2025 (Not The) Snowy Ride - Day 4

 DAY 4

I woke a couple of times during the night as I could hear thunder rumbling overhead. Hmmm, it was going to be a wet one and the first road we would be doing today was the Omeo Highway across to Mitta Mitta. Now this road would have to be one of the, if not THE twistiest roads in Australia with a length of 107 kilometres. That is 107 kilometres of bend after bend after bend. This road is awesome in the dry but on a knobby tyre shod ADV bike it was going to be touchy, slow going.

I did discuss with Rick taking the Knocker Track that the local guy had mentioned yesterday. It would knock 40-odd kilometres of wet bends off this mornings ride. When I checked it on Ride With GPS the gradient was up to 13% in places. Fine in the dry but after a wet night we weren't sure how it would be on a big, loaded bike.

The Knocker Track marked in yellow.

So, I stuck with plan "A". And right out of the gate I could feel the twitchiness of the front end so I took it ridiculously slowly. I waved all of the others past and they past me like I was standing still - because I almost was! 

It took me well over two hours to cover that 107 kilometres. At least the scenery was stunning and while I had plenty of time to think I vowed to come back on a sports bike with my Will and show him how good these Victorian high country roads are. Hopefully in the dry though.

When I eventually got to Mitta Mitta the others were all standing around with coffees in hand, that is how long they had been there. FFS!

Mitta Mitta sure is a pretty little town though.

But no wonder.....that hard compound, knobby front tyre had exactly this much purchase on the wet tarmac.....I had brought nail scissors to a gun fight.....

From Mitta the road dried up and I was able to keep with the group, which pleased me no end! We bashed along with a quick fuel stop in Tallangatta. There was much discussion about fuel everywhere we went and I couldn't understand why it was such a big deal. Fill up when you have a known quantity ie at a town with a fuel station, not speculate what might be down the road in the Victoria back country. A bird in the hand, after all.

Out of Tallangatta we headed east along the Murray Valley highway before turning left into Granya Gap rd. Just as we were turning some random dude on a loud Harley cut into our group then pushed past all of us. 

WTF?!!

Dave immediately blasted back past him on his big KTM as he didn't want to be stuck behind this tool for the twisty section that we were about to hit. While the guy is probably a local hero and he punted the Harley along pretty quickly, Doug and Bruce were all over him trying to get by. Not easy on a narrow, twisting mountain climb. They did get past several corners later then it was Rick and myself lining up on our ADV bikes - mahogany rubber knobby front tyre and all.....

I was hoping Rick could gun it past the bloke as he was slowing us up quite a lot but the tool was using all of the right lane to tip into left hand corners. The only way past would be to dive up the inside of him and that would surely punt him into the embankment. So Rick and I had to frustratingly sit behind this plonker for the rest of the good stuff. Just reaffirms my view on Harley riders.

From here we didn't stop until Khancoban, which was quite a ways along. 127 kilometres further along actually. But the road was interesting enough for the most part. In Khancoban we stopped at the local "shopping centre". Khancoban is a funny little place as it was established as a Snowy Hydro Scheme workers town back in 1956, so it has a very different layout to most Aussie country towns (it feels like Twizel in New Zealand).

The cafe' was about to close when we arrived so we had to make to with things from their refrigerated cabinet. Still, it was the perfect late lunch.

It wasn't too far to our overnight accomodation in Jindabyne so everyone was pretty relaxed. I decided that I'd like to take some photos and video of various sections along the Alpine Way and didn't want to hold them up, so headed off alone.

Heading out the Alpine Way toward Thredbo.

I pulled into the camping area at Gheehi Flats for a look around. I have camped here in the past when on a mountainbiking trip, so know it to be a pretty special place. Located on the western side of the Main Range pretty much in the shadow of Mt Kosuiszko, it is a very beautiful spot - especially so today as it was so lush and green.

I rode over to Gheehi Hut for a look and had it all to myself. It was very quiet here today.

I thought I might cross the Swampy Plain River and go check out Keebles Hut, then loop back up Gheehi Walls trail as I had done on the mountain bike when I was last here. One look at the swollen river crossing put paid to that idea though. It is normally under knee deep like this but with last night's rain it was deep and swift. Scratch that idea as there was another ford to cross just the other side of Keebles Hut too.

So, it was back to the little airstrip on Gheehi Flats to get a photo of the Main Range rearing it's head into the cloud....not very imposing in the photo but very impressive in person.

Back onto the road and my next stop was at the entrance to Tom Groggin Station. The views across to the Victorian side and the greenery were amazing. That is the Murray River (and the NSW/Victoria border) down in that tree lined gully.

I was looking for the crossing point to the Tom Groggin Track so took a couple of off road excursions here. Looking back toward the Alpine Way from one of them I could see a large herd of brumbies up on the hillside, grazing peacefully.

There were sooo many kangaroos enjoying the lush, green grass here too!

The others had said they would stop at Dead Horse Gap so I slowed as I approached but with all of my faffing around they had clearly gone. No problem, the road only goes to one place from here and that is Jindabyne....right after it goes past Thredbo though! 

There was still quite a bit of ice on the upper slopes despite it being late November. The ski runs looked like green velvet today.

Got to stop for the Thredbo sign.

From Thredbo I beetled along down to Jindabyne. I stopped at the new BP servo for fuel and found Bruce having a stretch. He said the others were at the hotel, so I headed down there to join them.

We used to stay in Jindabyne regularly when the kids were little and it had been a few years since we had last visited. I was surprised to see quite a bit of new development. The hotel we were staying in was the Banjo Patterson Inn and it was FLASH! It was also very busy with an organised tour group staying here, as well as a few motley crews like ours. Motorcycle central it was!

The large group with the support vehicle was Damien Cudlin's Aussie Bike or Hike crew on a multi day ride into Victoria. What a coincidence as I had just booked one of their tours from Sydney to the Gold Coast for next February. You can find quite a few of their rides documented on the MotoRides YouTube channel (click the link to view). Vern does a great job with both the filming and narration of his videos.

So, afetr a quick shower we found some happy hour beers and a table out the front, overlooking Lake Jindabyne and settled in. It was pleasantly cool out here. Again, nice for late November.

Doug had dinner booked for 7pm. We headed downstairs to the restaurant and had a great evening bench racing todays ride over delicious food. Yes, there was plenty of wine and desert made an appearance tonight. Affogato again Steve - you missed out big time!

I was sharing a room with Geoffry tonight. The snorers room.....but I didn't hear a thing once my head hit the pillow. I.Was.Stuffed.

Another awesome day on awesome roads. In fact, some of the best in Oz, even if they were wet. Another 443 kilometres for me.

DAY 5 here.

Cheers.