Tathra to Phillip Island

Inverloch, Victoria

The last thing we did when we set up camp in Tathra was to hammer our little sign into the ground which reads "a couple of mad dogs live here, enter at own risk." This has served us well, we get few people camping next door let alone coming to visit. This gives us the opportunity to practice our disgraceful habits in peace. When I say "this has served us well," I meant until we arrived in Tathra. On this occasion we had people camped close on either side and the bikes were being prodded and pointed at for the entire week we were there. Still it's nice to see there is such an interest in motorcycles and awareness is a good thing!

We took full advantage of two fine days to ride in the foot hills of the Snowies. The Mt Darragh Rd from Pambula to Bombala and then home again to Tathra via Imlay Rd was a great circuit run. Day two's loop saw us ascend Brown Mountain (with clean underpants), stop for tea in Bombala again and then home via Myrtle Mountain Road. Both runs about 250 - 300km.

And where to now? We could go back to Jindabyne and spend more time riding the Snowies, but we both agreed we would need an outlook for fine weather cast in stone before we would head back in that direction, so we headed SW, and a little closer to home, to the small town of Bruthen, just in time for the blues festival weekend. A civilised bunch of punters enjoyed the overly loud music while our bikes were locked away in a very dusty shed without their covers!

Yamaha Vstar and Kawasaki Vulcan

With the blues fest behind us and the bikes cleaned up once more, we were riding some back roads again and heading for Yarram. It was a hot day and when we were selecting our camp site, we overlooked all the parameters which make a good site and went for 100% shade. A little thought to M for Mossies as they were out 24 hours a day and E for Elevation, because it started to rain and we were nearly afloat again, would have been well worth while.

We didn't let a little rain stop us from riding out to the Grand Ridge Brewery at Mirboo North via Port Albert and Port Welshpool and then home again on the C483 through the Tarra Bulga NP. That C483 is an amazing road, wouldn't call it a great bike road because it's only one lane wide for most of it, but the scenery was awesome - straight out of Jurassic Park.

The weather started to close in again - gales and rain forecast for 3 days, so on 22nd February we took the opportunity to escape from Yarram. We are now in Cowes on Phillip Island for the World Super Bikes race meet. It has been blowing a full gale for the last 48 hours but the tent is holding its own against the wind. Last night we found a great Chinese restaurant and while we listened to the nimble click - clack of the chop sticks and they smiled at the clumsy clonk of our fork and spoon, we knew for certain, that no sooner we are home, we will long for a night in our humble tent, with the two bikes parked outside - even if it's raining.