Day 6: Tarago to Cooma
18 March 2017
Click on the image for a detailed map
Inhouse Bob started the day with an introduction to Vegemite. He ate but a smear. Wise man.
The first part of the day’s ride took us to Canberra, Australia’s capital, where we rode a lap of the Parliament before heading out again and on to Braidwood. Of course, on the way to Braidwood, it started to rain again.
Tezza bought something from a place called Bob Moto and claimed a sticker for Inhouse Bob’s bike
On the road to Canberra
Approaching the Parliament which is built into a hill
And now, the moment we’ve all been expecting: wets on. No more photos!
At Braidwood we stopped for a cup of coffee and food for some. If I lived in Braidwood, I’d have to go there at least once each day. Over coffee, Pterodactyl explained that the ride around Canberra had not been quite what he hoped as a bit of his audio set up malfunctioned and he couldn’t hear his GPS. We were also derailed, as it were, by road closures which meant at least one view point I wanted to take in was inaccessible.
We also refuelled and set off with Pterodactyl in the lead in search of a back road that would take us to Cooma where we were to meet noroomtomove.
Knowing Pterodactyl had ridden the route before I didn’t worry when he sailed past a sign pointing to Cooma. I’d already forgotten about the malfunction in the GPS set up.
We made our way down what could be a lovely road if it weren’t pouring with rain until we came almost to Araluen where Pterodactyl pulled over beside an intersection. He confessed he’d missed the turn off. GPS and Google were consulted and we realised the road to our right would take us to Captains Flat, on the road we wanted to take. I set off in the lead past the ominously named Catholic Cemetery Road and Church of England Cemetery Road — apparently the sectarian divide near Araluen is profound.
The road was not good and before too long I saw that the bitumen was going to give way to gravel which looked rather too greasy for my taste. I pulled over for a team conference and Pterodactyl sailed past. Shrugging my shoulders metaphorically (maybe literally too; I can no longer be sure), I set off after him with Inhouse Bob then Tezza bringing up the rear.
The road was greasy and it began to climb. At one point, negotiating a rut, I slowed down too much and had to stop. As I started off again the bike started to fall away underneath me. The adrenalin rush allowed me to haul it back up and save myself being muddy as well as wet, and I was grateful to Inhouse Bob who insouciantly parked the BMW and gave me a push. In the light of later events, I suspect Inhouse Bob was actually enjoying this bit.
Further on, I started to turn into a corner and saw Pterodactyl standing in the road pointing up the hill. I stopped and gradually it dawned on me that he was standing and his CB was lying on its side pointing down the hill. There was a large tree across the road.
And still the rain fell.
I should have paused, dug out the camera and taken photos. But I didn’t. It seemed a bit heartless. Pterodactyl and I righted his bike with some difficulty and it became apparent he’d sustained a minor injury. He stopped for the tree, tried to turn the bike, got his foot caught in a rut and the bike went over on it. The foot-peg dug into his ankle, which he thought he had twisted as well and he was in some pain. But he could walk and ride the bike.
The CB, by the way, was fine. It had been a very gentle put down and, other than a coat of mud on the Staintune and other right-hand extremities, it was in perfect working order.
Which, as it happened, was just as well as the likelihood of any traffic where we were was approaching zero.
It was no at anti-climactic riding back down the hill. It was a relief to get off the mud and on to the gravel. By the time Inhouse Bob, Pterodactyl and I made it to the bottom, Tezza was in conversation with a bloke in an ancient Land Rover who was telling him that just past Araluen was more dirt.
So back we went to Braidwood where we stopped for another coffee before retracing our steps almost to Canberra to find the less interesting route to Cooma.
noroomtomove was waiting for us and we abandoned our plan to ride to Jindabyne for the night and found two rooms in the Alpine Hotel. We put Pterodactyl in the single room and it began to dawn on me that things were serious when he turned down a beer in favour of lying with his foot up the wall and his ankle wrapped in ice.
The Rally team was complete, although two were playing at less than full strength. And, even though it was the first time four Australian CB1100s from the CB1100 forum had been in the same place at the same time, I was too tired even to think about a photo.
