The Snowy Loop and the Ulysses Survivor - 9 January 2022
One could be mistaken for thinking that Sunday’s snowy loop ride was a season of the famed TV show Survivor. We all gathered at the Hume service station blind to what was about to unfold on a coolish yet calm day. So there we were, Kevin and Scott as the BMW Luftwaffe lads, John and Bill as the Triumph Tiger tamers and me on my Moto Guzzi California looking so cool I would have stopped the traffic had there been any. We waited for the usual late comers, but none appeared so off we went, pumped for a great day’s ride through our glorious Kosciusko Nation Park. It was true Eye of the Tiger stuff.
John led the charge with Scott taking up tail end Charlie when after a few kilometres down the road the song Eye of the Tiger song was soon replaced the Little River Band’s Lonesome Loser. John had pulled over to the side of the road concerned about the dodgy steering on his bike. It turns out he had a flat tyre.
Scott exhumed a very fancy 12v pump from his gigantic paniers and we started the process of finding the source of the leak……unsuccessfully. There we were, five grown men by the side of the road, spinning the front tyre around and around trying to find this bloody hole in his tyre without any success. Talk about a bunch of duds. It’s no wonder our wives send us out of the house on Sundays. Our masculinity was soon restored when we discovered that the seat of the tyre valve had perished and was leaking profusely when touched. This rendered our three pumps and puncher repair kits absolutely useless. Hmmm we thought. What do we do now? John was soon voted off the island along with Bill who kindly followed behind with his pump and made sure he got home safely. I believe they had to stop and pump up the tyre four times on the way home. It’s a good thing John had not yet moved out to Murrumbateman.
So then there were three. The three Amigos! The ride down the Monaro Hwy evoked the usual coma like response until we rode through Cooma and hit the road to Adaminaby. All was good with some lovely sweeping bends until we came up behind a B Double with a massive payload of concrete structures on its way to the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project. Why is it that you always come across these beasts just as the overtaking lane finishes? We eventually passed him when, as if Satan himself was having a laugh, we came across another one. F#@*%! Dismayed by the interruptions, we finally made it to our coffee break at Adaminaby.
Now I’m not a man who is easily impressed but the big rainbow trout at Adaminaby is a sight to behold. It has recently received a lick of paint and is looking mighty tasty. But the mood soon changed again as Scott received some bad news. Bronte, his 40kg Golden Retriever had contracted some sort of a gastro bug and was in desperate need of some veterinary care. Like a good owner and husband, Scott raced home to rush the poorly pooch to the vet. I believe all is well now and Bronte is back to eating dead birds, rats and poo as all good Golden Retrievers do.
So then there were two. Unperturbed by the lack of friends Kevin and I took off on what is one of Australia’s best motorcycle rides. Smooth roads with beautifully cambered bends had us grinning from ear to ear until, you guessed it, those damn B Doubles. What the? We eventually passed and then spent the next hour of so blasting through the sweeping bends of the park. Some kind soul had even scrapped up all the brumby poo and piled it up off the side of the road so the roads were smooth, clean and fast. We sighted a few brumbies near the road but they didn’t seem worried by our presence. Conditions soon changed from smooth and 18ᵒC to rough and 30ᵒC as we made our way down the mountain towards Talbingo. Despite the change we had a blast making our way down the twisty mountain road. We eventually made it to the Oriental Hotel in Tumut for the mandatory Fish n Chips and Chicken Schnitty.
In memory of our fallen friends Kevin and I decided to take the alternate route through Brungle that John had originally planned for us. Kevin and I had never been on that road so a bit of Google Map planning was in order. We had a lot of fun twisting our way through the green farmland with rustic farm houses and flooding rivers until we were forced to break hard in order to avoid 100 or so cattle meandering along the road. The sound of the motorbikes seemed to send the cattle into some sort of a frenzy. As if excited by the sight and sound of my Moto Guzzi (it has that effect on some people) the cattle started to hump each other in the middle of the road. Kevin was looking a little worried when, like a knight in shining armour, a lady on horseback rode up and said “get behind me”. She cracked her whip and as if he had been conditioned by the sound, Kevin jumped into action and ‘got behind’. It was like we were taking part in an SBS Viceland documentary. I’ve never seen Kevin so animated. After about 10min we made our way through the fornicating beasts and started to enjoy the scenery once more until truck came flying around a corner and was within an inch of wiping both of us out. I thought ‘I’m not sure if my dicky ticker can take much more of this’. We made our way back onto the freeway at Coolac and then stopped for a break at Bookham where we debriefed.
We cruised into the ACT without a fuss and I pealed off towards my home in Belconnen. Then like the winner he is, Kevin rode off into the sunset as if he was the ‘Sole Survivor’ and $1,000,000 richer for the experience.
Steven Bardwell
John Grace (part-time leader) Triumph Tiger
Ben Henshaw Triumph Tiger
Kevin Sherman BMW R1250RS
Scott England R1250RT
Steven Bardwell Moto Guzzi California
