Walwa to Camp Confined Quarters
19 October 2016
Click on the image for a detailed map
So far on this trip, when there'd been afternoon rain, the next morning was glorious. This day was no exception. We awoke to bright sun and a good forecast. We ate the breakfast left for us by the hotel, packed up and rode across the street to refuel.
The service station was located at the General Store, outside of which sat a Furphy water cart. In Australian slang a furphy is an erroneous or improbable story claimed to be true. It is said — maybe it’s a furphy, I don’t know — that the term comes from these very water carts made by John Furphy & Sons of Shepparton, Victoria. Amongst other things, Furphy water carts carried water to Australian troops in World War 1. Soldiers would gather around them and drink the water, exchanging the sorts of truths that soldiers exchange. The term "furphy" was born. Way before the water cooler.
The road south was closed, so we headed back towards Jingelic where, instead of crossing the Murray River, we stayed on the Victorian side and rode beside the river bank until we were catching glimpses of Lake Hume. It’s a glorious road. Little traffic, pretty, OK surface and not straight. What else could one want? The Murray, and its tributary the Darling River, are the lifeblood of the agriculture of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. Fortunately for Australians, and indeed the rest of the planet, this system is in the hands of our political masters and no one need have any fear for its future.
Views of the Murray River Road
The Granya Road from south of Bungil until the junction with the Murray Valley Highway was particularly agreeable for people for whom travelling in straight lines is challenging.
Entertaining sections of the Granya Road
From there it’s a fast ride to Mitta Mitta where we refuelled and took coffee and a meat pie in preparation for the Omeo Highway. Sadly for me, the most attractive feature of the Mitta General Store had disappeared since I was last there. Pterodactyl thought it may have found its way to the pub, but I couldn’t bring myself to check.
noroomtomove on the way to Mitta Mitta
The Mitta Pub
In my opinion, the Omeo Highway is simply the best motorcycle road I’ve ridden. It takes nigh on 2 hours to ride the 107 kms from the Mitta Pub to Omeo and it is, as I’ve said before, a little like paddling a canoe as you push the bars first one way and then the other. It’s an exhausting but beautiful and rewarding ride; one on which you have to send Pterodactyl on ahead to contain his disposition to claustrophobia.
Speaking of Pterodactyl, he recorded an excellent video of the Omeo Highway, a link to which can be found here.
The best I can offer is a couple of photos.
As I recall there was a bloke here who wasn’t well and we stopped to make sure he was OK. The place is Anglers Rest.
The Cobungra River opposite Anglers Rest. There’s said to be good camping to be had
It was all I could do to get far enough ahead of these blokes and get off the bike in time to photograph them
The road is straighter and quicker for around 50 kms from Omeo south to near Ensay. It’s an agreeable respite before the final 50 kms to Bruthen which is as much fun as the earlier section. I’m not sure why there are no photos of this part of the day; perhaps it’s because my camera battery is getting old and doesn’t last like it used to. Given it took photos later on the day, it’s more likely that I just wanted to give into the riding.
The bikes were ready for petrol and we were ready for a cup of tea when we made it to Bruthen at about 4:00 pm.
A rest at Bruthen
The final leg of the day’s journey took us briefly on the Princes Highway to just west of Bairnsdale and then south and west. It’s the trade off for the pleasures of the earlier part of the day: flat, mostly straight and, for me at least, not very interesting.
Between Bruthen and Camp Confined Spaces
A while later we arrived at what I’ve called Camp Confined Spaces — noroomtomove’s house. I've called it that because of the splendid irony of noroomtomove’s user name on the forum through which I met him. Suffice it to say, there’s room not only to swing the proverbial cat, but also to be able to let it go and not have it leave the park.
Pterodactyl aligning the bikes for a photo that yours truly made then such a balls of taking that he’s not prepared to post it. They’re so piss poor they can’t even be passed as ‘soft focus’ shots
Thanks to noroomtomove and Mrs noroomtomove for accommodating us for the night. Mrs NRTM cooked us a welcome home–cooked dinner and we were asleep early. I was glad of that: the edges of the dreaded lurgy that had plagued me for weeks had returned.
