With Paul and I turning the dreaded 75 this March, My wife and I decided that we, at least, would go for a slightly more elaborate birthday celebration. We decided that, rather than restrict it to just one day, we’d stretch it out to a week, which is what we did. But then the calendar opened up to allow four days when there weren’t any set diary entries and, suddenly, the birthday week became a birthday fortnight!! Hey, I know you’re jealous but I don’t care.
So, what to do with those 4 days? You guessed it, the 75th Birthday Tour emerged out of the gloom. 4 days down to the Snowies, ride around and come back, what could go wrong? A heap of things, of course, but the great thing was that, none of them did. Yes, we had a little bit of rain for about 15 minutes on Day 4 but the rest of it fell beautifully into place.
So, please bear with me while I document the 75th BT.
Early start on Monday morning, yes, we were conscious of the fact that it was April 1st but there was no fooling us. I’d packed my big GIVI top box, my little RJays tank bag and that was it. At the last minute I decided to wear my Shark helmet rather than my brand new HJC just because it was worn in and I don’t like to try out new stuff on a trip. It proved to be a good decision although realising on Day 4 that I had brought the Pinlock visor for the HJC rather than the Shark one was a pain. Fortunately it didn’t prove to be a problem.
I was on TWK, of course, and Paul was on his 2018 Honda Hornet 600.
Day 1 was pretty straightforward. Down the coat via the Princes, turn right at Bega, up over Myrtle Mount and Mount Darragh and into Bombala and the hotel for the first overnight. I’ll post the Relive video for each day at the foot of each article so you can trace our route.
First stop was Ulladulla and the beautiful harbour there, Breakfast and on the road again.
We had decided at the start that, as it was still DD weekend and just because it was the sensible thing to do, we’d just pootle along, stop when we wanted to, take plenty of photos and make a real thing of it. A nice little cafe in Bega was selling big, thick salad sandwiches so we partook. The sanger and a bottle of Bundaberg Pineapple and Coconut drink came to $11.20, definitely good value.
I didn’t stop and take any photos up in the mountains, I was having WAY too much fun carving up the twisties to stop and check camera angles. Soon we arrived at Bombala and the so-named hotel. A neat room, comfortable bed and a great bistro.
Speaking of the bistro, the Bombala showed again why I always recommend stopping at country pubs. We ordered pizza and the lady warned us that the family size was big. We took it up to the verandah and, after battling through half of it we realised that that was going to be the best we could do. Now my heritage is not Scottish, but George Hall did come from Northumberland which is JUST across the border and I think some Scottish nature rubbed off on him. There was no way we were going to waste half a pizza so we asked if we could leave it in their fridge and we’d eat the rest when we returned on Wednesday night. No problem, dinner sorted for two nights!
430kms for the day and I slept the sleep of the just. No pain in my leg despite the distance ridden and no need for any analgesics, excellent.
