Singleton for the weekend? Not bloody likely!! Torrential rain, storms, flooding and no end in sight....This did nothing to dampen our spirits, so another destination had to be decided on. "Lets go West!" (what a great idea.) As soon as there was a break in the rain we were off, over the mountains, through Lithgow and on to Mudgee where we found all the Pub beds had been taken by heaps of Sydney folk with the same idea as us. A bed was finally found at The Winning Post Motor Inn and a leisurely walk down the street had us drinking a cool ale in a really cosy pub. We enjoyed watching the All Blacks giving the Frogs a lesson on how to play Rugby, then it was time to find a steak for dinner (an a bottle of red). This was not a difficult task as the 'Steakhouse' was only a short walk back up the street, then back to the pub where a Rock and Roll band was doing it's thing...it was 2am before we knew it. We awoke to sunshine and a hearty breakfast, then on the road again. The first stop of the day was a 'Driver Reviver' at Coolah where the locals told us of all the road closures in the Hunter Valley and about the Big Dunnie that never got built at Dunnedoo.....After a cuppa we decided to do a U turn and head to Coonabarabran for lunch. Then back on the road, a fuel stop at Gilgandra then on through to Dubbo and Parkes where we stayed the night at..you guessed it , The Coachman and yes believe it or not there was a Band on (Sunday night) you gotta love it! Monday morning, it must be time to head home....bugger. Breakfast at Orange was where the rain started and continued through to Bathurst easing through Lithgow and down the Mountains. Lapstone Pub was our final stop for a couple of drinks and another serving of Ocker's endless truths, facts and trivia..Thank you, mate. It was an Adventurous Journey.
Mig
Winter Rally
July 7 2007
The Saturday turned out to be a perfect day for riding so the four of us set out for Nerriga, deciding to ignore the well layed out route on the flyer given out by United Tourers, we headed toward Nowra, because when you look at the map, well it looks a lot shorter that way. (And we know better hey).
Uneventful ride on a beautiful day, until we actually had to pull up. Cujo’s bike decided it wanted to stay in gear, wether you pulled the clutch in or not. As luck would have it, the bike shat itself about 200metres from the biggest bikeshop on the south coast (or so the sign said) so a bit of a push up to the bike shop, the mechanic had a look, guessed it was a broken clutch plate, one of the mechanics drove Cujo down to Avis and he rented a car, so we could continue on our merry way.
Ok so Turpentine road is about 15k’s out of Nowra, we turn onto that and hit dirt straight away (alright, that’s not what I expected) 15k’s later we find some very nice tar and the sign says 45k’s to Nerriga, 15k’s later we run out of tar, so 30 k’s of dirt doesn’t sound too bad….Yup not to bad till ya hit Sassafras…then it gets a bit rough, throw in a mountain and there ya have the run from Nowra to Nerriga. Maybe the United Tourers had the right idea about coming in from Marulan.
We had a beer at Nerriga Pub then headed for the campsite which is about 4k’s south. Plenty of people there, reasonably flat camping area’s, a clubhouse with food and grog, a gymkhana, a band and a huge fire. A good recipe for a good rally.
Three of us with brand new tents meant it took a while to get set up, but we got it organised eventually. (Although Colonels tent door had a tree in the way) We got a fire going, Ocker got his new table set up, and our FJR’s caught the eye of a fellow FJR owner from NZ named Bazza, so the five of us sat around drinkin and talkin shit till the wee hours.
Sunday morning was a bit cold and foggy but after a few cupa’s and some brekky we packed up. Now if we had started packing up just 10 minutes earlier we wouldn’t have spent the last 10 minutes in heavy rain finishing off packing the bikes(I hate putting a helmet on soaking wet hair).
Anyway, a scary trip back out of the campsite on a muddy track saw us away to Marulan. Guess what? The United Tourer were right. A much better run from Nerriga to Marulan, but hey, we couldn’t just take their word for it now could we?
A wet ride home, but hey, we were wet anyway. I’m definitely going back next year.
Hitch
Winter Rally
July 7, 2007
Hi,I'm Bazza Munro who rode a hire bike to the Nerriga Winter Rally and found Stevo, Stev, Ron & Ocker to be most friendly.Infact, I spotted their FJR's and as I ride one at home I crashed their bonfire. It was great to be welcomed. Very sad to here the tale of Ron's bike which may explain why he's eyeing the Transalp in one of the photos. I hope his ride is well to being sorted.Thanks for the warm welcome I got at about the half way stage of my short Aussie tour. It was great to be welcomed as part of the rider brotherhood by such gentlermen! Pity about the sheep jokes!Cheers to all. Hope I can join you for an Odyssey one day and earn a patch!Cheers - Bazza from freezing Balclutha, NZ.
