2025 (Not The) Snowy Ride - Day 3

DAY 3

It was a bit of a dusty start this morning. Many beers and some very fine wines were consumed all in the name of spreading the wealth to these small Victorian towns.....but luckily it was just a short stagger across the road to one of the many cafe' that lined the main street. 

It looks like the mountain bike trails have really injected some sustainable life into Omeo.

 There were a number of bike hire shops in town now and I saw plenty of bikes getting around.

In fact, the Hunt 1000 was being run and we had passed many bikepacking riders yesterday and we would again today. The Hunt 1000 is a gruelling 1000 kilometre bikepacking route from Canberra to Melbourne via many, many very big hills in our alpine region. I spoke with these two guys yesterday at the Benambra hotel while they were taking a break and it sounded as if the ride was far tougher than they had been expecting. I had deduced that years ago and asked mates to slap me silly if I ever announced an intention to ride it!

After a slap up breakfast with the our group, we took a wander around town.

There was a good map at the information centre that I would have loved to score a copy of for future planning, however they were closed....on a Saturday morning......when most visitors would be likely seeking information....

Luckily, I bumped into a local bloke and his wife whom I had also seen at the Benambra pub yesterday. He owned a KTM 890 and had given me some ideas on trails to ride yesterday. Today he added a couple more to the list, including one that cut off a large number of the very tight and slow corners on this end of the Omeo Highway - The Knocker Track. It linked back on just the other side of Glen Valley, some 45 kilometres along the Omeo Highway. I was interested in checking it out but the point that it linked back on was a bit far (15km) past where we would be turning up Falls Creek road today. But it might work out tomorrow when we are heading to Mitta Mitta - so I filed it away for tomorrow.

Wandering back to the pub we got changed into our riding gear and prepared to head off for the day. It was a bit like herding cats this morning but we didn't have far to ride so it didn't really matter.

We snaked our way out the Omeo highway and the group settled into it's rhythm with the sports bikes picking their way through us ADV riders. We would be stopping at the Blue Duck in at Anglers Rest to regroup and give the legs a rest so there was no great rush.

I grabbed the drone out just as another large group of riders stopped on the other side of the road. One of their guys was fascinated with it. I let Doug fly it to show how simple it was to operate.

Mounting up again we charged off toward the Bogong High Plains Road. I waited at the turn for a moment to make sure the next rider didn't miss the turn, then chased Rick on the climb up the mountain. This road is a narrow and twisting one. Rick's Guzzi sounded awesome as he nailed it out of corners. I was giving my quick shifter and down blipper a thrashing too. It is amazing how well the 80/20 tyres on our bikes performed on the blacktop. We passed quite a few cyclists grinding up the hill and I gave them plenty of space as I know how it sucks to be buzzed by motorists who are just lazy or ignorant.

As we climbed right up to the base of the overcast I recognised the camping spot that we used to camp at with the kids over the summer break for a few years prior to Covid striking. I love this part of the world so I let Rick go and stopped for a couple of photos.

The cloud base was almost touching our heads here at 1640m (5380ft) above sea level. It was pleasantly cold, just like I remember it. In fact, that is why we camped at Langfords West - because it was cool to cold in the middle of a scorching Aussie summer.

"Speedy" zipping by.

I rode the rest of the way into Falls Creek by myself, enjoying the next thirteen kilometres of flowing tarmac while the cloud virtually touched the top of my helmet.

Riding into the fringes of Falls Creek the guys were parked up in the first carpark they came to, catching their breath.

Everyone was buzzing from the climb. I grabbed the drone out to get that shot, plus a few others.

I was a bit cheesed that we didn't stop at the main car park as that is where the mountain bike hub and more importantly, the cafe' is. When we rode past it became obvious that we made the right decision to stop where we did as there was a huge mountainbike event going on and the main carpark was the event centre and was blocked off.

