Part 3. Roads Less Travelled - Wet and Wild

[Pterodactyl_imp]

Monday 23 Feb

I awake early, it's hard not to. Some of my fellow PI campers were up before dawn and packing for an early start. The sound of bikes leaving the track begins at first light (a time of day sometimes known as "Sparrow fart" or "Sparrows"). Well if you can't sleep, join 'em. The weather is fine, temperature around 23deg C with a high overcast. However the sky to the South West looks ominous.

Some of you may remember that when I planned the trip to PI I had three roads targeted to ride. I have done Brown Mountain Rd. It has the tick of approval. Today I want to ride Grand Ridge Road and then proceed northward on the Princess Highway to get an early start tomorrow on the third target road, The Barry Way. But first I have to pay a visit to Lower Tarwin and pay for Saturday's Petrol and thank them for their understanding.

So, this is [url=https://goo.gl/maps/QN3B7]The Plan.

It could be a big day so I ride direct to Lower Tarwin bypassing that little gem of a road that runs around Cape Patterson. I push it fairly hard but with licence preservation in mind not too hard. The Victorian Highway Patrol are renowned for their fond farewells to bikers leaving PI. Funnily enough on this trip I haven't seen a single HWP vehicle, and the HWP haven't seen me. Makes us both happy I guess.

I muse over some of the warning signs I see.




Give way to stock? You bet your sweet bleep I will. The last thing I want to do is face-plant a ton of bull, or even a hundred kilos of calf. Low branches? Instead of making and planting that sign why don't they cut them off? I imagine hurtling through there at night and - Whack! "Didn't see the sign eh mate?". The ways of ensnaring motorcyclists are many and varied. Keeps us on our toes.

I pull in at the Lower Tarwin service station and, rather gingerly, I put a tank of petrol into Last Blast. I walk in and the same lady looks at me. She doesn't blink an eyelid. I mumble something about paying for two lots of petrol and thank you very much. Once again that beautiful smile appears and she says "No worries darlin', knew you'd be back". Friends, if you are passing by and need petrol, a burger or a chiko roll please stop. They are highly recommended. You know, there are two phrases in the Australian idiom that I hope never disappear. "No worries" and "She'll be right". Both of these are often followed by "mate", and in most usages tell us that we still are a helpful, friendly and optimistic people. I know, as you all do, that we have our share of those who are way out of that stereotype but, hopefully, we as Australians haven't moved too far away from it yet. Little did I know that within twenty four hours I would once again hear - "No worries, mate".

With the overcast getting heavier and lower I leave Lower Tarwin and ride direct to Mirboo North. That is where I will join the Grand Ridge Road. It is not a big town, little more than a village really. Famed for a craft brewery and the Inline Four Café. Not a day for a brewery tour so it is straight to the café, only a year old, owned and operated by an ex racer. Obviously very bike friendly and full of motorcycle stuff. It sits near some good motorcycling country and is close to PI.




Anyone for a light lunch? (photo courtesy of Inline Four). The coffee is good.

Coffee and food done and I head east and turn right on to the Grand Ridge Road. This road follows the Strzelecki Ranges for about 130kms. I will ride the last 100kms eastward from Mirboo North. On the open ridges the scenery is spectacular, Bass Straight to the north and the Latrobe Valley to the south. The first twenty one kilometres out of Mirboo North is sealed with some good corners and runs through relatively open dairy country. From there it enters forestry country, and dirt. When wet this dirt can get very slippery. Not a huge problem in itself but this road is inhabited by log trucks, big rigs. Avoiding action can be hazardous. Come to think of it, not taking avoiding action is not much fun either. However as I leave Mirboo North all looks good.