Wombat Rally
September, 2007
8am, the bike was packed and we were waiting for Ocker...talk about keen. Gem was determined to get her first Rally Patch as an Odyssian.We headed off down the Freeway to Goulburn to buy a billy (as our billyman was more interested in attending a Led Zep coverband show at the Basement!...way to go!!) We left Goulbourn after fueling up and some how found ourselves heading back to Sydney.. a quick U-turn on the Freeway took care of that. The turn off to Harden couldn't come soon enough, riding in a straightline is bloody boring. Wombat was only a few klms from Harden and you have to love this place, it has all you need , a pub, a shop and a restaurant. The pub was the only thing open THANK GOD. The locals kept us entertained with some historic truths on how Wombat got it's name which according to the chap telling the story was due to Chinese Goldminers making tunnels which resembled Wombat Borrows. While sitting outside drinking you can toast the statue of a wombat. (the locals haven't seen a wombat in decades).Back at the campsite Ocker lite our fire, no ordinary fire, this had tree stumps! In a short time it was huge ,a beckon of light and heat that drew people from near and far! Hours of drinking and laughs and hurling abuse at the band for their bad rendition of AC DC classics got us warmed up for the next band.The morning greeted us with a heavy frost so it was back to the fireplace till things thawed out. 8.30am, time to pack up and go. Gem wanted photos of the bikes with the Canola fields in the background so with that done we did a detour to Boorowa then on to the Lachlan Valley Way to the Hume and home. It was short but good....... MIG
WeekendAway, Singleton
October 2007
5 bikes and 7 riders set off up from the PITS at Cowan for the ride up the Old Highway to Singleton via Peats Ridge, Wollombi and Broke.
Seeings we had sever thunder storms the day before the Gods of the Odyssians took pity on us and decided the "Global warming" storms would cease for the weekend and provided great whether.
We stopped for lunch at Margan winery and after some complicated explanations from the waitress on how to order the Lunch Platters we just explained to her that we are hungry and we just wanted heaps of food.
http://www.margan.com.au/wideview.jpg
Well, some ordered the Lamb, some ordered Canalloni, but ONE ordered the Beef.
That ONE was Mig, who not being a small man, and considers the Valkirie a small bike was server the slightest slither of beef anybody had ever seen. "Bonn Appetite"
A razor shaved multicoloured piece of "cow" that looked like plastic which the chef then sprayed a fine smell of beef over.
His eyes popped out of his head and Gem had to lift his jaw off the plate and reattach it to his skull. Ocker broke a rib laughing and Snake, Hitch and Vic contributed some of there Lunch to Mig’s plate. Colonel was petrified to touch the Garlic Bread on account of having his arm broken by Mig who by now was drooling at at the mouth for more food.
Oh well the wine was good, so we headed off to the Pub at Singleton where we cooled down with some more drinks and worked our way up for dinner playing cards.
Everyone got a huge serving for dinner and, guess what, Mig ordered the Mixed grill so he could remember what Beef looked like again and on top of that we won the meat tray at the pub.
One of the locals, Chucky gave us some farm fresh eggs to BBQ the next morning. Bloody delicious except we lost half of it to the flies who must have heard the Church bells go off singling breakfast.
Chucky also gave us the true meaning of riding a Rocket and couldn’t be persuaded in buying a cheap car "Flatty" tyre for the back as he likes to ride the corners in true bike fashion.
We drank some more remembering all the time that Daylight savings was going to loose us an hour in the morning and next thing you know it was morning and we were off again, some going home via the Putty Road and some going back via the Expressway.
All in all a Great laugh, food, and ride and like the Bats we will be back.
Colonel
Snowy River Rally
On Sunday Nov 4th MIG and I went to the Bike Show at Homebush. We bought tickets in a raffle for a Honda CBR 1000 at The Snowy Ride display and after chatting to the guys running the display we decided we should do the ride as a Recky for the Odyssians. So we registered and picked up our Starters Pack there and then.Saturday Nov 10th we left home at 7am, down the Hume Highway to Goulburn then on through Bungendore to Queanbeyan, reaching Cooma at 11am. There were signs directing riders to the Showgrounds Checkpoint where we got our entry card stamped.The Cooma Motorshow was also on at the Showgrounds so we had lunch and browsed round the Cars, Army displays and stalls before continuing the ride. Our next Checkpoints were at Berridale and Jindabyne. We had some liquid refreshments at Jindy Pub before checking into our room at Nettin Chatel.At 3pm we rode to Thredbo to hand in our entry card. There were hundreds of bikes lined up on both sides of the road and everyone was enjoying the great turnout and the fabulous weather. It made MIG's day when he saw another Valkyrie pull up. The rider (Tony) no sooner had his helmet off than MIG was shaking his hand. Tony was from Wollongong and told us that after hiring and riding a Honda Valkyrie across Canada he had come home and bought one. This of course was music to MIG's ears.The Mass Ride was due to start at 4pm from Ski Tube so we made our way back out to the meeting point. There was probably 400 bikes that took part in the Mass Ride and the Police were on hand to stop traffic and provide an escort into Thredbo. Masses of bikes and spectators lined the main street and every available vantage point as we rode in and congregated in the Park area where the presentations were to take place.The official number of registered bikes was 2,834 which was a new record for the event. The CBR 