Days 106-108 Yarra Range - Barnsdale - Numerala (Cooma) - Island Bend

These last couple of have been quite busy. I've driven reasonably long distances and met more great people on the way.

On Thursday morning we went for a nice ride with Mark. He lives in the middle of perfect motorcycle roads. Up and down the hills, curves, corners. Some little village from time to time. Perfect pavement. One could easily use days just to explore those roads within a range of maybe 100 km from Mark.

But the time went by and our ways were ment to apart for now. Mark left back towards town to meet the dentist and I headed south to Phillips Island. I wanted to see the MotoGP-track there. I usually don't go to any places with entrance fees but in this case I made an exception. By paying $17 I got to a lookout where I could see the track and into a museum which had a collection of motorcycles worth $6 million. World Championship bikes, long line of Ducatis etc. I was a bit disappointed as they had only couple of Hondas there.









When I was in Bendigo I decided I'll make shorter days. So far I haven't managed. On Thursday - after 445 km I arrived in Bairnsdale to stay overnight with Geoff. Another place from advRider tent space -map. What a great guy! He has been traveling in North and South America and he gave me so many good tips and hints for U.S. He also recommended Spotwalla for me.


Some of you might know I have a little device with me that keeps track where I am. A GPS tracker as they say even though it uses different satellite system than GPS but that's irrelevant. Well... The user interface of Spot is not very good. To be honest it sucks. It's heavy, it doesn't work in mobile environment and it's just complicated to use.

I'm not good with computers but if I got it right Spotwalla was created by a guy from advRider. It just acquires the information the tracker sends to the official Spot system and turns it to a more useable form. This information is then available in much easier user interface and also in mobile environment. My track since Thursday morning can be found in: Kartta

In the evening we planned a route for me with Geoff to get to Cooma. The straightest route would have been 369 km. I took a little scenery route and one wrong turn and ended up driving 409 km. From which about 150 km on a very small gravel/dirt road. But as they say: "getting lost is the best way of finding new places." The road went up and down on the hill sides. It was usually so steep it was impossible to stop and taje photos. But it was so beautiful. Couple of times I nearly fell because I was just driving too fast downhill. I slided for a while with locked rear wheel and managed to save myself and the bike. I was a bit worried about my fuel but when the navigator showed there's only 50 km to the next gas station and I hadn't gone to my spare tank yet I knew I'll manage.






Finally I got to bitumen road and ended up at home of Steve and Sandra. Such a lovely couple. We talked about traveling, motorcycles, politics and energy production. Steve has made his work career in Snowy Hydro. It's a very complicated system of dams, tunnels, power stations and pumps in order to produce energy out of the melting water of the snowy mountains.

The night I slept like a baby in their guest room. Our discussions continued in the morning while having breakfast. Their daughter Martina joined the table and we had a lot of fun when they told about the political crisis in Australia. Then we jumped in Steve's car and drove on top of great divider. The roads were absolutely crazy. At some points I would consider thoroughly even with a tractor whether I'd go there or not. But with Steve's utility vehicle (pick-up as we say in Finland) it didn't seem to be any problem. We also picked up a Christmas tree on the way.

After all the hospitality and friendliness I had experienced at Steve's it was time to say goodbye and get going. As Steve proposed I stopped at Snowy Hydro discovery center in Cooma. I saw a film that told about making the tunnels and all the other infrastructure around the scheme. As they started on the 1950's it was extremely hard work. Constant struggle with snow, mud and other obstacles with the equipment of the day. Amazing achievement truly.

Island Bend was my next target. This time I really had a short day trip. Only 133 km to a national park. The actual camping ground has been a place for a temporary town when they build the tunnels in the mountains. Now it's only for recreational purposes.

I found a nice plot for myself and Heinrich and Anna. They arrived at around 6 p.m. After a while we realized we've been quite close to each other several times during the last two days. I even managed to pass them in the village nearby as they were sitting in their car using internet in front of the grocery store. I remember looking at the store from the main road just to memorize the place. The evening went on quickly. Anna made some dinner, Heinrich and me tried to chop some wood for fireplace with no luck. We made a small fire and got to bed at around ten.



Merry Christmas to all my readers!


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