OzSTOC Ride Reports, Pictures & Videos > National Rally 2014 Reports & Photo/Videos
Pockey & ST2UP Ride Report part 2
ST2UP:
Day 9.
Departing National Rally:
As today was only a short transport day we departed late in the morning from Ballarat bound for Bright. Our intension was to also grab today some photos for the Find-a-Town game on the forum. Naturally Sicmans nose was attuned to travel from bakery to bakery, we followed without protest. Even got Pockey into a sausage roll that was so good she went for another in Kilmore.
The afternoons route was to take us through Mt. Macedon, Seymour and Glenrown then across to Bright to catch up with the non-unleaded motorcycle party for dinner and dancing.
The"Pockey infront of" pic has become a tradition since the Hillend RTE last year
Fantastic little town bright, it receives its share of the touriST dollar for good reason.
Day 10.
Little did we know that this day was to throw our schedule WAY out the window.....and with bloody good reason WOW what a day this was to be.
The plan was Bright over Hotham to Omeo, then up through Anglers Rest, Mitta Mitta to Tallangatta......pffft !!
What really happened was from the motel in Bright to another motel in Bright and over 400 k's of the most scenic highcountry twisty roads in between....roads that would put a horn on a jelly fish.
As most mornings we like to head off and have breakfast on the road after a 150k's or so......today we left Bright and really wanted to investigated Mt. Buffalo on advise from Saaz, what a splendid view from the chalet at Buffalo, even a coffee van awaited us.....and the 50 cyclists who were negotiating the mountain this morning to the car park at Mt. Buffalo.
We then continued further up the road through Dingo Dell and rode up the 5 k's of dirt road to "The Horn" car park.
Whilst the view from the car park was fantastic, we decided to walk the few k's to the top of the Horn.....in bike boots. The views and sounds of silence were just incredible. While we live higher than most people at 1350 mtrs, And have spent some time hiking in the past, I don't recall ever standing on a mountain top that had a 360degree view to the horizon......just spectacular, ahh the serenity....so much serenity !! But it was time again not for the smell of a 2-STroke outboard at full throttle, but the sweet tunes of the Delkevics and Pockey's squeals back down the twisty mountain road.
We still hadn't got as far as breakfast, so another detour now into Mt Beauty was the plan......Sicman hadn't been to a bakery for over 12 hours now and his arteries were screaming protest, naturally we followed in a supportive role. Superb and not so little bakery in Mt. Beauty.
As the time was marching on, and the weather for our next days riding through the NSW Highcountry to be rained out, we could see our plans to reach Tallangatta were becoming more unattainable as there was just so much to see up here we formulated a new plan.......new plan = NO PLAN !!! The 3 way vote was to ride as much twisty scenic Victoria mountain roads as we could jam into the afternoon/evening and end up where we end up.....Pockey could see us all huddled up in every piece of clothing we owned between the bikes in the middle of nowhere.....
Leaving Mt. Beauty for the winding and eery at times road from Harrietville to Hotham village. We found this a beaut piece of scenic riding road, Sicman had a differing opinion......I think the glucose goblins from Mt Beauty bakery had his Blood sugar levels spiking.....the timber trucks play local rules when descending the mountain and staying wide to avoid the inside option but avoid the outside guard free barrier decent into oblivion takes some juggling.....
Near the top of Hotham mid-afternoon had us reaching for our outer Hi-Vis layer with the temps at 7 degrees and the heavy fog rolling through......just spectacular, fog is nothing new to us coming from Dorrigo when the only time it wasn't foggy was when.........well.....never really.
Hotham down to a fuel stop at Omeo was our next stop with faster flowing corners the order of this part of the ride, the plan now was to travel the southern end of the Omeo Hwy towards Mitta Mitta and decide if to continue on or turn up through to Falls Crk via the Bogong High plains, well the hills win again.......so back up the hill we go
The next 150k's back into Bright had us do corner after corner through some truly magnificent country well above the snow line over the Bogong Plains......in the 150k's in temps down to 4 degrees we past only 2 on coming cars (and a log truck on a mission). Although Pockey and I travelled some sensational roads on this touring holiday this is the section of road and country side we have spoken of the most since our return home.....very memorable indeed.
Back into Bright after dark and in search of unplanned accommodation and a hot meal found us a great motel with a Italian restaurant close by...... Mmmm !! :eat
Day 11.
Overnight the heavens opened as predicted, but we managed to secure undercover parking with our motel as we new of the forecast when we came into Bright, makes packing and starting the day on a dry bike a little more civilised.
Again bakery boy takes the point and leads us towards our first meal of the day, during this trip we found a few shops named after our intrepid travellers....even Pockey found a shop named after her in a little town on our route today......but I didn't promise not to divulge in print, but you ask her and see her blush .
Sicmans impeccable bakery nose lead us into pastry nirvana.......the Beechworth bakery :thumbsup
. The Ned Kelly pie was as good as it gets.
The rest of the day had us head for Albury to avoid the weather coming down through the NSW mountains, here we parted company with the Sicman and continued on to our overnight stop with Pockey's sister in Canberra to give the girls some catchup time and Pockey an excuse to hit the shops in the big smoke.......more repacking of the panniers to accommodate Pockey's smouldering credit card.
Day 12.
On the road after lunch this day for the short run up to Abe's in Sydney, here the plan was to investigate the idling issue on STig......sorted with the cleaning of the 5-way connector.
Day 13.
Our last day on the road was to be a wet run for home.....we left the south side of Sydney town at 11am to avoid the morning traffic and headed for the Putty and onto the New England, we would normally travel the quicker and more scenic twisty ride home from Sydney via Bucketts and Thunderbolts way but the rain just didn't let up so up the New England with a splash'n'dash for fuel at Singleton for 5mins only then onto home......560k's 2 up in the rain with only 5 mins off the bike, love that Russell seat and Bike-Quip screen.
What a great trip we had....shared the road and some laughs with some great mates, visiting some locations that will require a return visit just to confirm how good they were and on some of this countries finest motorcycle roads.
How good is it owning a Honda ST and being part of a club that thinks the same........ :runyay
ST2UP & Pockey
StinkyPete:
A terrific report about some great roads. I'm jealous, and am keen to get back to that part of the country. It's on my bucket list to ride that region with my son. :thumbs
tj189:
Thanks for sharing guys, I have spent a bit of time down around that way and always loved it :clap
saaz:
Great report :thumb Mt Buffalo is under appreciated as the views are fantastic. The road into Falls Creek along the top of the ranges is eery and beautiful, you feel like you are the only ones around (I know that feeling even better as that is where the ST1100 stopped on me on a roundabout way to Middleton..weak fuel pump at altitude and the pterol had heated up on the little ride up the hill)
sargent:
Definately have to plan a few days in Bright now to check it all out.
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