I leave the sealed road and get on a dirt, mud and leaf litter mix. I'm now riding through forest. I need to take care. Remember Tony - "If in doubt power out, keep off the brakes". A light drizzle develops. Hardly enough for wets but I have to glove off the small drops that cover my visor as they are not big enough to roll off at my rather sedate 60kph. After 45 minutes or so it starts to dry off. I stop for a couple of photos where the road widens out. This is what I am riding on; check out those wheel tracks, on blind corners I have to stay outside those, or inside as the case may be:





I get lucky and only have to contend with one truck; on a short straight between corners and he slows down to let me give him plenty of room. I wave an acknowledgement. Shortly after that I leave the dirt, mud and leaf litter and am on gravel. Heavily corrugated, but gravel, so once again I push it on. It is raining again but I feel much more secure as I am out of log truck country and in the Tara-Bulga National Park. The rain and low cloud doesn't allow me the views that I know are there.



I get back on the highway at Traralgon and push on in rain that varies from light to moderate with some intermittent heavy showers. I use basic rain gear but it keeps me dry. The keffiyeh I use as a scarf keeps the rain from getting between my jacket neck and my helmet. Cold is not a problem.

As I go through the town of Sale something begins to concern me. I have to negotiate three or so roundabouts and as I swing left to exit - we do that in Oz - and gently (it's wet) crack open the throttle I feel a vibration through the pegs. I also sense a "graunching" sound associated with the vibration. Of very short duration, less than a second, pronounced rather than violent, but definitely worrying. I pull over to have a look. I put it up on the centre stand and push and pull everything I can. Chain, sprockets and wheels seem to run all right. Chain slider, there is plenty left. Headers and exhaust system as solid as a rock. I start the engine and run through the gears. Nothing. Not a thing. The underneath of the bike, stands, chain and wheels are liberally coated with mud, sand and various bits of road muck but otherwise all looks normal. I mount up and push it hard through the gears and get up to highway speed. I slow and labour it in all gears. All is good. I dunno, maybe a lifetime of debauchery is taking its toll and it is all in my mind. Someone else needs to look at this. The nearest Honda dealer is in Bairnsdale, another sixty eight kilometres up the highway. I press on and the CB is its usual smooth self. The rain increases and, for so early in the afternoon, it is getting dark. Maybe all this water will wash some of the crud from Last Blast.

It is very close to 5pm when I pull up outside the Bairnsdale Honda dealer. A quick explanation to the front counter staff has me taking the CB around the to rear where the workshop crew are packing up for the day. The shop is packed with bikes. The foreman and a young bloke come out. I explain. They put it up on the centre stand, have a good look and find nothing. Then the young bloke pulls on a helmet, no wets and in pouring rain blasts off, saying "I'm going to get wet going home anyway". He does a high speed u-turn and soon I hear him disappearing into the distance. Looks like he can ride! On return he says that there is a noise when he is on and off the throttle in low speed turns. The foreman says that they have had a long day and would I mind waiting till tomorrow. Come back before nine as they start early, he says. He points me to a hotel about a block away that he reckons has good food, cold beer and a good bed. Motorcycle-friendly and cheap as well. Sounds good to me as I am only too glad to get out of the rain. I grab my saddle bags, leaving the rest of my gear in the shop, and head for my new home.
----------------------------
Tuesday

During the night there was heavy rain but the morning is fine and sunny with some cloud, temperature about 25deg C. At 8:30 I am standing outside the workshop. The foreman rolls out Last Blast. He says that the chain had a lot off slack, about 55mm, and was probably beating the underneath and side of the chain guard and maybe the mud and sand lodged around the front sprocket. They high pressured around the front sprocket and cleaned, lubed and adjusted the chain. A short test ride by my young mate had showed all was good.
I hadn't noticed that the chain was loose, in fact I lubed and checked it prior to leaving PI. I am puzzled as to why the chain became so loose so suddenly. Maybe the beating the suspension copped on the corrugated road in the Tara-Bulga National Park moved the rear axle, although I am sure that before leaving Sydney I torqued it to spec and double checked. It doesn't take much axle movement for a significant chain tension change. The chain itself is still in reasonable nick and doesn't look as though that was the problem.

