem in the bars after I replaced the standard bar ends with shorter "cooler" looking ones. Stupid vanity eh? And then I just lay on the grass, and could have fallen asleep easily...looking back now I would have maybe stayed the night there, as I was getting tired. As it was I just had another coffee!

Back on the bike and just hammer down the highway (not a motorway, just 1 lane either way) to Cooma, a big town and TRAFFIC LIGHTS!!! I hadn't seen any of them in days. Cooma lives on skiing - every second shop is a ski shop. Yeah there is plenty of farming around, but I reckon half the population are like cicadas and emerge from secret underground places after 8 months asleep sucking tree roots, put on designer ski wear, and staff the ski shops. Maybe I should drink less hot chocolate.... Through the Glenbog state forest and I have to get off to answer a call of nature, and to soak up the serenity. The trees are breathing out and I'm breathing in what they breathe out - oxygen and eucalyptus. I AM enjoying the ride down Brown Mtn, but I'm no longer pushing it at all, I reached the too tired for scratching stage! (at my advanced age and with 25 more years riding under my belt, I realise now I was at the dangerously tired stage and should have stopped earlier)

 A few more miles (maybe 20 more or so) and I hit Australia’s' mother road, our Route 66, the Pacific Highway... trundle into Bega and look for the Youth hostel, find it and unload the bike. It’s been a LONG day for me nearly 500km, and probably 6-7 hours riding all up (a lot for a newbie on the twisties). I am knackered, so tired, so I head into to town on the bike, have a bite to eat, and head back home all ready for bed....when I start talking to 2 girls and a couple of guys in the lounge about my trip and what they are doing. They think the bike trip is very cool, particularly the girls who are from Italy and ride scooters. I surprise them even more when they ask what else do I do, I say "I sail a Laser for fun and race her a bit - badly" - they are sailing instructors from Lake Garda?? so we have a good old sailing discussion as well. The 2 guys are younger than me by about 8-9 years and are fuming by this stage, as they really fancy these 2 very pretty independent minded girls. I fancy one of them particularly, BUT I also have zero self confidence with women, so don't think I'd be in with a chance. I remember her very well; bobbed hair, jeans, red t-shirt and hiking boots, and little glasses...a bit like a shorter Audrey Tatou....Eventually we all are a bit damn tired so head to bed, but we do agree to do something tomorrow.