A weekend in Bright? Yes please!
The week before I got a message from Skuffy saying we were now staying at the Happy Valley Hotel in Ovens. Checked it out on the internets and it looked pretty good. The weather forecast for the weekend wasn’t very impressive so I decided to head off straight from work on Friday and then play it by ear… I decided I would head to Adaminaby.
Friday finally came to an end and I set off – it was pretty grey here in Canberra but warmish… not for long, before I’d even crossed the border I was wet and cold… oh well. No more rain until Cooma – and it was looking black as in the direction of Adaminaby. Ew. So I whipped out the smarterthanme phone and the forecast down the coast looked pretty good so I added my flanno to my outfit and froze my way through to Bombala with the sky still threatening. Headed down the Cann River Road and had a very nice run through there and got into Cann River about 8pm. Room at the motel, dinner at the diner, then an hour with my head in the textbooks and off to bed.
Saturday morning dawned glorious… sunshine, blue skies, not too cold… just perfect. I had noted when I rolled in the night before that the big Mobil is now a big United. I headed up to the Caltex and it is closed! So United it was for fuel, and then I headed south, fuel at Bruthen and then…. MT HOTHAM HERE I COME. The sun was still shining and it was warming up beautifully.
I set off towards Omeo and… I just couldn’t get into a good rhythm, just felt really awkward on the bike. I hate it when that happens… especially on a beautiful day such as this… oh well what can you do?
Got overtaken by about a billion bikes heading to Omeo, but had a very lonely ride up and over Hotham. It was very hard work going down the other side and I was very relieved to finally make it to Harrietville… where I found SUMMER! 30 degrees? YES PLEASE!!
I had had grand plans of heading over Tawonga Gap, up Falls Creek and back, etc etc, but I just didn’t feel up for it after my run over Hotham so instead headed straight to the Happy Valley Hotel at Ovens, got there about 1pm… I got there just in time for Trivia which a visitor from Wodonga won, then everyone left so I sat out the front and watched the world go by with my text books in front of me.
The crowds started rolling in, it was the pool comp finals that night so they were expecting a huge night… eventually the other turned up about 8pm after some dramas….
We ordered our dinner and settled in for beers and bullshit. In bed by midnight and I was very soon unconscious 
Sunday was supposed to be quite miserable, rain everywhere, so I had thought of maybe heading further west and coming back to Canberra that way… but in Ovens it was warm and while it was overcast, it was not threatening with rain so I waved goodbye to the others and turned right and went over Tawonga Gap… OH YEAH this so made up for Saturday’s disappointment, I had an absolute ball! All too soon I was over the other side, along Cow Pat Road and into Tallangatta where I stopped at the Bakery to get some water and accidentally walked out with an apple crumble slice thing (YUM). Underway again and Granya Gap was fantastic as well, all to myself, nobody else around, until another bike caught up to me in Granya (town). Just out the otherside they went roaring past me, cool, but then on the first sweeper I had to brake because they went so slow… anyway I just pulled up for a couple of minutes and then I never saw them again :D So River Road mostly all to myself.
Into Khancoban with the fuel light flashing… guy in the servo asked me if I was local as he has seen me a few times now! I’m from Canberra I say… Awesome burger and then a decision had to be made… Thredbo or Cabramurra? The weather was holding out… I was in luck
While I was sitting there thinking about it a very dodgy van with some very clueless people pulled up and they were heading for Thredbo… so I went Cabramurra and it was just fantastic. I only had I think four oncoming cars and two bikes, and only one really slow car to overtake, no problems, just beautiful scenery, beautiful roads, yayayayayaay :D All too soon it was over and I was at Adaminaby. Stopped there for a while chatting with Ed about all manner of things (bikes), then rolled through Cooma and on a whim stopped at the Bredbo Christmas Barn… wow, I was impressed (surprisingly). Spent far too long there looking at all the pretty things and then home, and it started raining just as I pulled up in front of the garage.
I wish all days could be like that!!
I really must get my camera back off my sister… only one photo…
Kiandra
Now M, as I think you are the only person who actually reads my blog… I don’t like to post about incidents so no mention has been made, but I hope that you are healing up well!