So, getting down to business. "How much do I owe you?". Reply - "No worries mate, forget it. Have a good ride and take care". Pure gold. So friends, if you are near Bairnsdale and need some thing motorcycle, please visit Doyle & Shields Pty. Ltd., 74 Macleod Street, Bairnsdale VIC 3875. They have my tick of approval.

My plan for the day? Stay flexible for a start. The Grand Ridge road is done and dusted (mudded) and next on the list is the Barry Way. This is a much more serious proposition. A road running from Bruthen, on the coast, through the Snowy Mountain Wilderness to Jindabyne, a winter ski resort. It is what you might call remote, very remote. A road much favoured by adventure riders, it has about 100kms from Wulgulmerang to Ingebyra where the surface is, to put it kindly, variable. Mountainous and winding it varies from well packed gravel at best to fairly loose sand at worst. In some places erosion ruts run along and across the track. In places, if you go over the the edge you may never be found. Looking out to the west and the mountains I see black clouds and for sure more rain is developing. I will proceed up the highway to Bruthen and make a decision over a cup of coffee. At Bruthen I pull up and order a coffee. Last year I started down the Barry Way but turned back after only a few kilometres as the road was impassable due, believe it or not, to raging bush fires (wild fires) after a long dry spell. This year it is rain. An Australian poet, Dorothea Mackellar, describes Australia, in an excerpt from her poem, [url=http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/my-country-17/]My Country, as:

A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.

She got that right! Common sense prevails and I decide that the Barry Way will wait. Maybe, when that time arrives I can inveigle Cormanus and/or Jalalski to hold my hand over this road. So this becomes the route for the day:

[url=https://goo.gl/maps/8mFY7]Plan B

That is straight up the Monaro Highway, in itself a good ride, bypassing the "Bonang" and Brown Mountain Rd (both described in earlier posts) and on to Cooma. From Cooma I will take the Braidwood Road. It is 137 kms with about 40 kms of dirt through the Deua Wilderness. It is a wild and remote area but I have ridden it before and it has provided me with plenty of entertainment.

On the Monaro Highway, near Nimmitabel, I see that Last Blast is about to celebrate a birthday of sorts, so I pull over.



I refuel in Cooma and, surprise surprise, it starts to rain. I push on and get into the Deua.





It is getting dark at only 3:30 and the rain is relentless. I haven't seen another vehicle since leaving the sealed road. I know that up ahead is a floodway I have to cross and I wonder how much water is flowing over it. If it is impassable I know I cannot return to Cooma in the dark and wet at prime kangaroo time. If I can't cross I am going to spend a very wet night at an impromptu camping spot. I must be getting soft with age as I don't want to put up my tent in the rain in this scrubland. I get to the floodway; no worries, as they say. After crossing I take a rest and look at the cows (Cormanus reckons, rather unkindly, that I relate well to them).



I roll into Braidwood and take the Braidwood Hotel option. The beer is cold and I sleep well.

------------------------------

Wednesday

[url=https://goo.gl/maps/sjhgs]The Plan

Light rain, overcast and mild. Nothing exciting today. I will retrace the steps I took last Tuesday when I began my ride, but bypassing Jamberoo and the Royal National Park. Leaving Braidwood at a gentlemanly hour I ride to Tarago and buy a tank of fuel. From there I push it through that nice quiet back road to Nerriga. I see that our taxes are at work and this road may soon become a little less quiet.



The Nerriga hotel is interesting. I stop there for lunch and a cold drink. It is still raining but looking better. The hotel is guarded from the opposite side of the road by an Aussie Dalek in the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Kelly]Ned Kelly style. The hotel itself is basic. A weather-board front with corrugated iron walls and a brick fireplace to keep the patrons warm in the cold winters. This area was once the hub of a thriving timber industry. But that's gone now, only the memorabilia remains.