1000 was won by a female rider from Qld who was a first time participant and was only too happy to try the bike on for size. The Gold Wing was also won by a woman.At 6.30pm we rode back to Jindy and parked our bike at the Motel along side the other 46 bikes already there!!! We went to the pub and mixed with the throngs for a while then started on a quest to find dinner, finally finding a table at an Italian Restaurant.At 9am we departed Jindy, at Berridale we turned off to Dalgety then on to Nimmitabel. A few klms out of Dalgety....you guessed it, DIRT ROAD "Bugger that" says MIG. So we turned back and took another road. After about 12 more klms theres a sign , 28 KLMS Dirt Road. "F---!" yells MIG, but then he remembers the CAR TYRE on the back and says "Bring it on" ( what a man). It was surprising the number of vehicles that used that road much to our annoyance but, the scenery was brilliant and we weren't in a hurry.We stopped a Nimmitabel Bakery and marvelled at the life sized elephant that the owner of the Bakery had shipped over from Thailand, ridden astride down the main street and now displayed proudly in the small garden area beside the Bakery. After Cooma we made a stop to get some Smoked Trout for dinner, on to Queanbeyan and then a stop at Goulburn RSL Club to pay our respects, being the 11th day of the 11th month.We were home by 5pm with 1,100klms on the odometer. Definitely an event that needs to go on the Ride Roster for 8th Nov 2008. GEM
ODYSSEY 2007
Well as any good Odyssey should, this one started at Pheasants Nest servo, Friday morning. Looked like rain, but hardly any clouds (hardly and cruiser club members either, but that’s another story. Poor Towball.) So the 4 of us head off down the expressway, but it didn’t take long for the rain to show up, on with the wet weather gear and away we go on a rainy ride to Cooma. From Cooma we head down to Bombala, our pretend destination for the weekend, pick up a couple of badges to prove we’ve been there. On our way into Bombala we pick up a Suzuki Boulevard and he and Mig play a bit of overtakings at the back of the group, so of course when we get there Mig, being the shy boy that he is invites the guy to come have a drink with us at the pub where run intoToolman. We nearly convinced both of them to come down to Victoria with us. Not quite though. So we head back to Cooma, do some drinking and Euchre, had a feed at the Thai (best Thai I’ve had for a while), watched the worst kareoki in the history of the universe, watched Justin and his mate push each other around for a while, watched the blue between a girl and a wooz at the kareoki pub, then called it a night.
The next morning Snake rolls up after riding all night just so he can have breakfast with us. So the 5 of us head out throught the Snowy Mountains, the weather was perfect. Got to Kancobin about lunchtime, then it was across into Victoria to follow the Murray River though some pretty well non existent towns. Snake broke the world record for how many K’s you can get out of a Vstar tank…. 312K’s. That’s pretty inpressive, but not impressive enough to actually get him to a servo, as he run out of fuel with about 12k’s to go. But being the kind of riders that wont leave a buddy behind, we somehow managed to scatter ourselves over a 20k radius. Anyway, it all worked its self out, we got Snake fixed up, got fuel, and continued on to Yackandandah, a little town in Kelly Country. Another good night, with some drinking and some cards, a decent feed and shithouse rooms, so no one got much sleep.
The next morning saw us up early on another perfect day, some breakfast at the bakery and we’re all loaded up ready to go, except we noticed Ocker’s rear tyre looked a little flat on the bottom. No problem, Ocker has a repair kit, the only trouble is we cant get enough air in the tyre to be able to find exactly were the puncture is. After some recognisance from Mig, he found a garage were we got the tire fixed up, Snake said his goodbye’s and the 4 of us headed down through the middle of Victoria, to the Great Alpine Road. What a ride!!! After Bright the road starts to climb, and get nice and twisty, but the best part is the road is in such great condition that the twisty’s aren’t a problem at all, plus you want to take it nice and easy to take in the view, exspecially at the top were the Vista just opens up, all you can see is blue sky and mountain ranges for miles and miles. The road opens up after you reach Maount Hotham and you get about 100ks of long sweeping bends. I thought I was in bike Heaven.
We reached Lakes Entrance pretty early and got ourselves a couple of rooms behind the RSL, bought a few take away beers and went and sat on the peir and pretended to do some fishing. Another good feed and finally a decent bed to sleep in, and Monday morning saw the return of the dreary weather.
We headed up to Cann River, said goodbye to Mig, the three of us had some breakfast then made our way up the coast to Bega where we found a bikeshop that just happened to have the exact tire that ocker needed, but more importantly they made time to change it over for him. We made it as far as Batemans Bay, but after 4 days of riding that was about as far as any of us wanted to travel, so we got some rooms at the pub once more. A relatively quite night, some sleep and a 2 and a half hour ride home the next day.
What a trip!! Although once a year is plenty.
Hitch
1st June 2008
9am, "Wheres Ocker?"A phone call and he was on his way to the meeting place. Three visitors joined us on a shortened ride down to Kangaroo Valley. The rain stayed away but there was a definite chill in the air. We enjoyed the warmth of a log fire and a few cold beers over lunch.A top up of fuel at Albion Park and said our farewells. Then a quick trip home up the Coast Road.Thanks to our visitors ( Steve, Debra and Frank) for their company.
Mig
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