Off to Bright for 3 days

[mick_dundee]

Apart from Mansfield-Omeo any other road recommendations out there??

[Nanna10r]

From Bright chose any direction, apply plenty of loud twistgrip till your knee touches Mick.
Have fun.

[Mel]

Mt Buffalo

[mick_dundee]

Well i'm back. Didn't get a chance to read this topic till now that i'm back so was a waste kinda sorta. Ride report and pics to come but can't get knees down Ponti, 2 reasons for that, 1 being me and 1 being the bike.

Seems the ZZR600 scrapes the centre stand before anything so worn that a little down over this trip, the other reason is I ride in bog standard denim jeans which DON'T come equipped with knee sliders

[Mizz ZZR]

Mick we were up there two weekends ago. First night stopped at Bright. Second day was over Mt Hotham down to Bruthen for lunch and back to Bright for night two, then home again. Was totally awesome.

First time I actually got to go over Mt Hotham on this bike too AT LAST - long story. Only other time I attempted it was on the Virago and it was frikkin hard work. Much easier with more cc's mmmmm

[mrmina]

how about u go via st kilda pier. just take st. kilda pier all the way to the end

[mick_dundee]

How about you try make yourself at least semi fcking useful for a change Mina?

[mick_dundee]

Day 1: Starts with me knocking off work at 6am needing to be in Templestowe by 8:45am. Came home grabbed a half hours sleep or thereabouts, finished a little packing and off to Templestowe to meet up with Bones.

Meeting up with 2 others in Yea, so Bones and I head for Yea via Kinglake and Melba hwy. Meet up with Gino and Geoff in Yea then off to first nights destination, Porepunkah via Mt Buller.

Get to pub, grab our room, chuck the bags away and off to Mt Buffalo before it gets dark.

Night is pub grub at pub with moderate amounts of alcoholic beverages and a few games of pool.

Day 2: Eventual destination Jinjallock (or somethng like that) just over the border in NSW. The route is via Mt Beauty, Falls Creek, Mt Bogong and Mt Granya state park.

It's basically twisities all the way to NSW, friggin awesome stuff. Of note was all the massive bushfire damage and to add to that the depth of various dams along the way being very low.

Jinjallock campground is a free campsite run by the local council with the Bridge Hotel 50 metres away. Pub provides showers and toilets in a spearate facility, byo toilet paper and have to pay for hot water. Of course tent and sleeping bag are also recommended items.

Rocked in there about 4pm and proceeded to setup camp and wait on Geoff who decided he knew the way and took off at a great rate of knots ahead of the rest of us.

Night consisted of pub grub again (highly recommend the pepper steak) along with more moderate alcoholic beverages and a campfire by the Murray river. Pub closed at 8:30pm.

Day 3: Time to head home Bones and I at least, the others going on to Cann river and should be back now. Bones and I had our stuff packed early, the other guys reckon they are probably 30 minutes away, decision is meet in Khancoban for breakfast.

Bones and I take the scenic route there, via the Great Alpine Way passing Tumut 1 and Tumut 2 power stations and part of the Snowy River scheme (I guess) again water levels seriously fargin low.

This is motorcycling nirvana I reckon, not that many of the roads we travelled really weren't motorcycling nirvana when it boiled down but this was the icing on the cake.

Eventually rock into Khancoban for breakfast at about 11:30, the others already there. Had breakfast then on our way back home, plans of going back thorugh Granya state park had to be waylaid due to time constraints so it was basically the Murray Valley Hwy to Whitfield, then Whitfield-Mansfield rd (another awesome piece of ashpalt), alas we struck an obstacle that momentarily prevented us going thorugh, massive tree branch fell across the road blocking the whole bloody road. Given that is's a bloody long way back to Whitfield then have to go via Wangaratta to Mansfield, this really wasn't the preferred option.. unable to move the branch between the 2 of us we ponder our next course of action when some bloke rocks up in a ute, between the three of us we manage to clear a 3 foot passage by dragging the branch around a bit, another 5 minutes clearing the road of various bits of tree debris and we're back on the road.

Next stop, Myrtleford then comes "the shortcut" 34km of dirt road thorugh Lake Buffalo area to save some 130+km of highway travelling.

Fair to say that neither the ZZR or the VFR are really designed for roads like these, having said that, they managed fine albeit rarely above 50kmh.

From there we get to Yea, I stop for my last petrol stop prior to heading home, debate on whether to go via Kinglake or the Melba hwy with the Hwy winning out primarily due to threatenng rain and also I wasn't real keen on encounters of the marsupial kind.

No sooner hit the highway and the weather closes in, basically pissing down like Melbourne hasn't seen in 6 months I reckon. I took most of the route till we hit Eltham at about 50kmh, tinted visors, night and rain don't make for a great combo if you want to see where you're going...

I couldn't see a farking thing, tried following Bone's tailight but he was out of sight before too long so gently does it for me. Hit Eltham and i'm happy for the cats eyes in the middle of the road as basically I figure if I keep left of them i'm "reasonably" sure that i'm still on the road

End summary some 1700km in 3 days, 2 states, shit knows how many tanks of petrol but a fuggin grouse time, hanging to do it again and do Hotham next time but that's got to wait 6 months or so as winter sets in and i'm not real keen on swanning around the mountains on a motorbike with snow on the ground..

Pics below, not all the pics but the most relevant ones. Also must say I noticed a shitload of signs telling me there's trees close to the road, now, dunno about the rest of you but personaly speaking i'm MUCH more likely to notice these big MF trees close to the road than I am some stupid sign telling me they're there...

So now it's back to civilisation, back to work, back to roads monitored 24/7 by speed cameras etc etc, woe is me.

[mrmina]

How about you try make yourself at least semi fcking useful for a change Mina?

a lot of people would agree i was being useful