A weekend of not so much riding as waiting around...

Well, due to lack of funds I had no plans of going riding this weekend, which I was spewing about as it was my friend’s birthday ride and he had asked only a few of us to attend.  On Friday night though Stevo came up with a mutually beneficial arrangement whereby he would pay for my fuel if I supplied the bourbon as I had heaps at home to bring with me.  So Saturday morning, with my duly bourbon-filled bag I set off.

how to pack for a trip

Got to the meet point fairly early, filled up, was soon joined by Carl (ZX9R) and Stevo (FZ1).  Jonno (GS500) turned up then eventually Tess (VFR 800) turned up heaps late LOL (usually it’s me that’s the late one).

We set off down the Monaro for Cooma, hit some pretty heavy fog, it was farking freezing! Jonno pulled into a rest area, Carl stopped to wait for him, Tess and Stevo stopped a bit further up to wait so I continued on to Cooma so I could have a wee break too LOL (shoulda stopped with Jonno but didn’t think of it til I’d past the turn).  Anyway I told them I’d meet them in Adaminiby.

Turned onto the Snowy Mountains Highway and made a very good pace along there trying to catch up, the fog had just lifted, though the wind on the damp jacket at the speeds I was seeing was very cold.  Got to the servo, they were already there but I think they had really only just gotten there. Not bad.

Fuelled up, we continued on, had fun through the “yellow lines” bit as always  turned off at Kiandra, pretty quickly lost sight of the group as usual, then we regrouped at Tumut Ponds before continuing on to Corryong where we were to meet the boys from Vic.

The chef at the Courthouse Hotel was off sick  so no steak sandwiches for us, so pies at the bakery next door while we waited for Mitch and Andy.  Eventually they turned up, 1/2 to an hour late!  fair enough, seeing as Mitch had left at 5am to meet Andy at 6am.

After a while we set off again, the plan was to go back up to Kiandra, refuel at Adaminiby then Cooma, down the Brown Mountain and up to Bermagui for the night.  Again I lost sight of the group again (I’m getting used to being at the back!) and came around a corner and found a few bikes parked and Tessa waving me down.  She was standing over someone. I got off the bike and realised it was Jonno down and there was one very munted GS500 half in the ditch alongside the road  Jonno was lying half in the ditch and half on the road as well a bit before the bike and Andy was on the phone to the Ambos.  Jonno was talking and stuff and Tess was helping him with his jacket and helmet, so I helped Andy on the phone with where we actually were, I knew roughly where we were but was hard to pinpoint the exact location.  Jonno thought he had broken his hip and had a bit of pain in his shoulder as well.

Finished with the Ambos, the Ambulance was on it’s way and they were gonna get a chopper in as well.

After a while Stevo, Mitch and Carl all came back, someone in a 4WD had told them about the accident.  We finally found someone with a GPS so could tell the Ambos exactly where we were…. then there was just the wait.  Jonno had Tess’s jacket under his head for a pillow/support and we took turns holding my jacket up to shade him as much as we could, before Carl built a tripod to shade him.  Someone had called the Crash Rescue Team so they were also on their way from Canberra to collect the bike.

After what felt like forever (was about an hour I think) the ambo came rushing up the hill with a waft of brake smell… we figured they knew the road well and the dude told us over summer he was up there pretty much every weekend attending to bike accidents  They assessed Jonno, gave him the green whistle which made him very happy, got his jacket off (we managed to get it off without cutting it) and they confirmed they suspected he’d done his pelvis.  Another ambo turned up, this one from Corryong, and eventually the chopper turned up.  They couldn’t get him in the chopper where we were so they took him down to Tumut Dam where the chopper could land and flew him back to Canberra.

The rest of us were trying to decide what to do next, we had Dave on his way to get the bike, most felt that we should just leave it there, Dave would see it, I don’t think they realised that Crash Rescue Team was just a mate with a 4WD and trailer, not some company! I told them that I thought we should wait, maybe some could go on and the rest could catch up later but in the end it was decided that we would all wait.  We figured there was no way we would make Bermagui at a decent hour that night, so put in a call to jindabyne but then decided Khancoban was probably the best bet, being only 60km down the road.

After a little while the local copper turned up to take some pics and the ambo came back and had a chat with them.  he took some pictures, was a nice bloke actually, told us that a dude on a harley had died on that same corner a few years ago!  None of us were of any real help to him as none of us had actually seen the accident happen.  He left and then we waited.

