Today was epic, and not just due to the motorbiking, Gary got all his previous day’s wishes (almost) and we climbed a mountain (almost).
We set off from Beechworth around 9 towards Bright. As we approached this gorgeous leafy town, at the base of Mount Buffalo, we started to see a lot of cyclists; and not those of the motoring kind.
Turns out that the Alpine Classic, ‘Australia’s toughest single day cycling event’ was on a following most of the route we were intending to follow.
The route climbed a mountain, and so did the cyclists, much slower than us and often two abreast. It was hard core, for them, we had the help of motors. Now, I admire the physical strength of these people but they seriously got in the way!
We followed them through to Mount Beauty and then up towards Falls Creek. The intention was to get to this winter resort and then turn around and head back towards Thredbo however, the presecence of the cyclists slowed us right down and we became concerned that we might run out of time so, about half way between Mount Beauty and Falls Creek, we turned around.
Lunch at Mount Beauty and then back on the road. We rode towards Wadonga and joined the Murray Valley Highway just before Tallangatta (the sunken town). We retraced our route from yesterday, cruising along the highway, past the pine plantations, over the undulating hills and down toward Corryong.
The road over the Snowy Mountains was perfect, the conditions were ideal and, save for the occasional car in the middle of the road in the opposite direction, it was an amazing ride. The road can be a little hairy in the wet, it’s tight, climbing bends around the summit can be particularly interesting, and the distance of 80km can take over 2 hours but today we made this crossing in 90 minutes.
This allowed us enough time to park, check into our hotel and grab one of the last gondolas up the mountain for another walk.
It’s so good, after a day sitting on a motorbike, to stretch our legs – we don’t always have the time or willingness but when you’re dropped on the top of a mountain, and there is no other way down, we had to exercise!
Today, rather than just walking straight down, we walked an easy 2km uphill to look at Australia’s tallest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko (we didn’t have time to walk to extra 4.5km to the summit).
We returned to our hotel (90 minutes walk down the mountain), with air conditioning, beds, food and had a quick swim in the outdoor pool (brr), dip in the spa bath and then went and had burgers and beer! No cocktails or massage but I think we did pretty well.
Tomorrow, home.
Lady on Motorbike 