We continued down the mountain and enjoyed the thirty kilometres of twisting goodness into Mt Beauty. There was a train of six of use punting it along pretty quickly and almost no traffic. It doesn't get any better than that.

Well, unless you add apple pie to it! That was the icing on the cake that was had in Mt Beauty!

I must come back here with the bicycle again. There is so much to explore in this neck of the woods. The Mt Beauty to Bright ride would be good on a mtb or the adv bike.

But today we were taking the Tawonga Gap road to Bright. This used to be one of the highlights for Steve and I when we rode to Phillip Island back in the '90s. It didn't disappoint too much today, apart from the many road bicycles and Saturday morning drivers who we had to watch out for. Some of the cyclists weren't giving us much room to pass, sitting in the middle of the lane. These are the ones that give all cyclists a bad rap.

Anyway, we had a ball across Tawonga gap, turning left immediately onto the Great Alpine road just south of Bright. No stopping, we didn't want any cars re-catching us....

Though, we did stop down the road at Harrietville as the pub looked so inviting with its leafy green beer garden out the front!

We only stopped long enough for one beer but there was some discussion about making this a base of operations on next year's ride, such was the ambiance.

Leaving Harrietville, Dave, Stu, Myself and Thomas formed into a train and attacked the climb up to Mt Hotham. This is a truely awesome bit of tarmac right from the edge of Harrietville until Hotham Village. Our bikes were making glorious music all the way up the mountain.....until I peeled off for a photo stop at Dannys Lookout.

 

Some of the most iconic Victorian High Country bends are right around here and it took some will power to drop out of the train for these photos, but I love this lookout, having stopped here so many times in the past.

1999.

2022.

The skies were a bit moodier today but that gave great contrast for the photos.

Rounding a few corners I stopped to get a photo with some remnants of this years snows in it.....

.....not realising this is the exact spot Steve and I stopped on our way back from P.I. in October '99.

I caught up with the others just up the road at Hotham Village where they were taking in the views from the main car park.

I recall Steve saying that the pub at Dinner Plain, just down the road, had craft beer on tap and I convinced Geoffrey (not a hard task there!), Rick and Karen to pull in for a cheeky pint as we only had 55 kilometres until we were back in Omeo and it was only 3pm.If we got back to The Golden Age too soon it would be carnage....

Google maps said the pub was open but when we pulled in the note on the front door disappointingly said "see you next year".

Oh well.

So, we chased Geoff down the hill to Omeo. I was chatting to Rick on the helmet comms and told him that I was going to go out to Parish Boundary road again for some more photos (and to stay away from the pub a bit longer, if I'm honest). He wasn't keen as he wanted to edit his GoPro footage from the day. That was fine. As I said, I don't mind looking around by myself.

I was so glad that I did go as it is a stunning little ride.

It was just as windy today but at least I could take my time and faff around.

Doing Parish Boundary road from west to east this time I came into Omeo on the Benambra road, where I spied a "scenic lookout". McMillan Lookout was worth a look I thought....but after today's views, it wasn't so much....

Moseying back into town I parked up at the pub and struggled to find a spot! The place was heaving with motorcyclists and mountain bikers. The publican later told me it is only us two groups that keep the pub going.

I hit the shower and was back down to join the lads and ladette, sitting in the biting sun out the front of the pub. Much bench racing occurred. Much fine beer drinking also occured. That dark amber fluid was a local drop and it was so good we drank the place dry of it!

We soon moved inside for dinner and I had that huge steak on my mind. It was so tender and well cooked I couldn't believe they were giving it away for $40! This would be a $70-$80 steak any day of the week in a city pub. All washed down with a very nice merlot....or two.

Today was an easy day, almost the "rest" day of the trip at just 269 kilometres. It was another great day on the bikes with a great bunch of people. I keep asking myself does it get any better than this?! Well, we find out tomorrow!

DAY 4 here.

Cheers.