I leave Nerriga and take it at good pace towards Nowra. After thirty kilometres on a well surfaced but damp road I see through the light rain a sign - "Tianjara Falls Lookout" with a camera icon. I am not normally one for photos at tourist spots but I brake solidly just getting the turnoff to a short gravel sealed road ending in a turnaround that doubles as a car park. It is deserted. I dismount and take a short forty meter walk on an unmade track through trees to the viewing platform. There is a chest high fence around the platform. Just as well 'cause one step too many and there is a lot of thin air.




Above the falls is typical Australian scrub, sclerophyll if you are of the botanical type. The falls drop through a high rain forest canopy and I can't see the creek below. The air is still, humid and moisture hangs in the air. It is very quiet, the sound of the falls barely audible. No birdsong or traffic noise. My eyes drift down the valley over the rainforest canopy. A faint memory begins to form. Maybe it wasn't entirely by accident I turned in here. I have been here once before, a long time ago. Well, not up here exactly, but down below in the rain forest and it was a little over fifty one years ago. Tired, sleep deprived, covered in mud, leeches and with my face blackened. Wearing jungle greens, combat boots, a bush hat and a sweat rag. Carrying a 50lb pack including five 24 hour ration packs, an L1A1 SLR and 50 rounds of 7.62 ammunition plus other tools of the commando's trade. I was young, fit and naive enough to think I was just about invincible. For twenty minutes or more I fall into a reverie and think of the broad outline the path my life has taken since then. The people and the places. There have been some ups and downs but overall life has been pretty good to me. I am a lucky man.

I return to the present and slowly walk back to the CB, I mount up, thumb it into life and ride at a leisurely pace towards Sydney and home. The weather clears.

Cheers.

[emptysea]

It's just turning 4:00am my sleep-deprived part of the world and I hear rain running off of our roof. A perfect setting in which to read your most recent tale and a perfect read to help me drift off to dream about rides in far away places. Thank you.

[Rocky_imp]

Another great read with awesome pictures

[Cormanus]

That's a really great report, Pterodactyl. Some great photos, stories and reflections. worth another read in due course. Amongst other places, Tianjara Falls looks an excellent spot to visit.

Thanks for taking the time to pull it together and share it.

[the Ferret]

Funny Sea, it was 6 am, dark and raining here when I started this tale over a morning cup of hot tea. This report wasn't here when I signed off at 11:30 last night so the elves were active while I slept.

I must say between Cormanus and Ptero, I have enjoyed many enjoyable hours reading wandering tales complete with pictures of places I am likely never to see in person. Names I will never see on a map, food I will never eat (and probably wouldn't anyway). Thank goodness for the CB 1100 which has brought us all together. Another reason to love this tremendous motorcycle. I am so looking forward to meeting these gents in May at the CB1100 Rally.

Ptero another awesome ride report. I laughed at you sign comments. I worried at your " grunching problem", and despair at the flood crossing before dark. I admired your steadfast honesty for returning to pay for your gas, and your ability to push on, alone, in less than ideal conditions, and your retrospective of life at the falls.

Well done mate, very well done. You set a very high bar for others

[redbirds_imp]

A wonderful adventure Ptero and beautifully described in word and pictures. Between you and Cormanus, Australia has the two finest promoters of tourism anyone could imagine. Thanks for the entertaining read.

[the Ferret]

Oh, and congrats on your 31,068 miles 984.72 yard accomplishment.

[buttaknife_imp]

Great storytelling... More proof you meet the nicest people on a honda.

[ChipBeck_imp]

Outstanding bro. Great story, well written, excellent photos. Thank you.

Chip

Oh, and congrats on your 31,068 miles 984.72 yard accomplishment.

Mick,

You said you weren't good with formulas and numbers.

Chip

[CA200_imp]

Very well done! So refreshing to read your tale from the other side
of the planet.
It just makes more upset that I won't be able to make the rally this year.