This was a great ride on an absolute ball-tearer of a Goldilocks day. It wasn’t too hot, it wasn’t too cold, and the air was clear and calm. In fact, I reckon it was the clearest morning in the whole of 2020 – a year that has been mostly hazy with bushfire smoke and then Covid germs (not to mention the airborne coral sperm blowing around during the last full moon).
Not only that, but the weekend before Christmas always been one of my favourite weekends for a ride because the human hordes are all doing their last-minute Christmas shopping instead of dawdling aimlessly around country roads like cows that have had frontal lobotomies.
And so, eight of us gathered at Hume to take advantage of the year’s best weather on the year’s best riding day on one of the best rides in the region.
We headed off right on time at 8:30 after our leader’s briefing had established that everyone knew the way to Adaminaby – and what more was there for him to impart? Oh, that Kevin would as usual be tail-end Charlie because no one could bear the cacophony of riding behind him.
The Monaro Highway was – wait for it – a joy to ride! Very little traffic, perfect conditions and a wedge-tailed eagle keeping watch over us enabled us to maintain a cracking but legal pace all the way to Cooma (where there is a new roundabout at the Polo Flat turnoff). Here we regrouped and rode to Adaminaby for coffee and a pie from the bakery or coffee and no pie from the Big Trout café. Mike left us after smoko and headed back.
The Snowy Mountains Highway from Adaminaby to Tumut is a fantastic ride, made even better by the lack of traffic and mild temperatures of around 14 degrees. Lots of the country got burned in last summer’s bushfires and it still looks grim and bare. The recovery is just getting going after the harsh winter.
Snow gums reshoot from the base and you had to look closely to see the new leaves. But underneath the woody skeletons there were carpets of wildflowers, mostly cream but dotted with patches of blue, purple and pink, and the absence of foliage opened up vistas of peaks and valleys that are not usually glimpsed. We also passed a couple of mobs of brumbies and plenty of roadkill (mostly wallabies with the occasional wombat).
As we wound down Talbingo Mountain we caught up with a Landcruiser towing a horse float. It must have been full of one-legged horses because the driver was scrupulously careful not to exceed 1.0G on any of the squillions of bends and risk the unsteady steeds toppling over. Mercifully, she pulled over to let us past but then we were stuck behind a Commodore SS that was stuck in first gear and travelling barely any faster than the horse float. Who knew that SS stood for So Slow?
Anyway, these were minor frustrations in an otherwise brilliant day. At the base of the mountain we turned off to the left and rode past Talbingo township to the Tumut 3 Power Station for a group photo and a reorganisation of clothing because the temperature was now in the mid-20s. From there it was only half an hour to Tumut.
We dined at the Royal Hotel in Wynyard Street, some of us outdoors where it was pleasantly warm and some inside where it was pleasantly cool. They don’t do burgers at the Royal, but Andrew ordered a steak sanger and it was a copious work of art that guaranteed he wouldn’t need dinner that night. The staff were friendly and the beer was cold, making it a place to return to.
From the Royal, six of us rode around the corner to refuel at the Woolies servo – but Craig somehow missed out on this message. He was last out of the pub and found a street devoid of both bikes and buddies. Assuming we had abandoned him to the wolves, he took off in pursuit and we never saw him again. A phone call later in the evening established that he had made it home safely and cleared up the misunderstanding.
The recently upgraded Gocup Road from Tumut to South Gundagai was a delight, with a smooth surface and sweeping bends. It was now around 28 degrees and from Gundagai we set a cracking but legal pace along the Hume and Barton Highways, with traffic only being a real bother on the final single carriageway section from Murrumbateman to the ACT border. I got home about 4pm after an enjoyable day’s ride.
Ian
The crew at Tumut 3 Power Station near Talbingo.
- Ian Paterson Honda GL1800
- Hartmut Kehm BMW R1250GS
- Kevin Sherman Indian Scout
- Mike Kelly BMW R1200RT
- Ken Dal Broi BMW R1200RS
- Chris Dietzel Kawasaki GTR1400
- Craig Fraser Yamaha FJR1300
- Andrew Campbell BMW R1250RS