2025 (Not The) Snowy Ride - Day 2

 DAY 2

Well, we weren't too shabby this morning but it wasn't a super-early start either. The plan for the entire trip, breakfast was to be around 8am with stands up at 9am. Today we needed to ride to breakfast at the Tathra bakery so it was a bit of a compromise. We were soon chewing on an array of pies, pasties and bacon n egg rolls, all washed down with a coffee of course.

Today we were heading to Bombala via Candelo, Wyndham and Cathcart. I hadn't ridden these roads since the late '90s and was I in for a treat! I had no recollection of the Mt Darragh road out of Wyndham to Cathcart but holy cow, it is a superbly surveyed length of twisting, turning smooth surface that had me grinning from ear to ear! I wish I had a camera rolling as the line of bikes snaking along in front looked so impressive. I will definitely return to this little patch of Oz again soon - maybe with a sports bike under me!

I did manage to stop just prior to Bombala to get a photo of this one lane bridge.

We stopped for fuel and a bite to eat in Bombala. I would have like to take a look around the town but was cognisant of the fact that I didn't know the route and we had already lost Richard, aka Speedy, not long after leaving Tathra.

We waited quite a while before he arrived. Luckily he has done The Snowy Ride quite a few times and knew the route. I grabbed a sandwich to stash in my bags for lunch later on as the guys chatted to a couple of other riders who were parked up at the service station.

Checking my tyres I noticed that I must have had the big Duke leant over a ways along the Mt Darragh rd section as the front knobby was used pretty much right to the edge. Pretty impressive grip for what is quite a hard compound rubber on a full-on off road capable tyre, under 300+ kilograms of bike, gear and rider!

Once Richard arrived we mounted up and headed out the Delegate road. The countryside was more open along here with rolling green hillsides. 

Through Delegate and onto the Bonang road for a bit and the road was getting tighter and twistier. Twenty two kilometres out of Delegate Thomas, Rick and I turned off onto McKillops Bridge road. We were going to tackle the dirt across to Omeo while the road riders would head further south to come back north to Omeo along the Great Alpine road from Bruthen.

McKillops Bridge road proved to be quite a long ride along a fairly narrow but well surfaced gravel road. Plenty of concentration was required, especially as some of the views were very distracting.

There were a couple of little communities waaaay out here too which surprised me. They consisted of just a few houses and the odd tennis court. Surely, it would be a hell of a lonely existence. Peaceful though I guess.

Being Australia, there was plenty of road kill too.

After quite a while (this dirt riding is relatively slow going) we arrived at McKillops Bridge. Some history on the bridge can be found here.

We took a break to eat lunch and as we did the group of ADV bikes that had been at the servo in Bombala pulled up to do the same. Turns out they were a bunch of Kiwis who has hired Honda Transalps in Sydney and were touring around.

I faffed around with the drone to get a bit of  "follow me" footage. I was hoping the Neo wouldn't play up as the bridge is very high and I wasn't sure how much wind was out there in the open.

It decided to lose me about half way across though. When I rode back it was hovering in the middle of the bridge at about 8ft and comically swinging too and fro as if looking for me. I jumped off the bike and stuck my hand under it. It promptly landed as if nothing was wrong! Phew!

After eating we mounted up and headed west again. I followed Thomas across.......

...... while Rick brought up the rear on his Guzzi.

Once off the bridge I took up navigation duties again. Conveniently, this kept me out of the dust.....

Stu had warned me to be careful as we climbed out from McKillops Bridge as the road is very narrow, winding and has significant drop offs into the valley. 

He wasn't wrong!

So I took it pretty carefully and luckily the only other traffic we saw were motorcycles. I really don't know how two cars or a truck would pass each other along here.

I stopped for a photo on the wrong side of the trail as it was the only flat enough spot to get off the bike.

Of course, two riders promptly came along! Sorry fellas!!

The road twisted its way up the mountains and I managed to find one place where I could pull over to take in the view and get a half decent photo of the valley.

