Ride Report – Overnight ride to Corryong 28/29 Jan 2012

We gathered, the five of us (plus one – At last, my boss, SWMBO decided to come along as pillion!) at 9AM Caltex Hume, for another of the overnight Trevor Mcleod rides. The weather, considering the dubious summer we’ve just endured, was on our side.

And so it was we set off, with our first stop at Cooma for coffee and discussion on what route we will take. It was decided that we’ll head into Jindabyne and then detour around that uncomfortable haven of 4WD vehicles - the Alpine Way beyond Jindabyne to Khancoban. I don’t know if this was intentional given it was the better halfs’ first ride on the back (with the exception of Mount Ainslie that is!) or because it was the last of the summer long weekends to attract those 4-wheelers that seem to enjoy sitting on the wrong side of the road around blind corners, but the decision was unanimous nevertheless.

From Cooma we rode along the Snowy Mountains Highway, then left onto Slats Creek Road (I think!) which took us through Middlingbank and then left toward Berridale. Great, quiet roads at a pleasant 110kmh pace back into Berridale, and then on to Dalgety, after which we took the Snowy River Way into Jindabyne. Here we had lunch at a bakery. Setting out again, we headed back to Berridale and routed north back through Middlingbank and left onto the Snowy Mountains Highway, stopping for fuel at Adaminiby.

At this point I didn’t know what was in store for me, as I knew we would be taking the Khancoban-Cabramurra Road past Mt Selwyn. Why the uncertainty you ask? Well, the boss doesn’t usually like hills and winding roads in a car, so what’s different? It may well be that she’ll never hop on the back again, kind of a mixed blessing, it could be said!.....

Well, we got to Cabramurra, and I’ve never been so wrong in my life. A smile, and a few words “Gee, that was fun!”. After some more coffee, we headed down the hill toward Khancoban, where there was more fun had by us (and enjoying the ghostly scenery of the snow gums), eventually arriving at Corryong. Just a bit of a hiccup for me – my bike-mounted HD Pro camera mount had shaken itself to death and broke – lucky I had a little string lanyard holding it! By this time the battery was flat anyway so I tucked it away in the top box never to be seen again this weekend.

At Corryong we checked into the Mountain View Motel, and relaxed a little before hitting the pub for dinner (in fact, I hit the pub earlier than the rest and had a couple of beers with a few other riders – Harleys - that were staying at the same place we were at). I found out that there were lots of bikes on the road this weekend. One of the Harley owners heard on his radio there were 300 bikes at the Jingellic pub!

After a nice steak dinner (during which the heavens opened and we got a tad wet on the short walk back to our hotel), we retired for the night, planning to set off at 9AM again on Sunday. In the morning the rain had stopped and there was a thickish fog blanketing the valley. We set off through Towong, picking up Tooma Road to Tumbarumba, where we had breakfast. If you haven’t done these roads before, you really must. The scenery is spectacular, and the road has some great downhill sweepers heading in to Batlow and Tumut.

At Tumut, we fueled up, at Lionel decided to head home via the main highway, while the remaining 4+1 of us nipped along the (very pleasant) back roads, crossing under the Hume Highway at Colac just in time to wave to Lionel who was on the Hume at that very moment!. We headed in to Cootamundra, had lunch there just as they were about to close, said our goodbyes and hit the road again. We picked up the Hume at Jugiong and road back to Canberra on the main road. Trevor and Michael dropped off at Murrumbateman, while Andrew and I took the boring final part along the Barton Highway to home.

A great weekend had by all, and thanks to Trevor for planning some great roads again. Looks like I’ll be shopping for some bike gear, as Maream wants to do some more rides. We’re already booked in for Mallacoota, 25/26 Feb.

Chris Dietzel.

List of riders:
Trevor Mcleod (ride leader), FJR1300
Andrew Campbell, GTR1400
Michael Winters, Triumph Sprint
Lionel Haynes, ST1100
Chris Dietzel & better half Maream, FJR1300