The Cormanus Chronicles: While the cat's away ...

[Cormanus]

Day 13

[url=https://postimages.org/]
[url=https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_mAJ21GQ4TSB5ZeNKD5XAhcrSiJPRQUX&usp=sharing]Link to online map.

My destination was Cowra to visit my wife’s sister.

My route took me across the high country to Adaminiby …
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… where I stopped for breakfast and was pleased to see the Big Trout was still in residence. Mindful of my mechanic friend in Bairnsdale, I also oiled the chain in honour of the bath it had received.
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Then it was off across the slightly higher country …
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… and into the wooded area near Cabramurra …
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… where I stopped to take a photo or two from the lookout of one of Australia’s highest towns.
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The crud was accumulating well on the bottom of the bike.
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The view north from Cabramurra.
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After turning onto the Tooma Road, I stopped to put on my waterproofs and catch a picture of this milestone. The GPS data for this photo recorded by my phone is just plain wrong. By about 17 kilometres.
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And that was it for photos as my camera was tucked away to avoid the rain which came and went all day. I did stop once to take this photo which completely fails to show what I wanted it to: the point where the eastern mountains end and the flat of Australia’s centre begins. Suffice it to say that, to the left of the hills you see in the distance, it is very flat indeed.
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Day 14
[url=https://postimages.org/]
[url=https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_mAJ21GQ4TSB5ZeNKD5XAhcrSiJPRQUX&usp=sharing]Link to online map.

It was a pretty nice morning, although rain was forecast. For the sake of my in-laws, I hoped I’d get a good soaking, because gee they needed it, but it was not to be.

The GPS took me on a road through Cowra that led me over an old bridge and under the new one on the other side.
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I was quickly in the country on a road I’d not ridden before, past a wee church …
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… and plenty of rocky hills.
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I spent a little time on a road I have ridden in the past before turning off into new country. Not a great road surface, but a great ride along a largely deserted road through the country on a lovely day. Aside from the fact that it was getting gradually hotter, what could be better.
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Somewhere in the bush I swept around a corner and saw a very large lizard on the road. Before I could get a photograph, it was off up a tree and I got only this poor shot of its tail. I can assure you I wouldn’t want one running up me!
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On the main Boorowa-Crookwell Road I met a large herd of cattle grazing the long paddock and it took me longer than I expected to work my way quietly through it. At least I didn’t cause a stampede this time.
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Shortly afterwards I ran into one of the largest swarms of jumping insects I’ve ever come across. They were a sort of grasshopper and were thoroughtly unnerving when I first saw them as I thought they were small pebbles on the road.

If you click on the next photo and then magnify it, you can make out the spots I mean.
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In this next picture, you can see what they look like close up.
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Then, in this next one, I fluked a shot of one of them jumping. Again, follow the link to the photo, blow it up and you can see a yellow spot to the left of centre. That’s a grasshopper. Probably moments before I hit it and it became an ex-grasshopper.
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In the 60 or so kilometres from when I first encountered them until I got to Crookwell, I was constantly bombarded by them and must have dispatched several hundred thousand to bug heaven.
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That’s a fine collection of grasshopper internals on my boots

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I picked this one off the bike at Crookwell

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Blow this picture up and you can see the CB’s wheel and engine covered with them. A bit overcooked, they weren’t good eating.
For some reason I didn’t bother too much with photographs for the remainder of the trip to Robertson. Riding towards it, I was chasing a large black cloud and the road was getting wet. I stopped for a pie (See Day 5) and, while I was eating it, the mist descended.
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I found a place to stay at the bottom of the Jamberoo Mountain Road (a wonderful ride) because, although it was isolated it offered a restaurant and was cheap.

Ha! When I got there, I found the restaurant was open only for functions and there wasn’t one; nor was there a bar. A quick ride to Jamberoo remedied those deficiencies and I passed a pleasant evening—first with a swim, then watching a most excellent storm rage about me as I drank a beer or two and ate my dinner.
Day 15

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[url=https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_mAJ21GQ4TSB5ZeNKD5XAhcrSiJPRQUX&usp=sharing]Link to online map.

As I loaded the bike in the morning, I heard the exquisite music of a Staintune powered by Honda’s CB1100 motor. Moments later, debonair as always, Pterodactyl pulled in with his bike set up for day touring. We had a cup of tea and hit the road—a pretty circular one really, but good fun.

We started by searching for the Belmore Falls which involved a bit of pretty dirt road. I think I saw a turn off, but I didn’t see the falls.
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Then we took a ride down Kangaroo Valley. It was memorable for the white Mitsubishi station wagon that appeared on my tail somewhere on the Berry road and wouldn’t let go. I shook him off by overtaking a car, but he reappeared. He was a tail-gater so I let him past. Pterodactyl did too and he soon vanished into the distance. He certainly knew what he was doing on a reasonably difficult road.

Then it was some freeway work before a ride back up the escarpment for another pie at Robertson.
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Some pretty back roads …
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… passing by a lovely dry stone wall before we reached Mittagong.
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More freeway work heading into the afternoon build up…
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… before a brief sortie into the southern reaches of the Royal National Park and thence to Sydney.