Cold then Wet & Cold

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Sunday

Leaving Goulburn early it was cold – the phone said it was 4 degrees but it felt less. We had so many layers on that we both looked like Michelin Men – if we had fallen off we would have bounced all the way to our next destination!

Heading South-West, firstly on the M31 which we soon got sick of, we turned off, leaving the motorway into a small town for a breakfast and to warm up. After our stop we took a convoluted route that headed us toward Queanbeyan (near Canberra) on narrow sealed roads. Eventually into Wagga Wagga a decent sized rural city for a McCafe lunch.

Onwards on more sealed country roads we had an interesting, albeit cold ride to our destination of Oaklands. On our arrival we had done 470kms and needed a warm up. The Oaklands pub was a typical small country hotel, a bit run down but very welcoming. The landlady was super helpful, offering us extra blankets for our rooms (no heating except an open fire in the bar) and we had very tasty pizzas for dinner. The wifi here was good so able to watch Motogp live on my tablet. The town of Oaklands was small and had a few businesses, but most activity seemed to revolve around the hotel.



Monday

We awoke to bad weather – which had been predicted. Leaving in drizzle we had every layer of riding gear on with wet gear over the top. Heading West then south, once again on narrow sealed country roads, We reached the town of Mulwala. There was a lake here and water ski resorts however the part of the lake we saw was full of dead and dying trees so not sure how they water ski here. We stopped here for brunch and to thaw out before heading back on the road. At this stage we decided as the rain was increasing, to make a beeline for our booked motel in Laverton Melbourne. The only stop we made in the last 150kms was in Shepparton where Brenton bought a new pair of waterproof gloves from a Yamaha Dealer as his original ones were saturated.

Arriving in Laverton we turned our motel room into a drying room.(see photo)

Effectively this was the end of our ride. 8600kms in just under 4 weeks, 1 rider hospitalised and 1 replacement bike and only 1 puncture. Tomorrow we wash the bikes and our gear sort out the parts etc we will leave with the bikes in preparation for our next ride and put the bikes into storage.

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Comments

[Craig Shearer]

Great read Mike, really interesting. Now we know what to do with the Titirangi chickens just up the road from you!!

[Rob Gillard]

Appreciation
Hi Mike. Really enjoy following your and the Lads exploits, Thank you for making the time to write them. Great memories for you all. Cheers Rob Gillard, Hamilton.