The copper had given us a bottle of water which didn’t last real long amongst 6 of us, so the bourbons were cracked (we shared 4 cans amongs the 6 of us), we made a little campfire and generally lounged about on the road, we asked everybody who came by if they had any marshmellows but no luck LOL. 

Dave turned up with Mick and we got the bike loaded up (it couldn’t be rolled, they actually had to pick it up, was totally munted! snapped forks, the front wheel was at right angles to the bike).  By the time they left it was 6:45pm and starting to get dark.  Great, we’re in the national park with 60km to go LOL the boys up front must have scared all the skippies away because I didn’t see any.  I had tinted visor on and the bugs were too bad to have the visor up so maybe that’s why I didn’t see any  I had a very scary moment where mid-corner, the nearly-set sun hit my visor and I couldn’t see anything at all, I fumbled the visor up, just to see myself heading off the road, managed to jerk it back just in time to stay on the bitumen.

Got to Khancoban and checked in, the boys went up for showers etc, while Tess and I went in search of coke - the lady at the bar also let us have 6 glasses, so we got the first round going.  Had dinner then got another couple of bottles of coke and sat around outside drinking and talking… happy birthday Mitch!

Next morning dawned bright and sunny, after breakfast and fuelling up we got on the road - we were doing the Alpine Way through to Jindabyne, then Stevo, Mitch and Andy were continuing on to Bright while Carl, Tess and I were heading back to Canberra.

We started off, everyone took off and I was at the end again, actually I was really enjoying myself, I wasn’t going hard, just cruising but my head was empty of all thought, it was very relaxing.  But then a dude coming the other way gave the “cops ahead” signal, then Tess had pulled over to wait for me so I’d know about the cops too.  Mitch had slowed down and the three of us rode together for a while.  Got to Geehi rest area and Stevo’s bike was parked on the side of the road with the hazard lights going, with Carl and Andy just inside the rest area.  Turns out Andy’s R1 had a munted motor, he started it up again and it was making a god-awful clunking noise!  It was decided that it couldn’t really be ridden like that, it had been losing power as well, so Carl and Stevo headed back to Khancoban (the guy managing the pub was the same guy who collected Stevo’s bike when he’d crashed back in january) so the rest of us settled in to do some more waiting around.

We took shelter in the picnic hut as it was getting pretty warm by that stage, made up some more songs (it was too hot for a campfire this time) and generally talked shit as we do.  The boys came back bearing lollies, newspaper and a magazine and shortly after Tom turned up with the car and bike trailer.  We loaded the R1 up and it was decided that Mitch, Andy and Stevo would head back to Khancoban then head straight for Bright and Carl, Tess and I would continue on the way we had planned.  We said farewell and we left. 

After the first corner Carl pulled over, he had forgotten to do up his boots! LOL.  They pulled out, I did a mirror check, was clear, as soon as I pulled out I looked again and there was a patrol car up my arse!  Ooops.  we weren’t sure if the speed limit was 60 or 80 there so sat on 60 just in case until the first 80 sign.  the cop sat behind me for ages and I was heaps paranoid given the lack of indicators and burnt number plate!  I was following Tess and I saw her shake her head like she had a bug in her helmet, sure enough in a minute she pulled over, so I did too, the cop just sailed past us, she pulled off her helmet, she had been stung by something on her chin poor thing! she was in a bit of pain so we just hung out for a bit, Carl came back, then we kept going. 

We knew the copper was ahead somewhere and everyone going the other way was letting us know so it was a very sedate run through there.  Eventually we found him, set up on the other side of leatherbarrell creek with the radar out  but we were okay.  It was only a short stint from there to Thredbo, then through Jindabyne to Cooma (at least we could pick up the pace a bit now)

We stopped at Cooma for lunch and fuel before the Monaro back to Canberra (fuck I hate that road).  Got home about 4:15pm or something.

So in the end it was a pretty fucked weekend, but I guess we made the most of some pretty ordinary situations.

We got a message at Cooma that Jonno had been discharged from hospital, turns out he had chipped a bit of his pelvis and possibly done some damage to his shoulder so he’ll be off for scans and stuff this week to further assess the damage.  he’ll be off his feet for a while though he insists he will be at coffe tonight… I guess we’ll see!