Spent six days touring south-eastern Australia. Tracked out via Poweltown to overnight at Maffra – got drenched a few kays out. The following morning it rained all the way through Bairnsdale to Lakes Entrance.
Fined up for the run to Orbost and Cann River. Black clouds over the ranges towards Bombala threatened.
But we managed to run through the passing thunderies and stayed dry. Lovely road up through the ranges then a flat-out blast on the NSW side where it opened up with big, looping curves.
Stayed at the Heritage, a pleasant converted bank in Bombala, and parked our bikes at the adjacent owners house under cover.
Set off for Nimmitabel but 5 kays out of Bombala the Duke came to a halt. Would start but not run, and the engine management light was on. After some futile phone calls to Ducati, ended up freighting the bike to Canberra. You can achieve so much with a Visa card and a mobile phone!
Doubled up on the Breva for the run to Nimmitabel and Cooma, lovely roads again, now in sunshine, Ducati owner cursing her lack of a bike at every bend. Overnighted at the bike-friendly Alpine Hotel in Cooma, which has undercover, lockable bike storage.
Doubled again for the run to Canberra, a surprisingly interesting ride, not the boring highway we’d expected. Visited daughter and lunched at the Gypsy Caravan, famous for the Brodburger.
Jane flew home, so I continued up through Yass and Gundagai for the south-bound run. Turned down to Tumut then Batlow, through winding, hilly terrain. The memorial is for all the boys from the Union Jack school who died during the Great War
On to Tumbarumba then Corryong, the Snowy Mountains always visible to the south east. The “Southern Cloud” crashed there in 1931 and wasn’t discovered until 1958, our first airline disaster.
Excellent ride from Tumbarumba to Corryong where I stayed the night. Then onto Bright with plenty of road works due to recent heavy rain, including one section that had collapsed into the adjacent creek:
…and past the now-full Lake Hume which was empty only a few months ago, when the drought broke. It looked like an inland sea:
Tracked via the Tawonga Gap with its views over the Kiewas Valley and Mount Beauty:
..then to Mansfield via Whitfield (very difficult to find a spot for a photo):
Finally, home via a coffee stop at Yea.
The Breva 1100 easily covered Gundagai – Bright, and Bright – Lancefield on one tank each. A geat tourer.
Update: the Ducati problem turned out to be a spark plug. The plugs had been replaced a few weeks earlier at the 24,000km service and the bike had not been it’s normal sparkling self since, despite being returned for another check. Ducati City in Melbourne had declined to resolve the issue and blamed the non-standard Staintune mufflers, despite there being no problem previously.
When the plug was removed it had a gap half of what it should be and was cracked. The Canberra tech reckoned that it had been dropped but screwed into the engine anyway. We told Ducati City but they couldn’t have cared less. We haven’t been back to Ducati City since.
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