Whilst winter is not yet over, I suspect that history will record last Wednesday as the coldest day for a Ulysses ride this year. As the Norwegians say, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing”. Appropriately dressed, the three riders for the day were all on BMW R1250’s, thus proving, if proof were needed, that it’s only riders of Teutonic machines who have the fortitude for such conditions whilst riders of Japanese, American, English and Italian machines stay tucked-up in bed.
At our ride briefing it was a fine and sunny zero degrees, but as we progressed to Cooma the temperature dropped. By the time we reached Bredbo, we were riding in fog and it was 3.5 below; there were some patches of ice on the highway, but none caused problems. Still, the warmth of the Lott Café in Cooma was welcome and, as we sat drinking coffee, the fog cleared, the sun came out again and the temperature rose.
The next section of the ride took us through Rocky Plain, where the elevation is around 1200 metres, there are countless sweeping bends and hardly any other traffic. This section has views of the Crackenback Range, which is currently well covered in snow. Rocky Plain also gets snow occasionally, but today it was clear and dry.
A fuel stop in Jindabyne followed, then the run to Dalgety along the Snowy River Way. This road has a short section of tight corners, but is mostly sweeping bends, and took us to our lunch stop at Buckley’s Crossing Hotel.
Having settled in for lunch, Dave had what I believe is known as a ‘wardrobe malfunction’, which resulted in him removing his motorcycle pants. Now, it’s not every day that you get to see a Ulysses colleague take off his pants in a public bar. Thankfully he was wearing track pants underneath, and our delicate sensibilities were not offended.
Next came Maffra Road. This road traverses the largely treeless part of the Monaro south of Cooma and can be dire on a windy day. Once again we were in luck; there was hardly any wind, the sun was shining, and by now it was around seven degrees. The final stretch home along the Monaro Highway had the usual traffic, but these days there are enough passing lanes to make the road bearable.
The crew:
- Dave Mossman BMW R1250RS
- Kevin Sherman BMW R1250RS
- Scott England BMW R1250RT Ride Leader and scribe.
