Many thanks to TB for this ride. I appreciate the effort you put into this and I enjoyed my self. My RR is as follows,
I arrived on friday in Mittagong with a sick bike only just able to run, i was ready to withdraw there and than.
Greg encouraged me to lift the seat and inspect/plug/unplug connectors and see if there was any obvious issues.I suspected fuel injection problems…..After some time I decided to remove an aftermarket gadget that I fitted 4 years ago, and test ride, Bike fixed all good.
On Saturday I waited for my riding partner to arrive from Canberra and departed at 9am, an hour or hour and a half behind the group. The route commenced up the wombeyan cave road and was tight and slow, I had a nasty fright with an oncoming ute, and was ginger from then on. We exit the road before the caves and it dawned on me that navigating was going to big feature of this ride, it kept dawning on me all day. Perhaps when TB said ‘this was going to be a true Nav ride’ thats what he meant……
I certainly learned how to use my GPS way better by the days end.
We threaded up into familiar country for me [up where the TTT rally is held each year] all good so far. My riding partner had a traumatic crossing of the Kowmung years ago on his BMW R100 GS, and was keen not to ever see the Kowmung River ever again. So we took the wet weather diversion, thinking I would be able to rejoin the route relatively easy. Wrong.
We rode on and I knew the nav route crossed onto bitumen on the Jenolan caves RD, so that was my plan. It was then we tried to creatively go cross country, down a fire trail called Banschea[spelling perhaps wrong?] that the GPS said went to Jenolan Cave. Down Down Down on a fire trail, and I was feeling real joy- knowing I was a genuine adv rider and wilderness dude all rolled into one. then we came to a locked gate and the spectre of going up up up that nasty hill loomed big. I was confident but I was unsure of my partners’ experience. “Stay close and follow my line” I hooted up and thought I should stop and watch my mate just in case. So I realised he was not close behind, and turned back to find him arse up in a rut. Limping, and looking a bit broken, the big Vstrom took 2 of us to lift up and I gave him a demo of how to do it.
It was 12.30 by this time, so we resolved to go away from the bush and out onto the road, continue to Oberon for fuel and food. Then head to the Jenolan Cave road and rejoin the route.
Better late then never.
We rejoined around Edith, and quickly found ourselves back in the area we had been rooting around in previously.
The navigating skill was improving and we threaded around the back of the jail, and onto the Abercrombie NP.
This was slow riding for the big bikes and we were finding it tiring. When we exit this section we were riding through plantation, and cleared plantation, in the Shooter Hill area, back where we were rooting around earlier in the ride. We kept seeing the same road names over and over.
By this stage we checked the time and it was 5 pm , and we had not reached the lunch stop. Crap. So we decided to try and abandon the route and get to Woodstock quickest way possible. Consult the Zumo, punch in Woodstock, and away we go. Bastard of a thing took us back into that friggin shooters hill area again, then decided it was lost and stopped navigating altogether.
When we recovered back to a known road[blue something road?] It was 6 pm, and common sense dictated we get to a pub before dark, before skippy turned nasty.
I had previously arranged with Wayne that he would be my contact point with the group if anything went pear shaped. I was keen to let him know we were Ok.
We thought about Oberon for the night[it was show weekend and looked busy earlier], perhaps Hartly instead, or Trunkey creek, or even Bathurst. In the end we headed for Oberon, but came to an intersection that put Taralga 75km away and changed our minds to there.
It was closer for my mate to get home, closer for me to pick up my ute, trailer, and new bike [at Wingello] so the decision was easy.
I tried to contact Wayne and ended up sending a text from my mates phone as I had no service. Turns out he had no service in Woodstock and had sent a message from his mates phone to my phone that I could not receive…shit.
We had a feed and good night at Taralga, and rode the next day over to Marulan through Swallowtail Pass, its a good little section. There looks to be more country in that area worth checking out, and over the other side of the Hume highway is the Bungonia gorge and general holeshaven area.
Thats my RR I hope you liked it.
Cheers
Scott
lotsa wrote:Always thought the VStrom was a tractor Scotty :silly: 😆
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