Eventually the road opened out onto grassy hillsides and we could relax for a bit. How easy is riding on sealed roads?!!

We soon came to the intersection of Snowy river road, where we took a moment to stretch the legs and grab a drink of water.

Snowy river road alternated dirt/sealed for a bit before we turned left onto Limestone road. This road would take us to Benambra, then our overnight destination of Omeo. But first there would be a couple more hours of this....

and this.....

The road got much more narrow and winding but the surface was good. It just meant slow going for a while. I decided to stop at Native Dog Flat camping area to take a break. I had camped here in about 2017(I think) with the kids and some friends. I recall plenty of ADV bikes rolling past during those days camped here. Now I was finally back here and on a bike of my own!

Rick and Thomas were enjoying the riding and the scenery too. I was glad as I had dragged them a long way off the beaten path!

After a break we got going again. The road changed in a fairly significant-for-us kind of way. It had clearly just been graded and resurfaced after the winter and unfortunately for us there was a thick coating of loose stone on it.

I could feel the bike moving around a bit but at least I had proper off road tyres on and while we were climbing it was kind of fun to roost out of the corners.

Unfortunately, what goes up must come down! There were some quite steep descents into tight, slow corners. These took some effort to negotiate and I was glad I was on good off road rubber. Safely off the mountain I waited at the next intersection for the guys to catch up.

Yeah, I waited quite a while actually. Eventually the lads rolled up. Thomas had had an "excursion" into the drainage ditch along the side of the road on one of the steep, loose downhill sections as he was on 50/50 tyres and the bike just wouldn't stop or turn! Luckily for him the ditch caught him, otherwise he was going over the side apparently!

It wasn't that far to Benambra and there were no turns so I dropped back to tail end charlie to get some shots of the guys. Geeze, its a bit dusty back there!

Rick's Guzzi sounds amazing and I happily sat by his shoulder for a while just listening to it's throaty growl.

He was probably wondering WTF I was up to....

Yeah, this was pleasant riding, being able to get along at a reasonable clip again.

I was dead keen to have a beer at the Benambra Hotel and it didn't take much arm twisting to get the guys to stop.

Rick was loving it while Thomas may have been considering his life choices here....

As we didn't have far to go we stopped here for a while. I used this time to convince the lads that there was just one more dirt road that we needed to ride. I didn't even know it existed until Steve mentioned it to me yesterday. Apparently he has seen it in several YouTube vids that some ADV riders have posted up.

They agreed to take a look, so not far out of Benambra we took a right turn onto Parish Boundary road. It looked to be a straight road on the map but it turned out to be this awesome ribbon of dirt that climbed and dove, weaved and wound it's way across several hills.

I was soo glad we did this road!

It was bloody windy up here though. I almost got blown off the track while trying to catch up to the guys. Even the hawk was struggling with the wind!

The last few kilometres into Omeo were sealed. I think we were all cooked from the concentration required today so it was very welcome. I noted that someone was getting a slow down into Melbourne on this Friday afternoon (the contrail). The only way to lose time is to arc around the sky as the air traffic controllers in this country seem to not like using holding patterns. It must look bad in their delay stats....

Rick and I headed for fuel before the pub. We wanted to be ready for anything tomorrow!

The Golden Age hotel is a great place to stay with great food and a selection of craft beers on tap. We were staying here for two nights which gave us a chance to sample different menu options, which after seeing the steaks that came out for some of the guys put the steak at the top of my list for tomorrow - not that there was anything wrong with the slow cooked lamb that I had tonight.

It was "only" 356 kilometres on the bikes today but many of those kilometres were high concentration, so there was no need to be rocked to sleep tonight! 

Tomorrow was going to be an easier day, almost a rest day with a loop ride on unloaded bikes. Climbing into some of Australia's alpine region is always stunning and I was very much looking forward to it.

DAY 3 here.

Cheers.