Nice pics.

Is the GPS/switch mount your own concoction?

Yeah, just a piece of flat 2mm aluminium fitted between the bracket and the gps. From the talented guy at OneOff Industries.

Pete.

DAY 4 SINGLETON TO NOWRA 398 KLMS


Neville had to start work at sparrow-fart so we were both up well before first light, after a bit of tea and toast it was good to get away to an early start. On the road at 5am, a good 4 hours earlier than yesterday.
Early or not, this is an industrial town, they dig coal here and Singleton is alive with miners coming and going at any hour.

A novel experience for me, having to queue for petrol in the pre-dawn.
Today the weather has changed completely, it's gloomy and cold and drizzly. Out came all the rain gear and liners, I sure am glad I fitted those Hotgrips for this trip.

As I left Singleton on the road south, what I took to be mountains in the gloomy distance were actually great gray hills of tailings from the coal mines. Massive hills of rock and scree, and here and there the tops of the giant drag-line excavators used to move it could be seen.

Not a big report, today is more of a “get there” day, I have arranged to stay at RodC's place tonight at Nowra and I've a fair way to go.


Breakfast on the Putty road.




My towel was a bit wet so I tried to dry it on the topbox where it immediately got rained on.
(yes, they are my undies)



The halfway roadhouse, just a burnt out shell now, no petrol to be had here any more.




I didn't take any photos through the Putty so here's a boring little blurb from Wikipedia

“Putty Road is a New South Wales country road linking Windsor, on the fringes of Sydney, to Singleton. It is designated as State Route 69 and is about 150 kilometres long. It is the northern end of State Route 69, connecting with Metroad 9 in Windsor and New England Highway in Singleton. It links the Sydney's West to the Hunter Valley with its famous vineyards.
The Putty Road is very historic, closely following the Bulga Road (named after the Bulga Creek), first explored by John Howe, Chief Constable of Windsor, being the first road to link Sydney to the Hunter Valley. It was opened in 1823 and was initially a popular cattle-rustling route.
Today, the road is fully sealed and passes through Colo and the Wollemi National Park (where the rare Wollemi Pine can be found). This road is narrow and winding in places and very scenic. It can be hazardous during wet weather. The Putty Road enters the Hunter Valley at the northern end of the Howes Creek gorge. The road is very popular with tourists, motorcyclists and cyclists.”

On a fine and sunny day it would indeed be an excellent ride, but today was neither fine nor sunny, it was wet and cold and I took it very carefully. It seemed to me that every third corner I went around was marked with a white cross or a shrine of some sort, sobering evidence of the “toofast boys” who have ended their short lives on the armco or a rock wall.
I've never understood the need for speed, get no sense of satisfaction scraping the pegs or improving my “technique”. Frankly that stuff frightens me. I think I'll just stick to plodding along and enjoying the view.

Ock will probably recognize this old girl, it's somewhere around Windsor. Anyone care to identify it for me? It looks like an escapee from the “Cars” movie.




From the end of the Putty road at Windsor and through Bowral I was heading for Kangaroo Valley, I could have gone more directly to get to Nowra but I had plenty of time thanks to todays early start and I had no intention of going any closer to Sydney than this.




I've no idea where this is, I was a bit lost, but my gps seems to know the sort of country I like.




I was sitting having a very yummy pie and a mug of my favorite brew for lunch at Hampden Bakery thinking about all the hairpin bends I had just come through from the top of the range down into Kangaroo Valley. What could be better than that?... Hmm, well I reckon going up would be better, so I finished my lunch and did just that. Back to the top, turned around and came back down again. Hey, I'm on holidays, I can do stuff like that.

Hampden Bridge.




This, times around 30.




Nowra is down there somewhere.




From there I made my way down to Nowra and pulled into Rod's driveway a few minutes before he did. Haven't seen him since we met a Urungra last year and was great to catch up over a pizza. We talked late into the night on trips, photos and the meaning of life.

Sorry mate, bad photo but it's the only one I got.



http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?hl...3,5.817261&z=8



Off tomorrow to meet Mustang at Wee Jasper.

Thanks for taking the time to read,
Cheers,
Pete.

Hi Pete, like the RR cant wait for each issue
I think this is the same as your truck pic
http://images116.fotki.com/v711/phot...ope0010-vi.jpg
INTERNATIONAL ASC 182 An International ASC182 Inter - only 1 of a very small number sold in Australia

Hey Chops, yep, that looks like the one.
Wow, what a great resto job, makes me want to go back and pick up the water tanker. Shame to see it rusting away in a paddock.

Thanks,
Pete.

DAY 5 NOWRA TO WEE JASPER 362 KLMS


Another early morning! I'm supposed to be on holidays you know..

Rod has a 7am start so we were up at 5:15, (yes, in the morning....) I'd just like to point out that in the real world (Queensland) this is actually 4:15, virtually the middle of the night, so I could probably be excused for being a bit sleepy.


Still, how else do you get sunrise shots like this?




This is my fifth day on the road and I wondered what interesting thing would happen today. I didn't have long to wait to find out.
I remember thinking yesterday afternoon that Suzy felt a bit “doughy” in the handling at some points, and when I pulled her out of Rod's garage this morning I noticed she was a bit hard to push. With those two things together warning bells should have rung right then, but I was feeling a bit seedy this morning and chose to ignore it.
Loaded up, said our goodbyes and off I rode. Ten klms out of town and starting to wake up a bit, I realized I had no hope of reaching Braidwood without petrol(!), so I did a u-turn, and nearly dropped it. Ok, something's definitely wrong here. When I got back to the servo to fuel up and oil the chain I found out why.


Flat tyre.




What to do?, Mustang would be waiting for me at Wee Jasper this afternoon and it was a long way from here, I needed to be there and really didn't want to get involved in fixing or finding new tyres at this point. With 20/20 hindsight I realised it was sometime yesterday it started handling not so well, I've been riding this thing with no more than atmospheric pressure in it for a long way. I'm amazed the tyre didn't come off the wheel!
I've got a compressor and a puncture kit on board so I knew I would not be stuck in the woops. I decided I would leave the nail in there, air it up to 38 and see how it goes, maybe I can get to Canberra and fix it there.
So I kept my eye on it. By lunchtime it was 33 and by Yass it was down to 28, so it's a pretty slow leak, not too much of a problem.

From Nowra I went through to Braidwood. It is a dotted line on my map but it's all sealed apart fot the last twenty klms or so. From the coast to Canberra the altitude gradually climbs and it grows corrospondingly colder. I stopped for a cuppa and the liners went back in the jacket.




Couldn't get much of a shot here but there is a small waterfall in there.




as you get higher the sky gets a deeper blue and the air cools down.







This is Captains Flat. A quiet town, but it kind of reminds me of a sort of wild west frontier town. I wouldn't have been too surprised to see Lee Marvin being thrown out of the saloon doors. Well, I would have been a bit surprised, seeing he's been dead these many years.




It does have an interesting history, Captains Flat, New South Wales - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The hills are scarred with the evidence of past copper mining endeavours.









This old railway bridge would have carried many a ton of copper ore.







After that a tar run skirting around Canberra, you may have worked out by now I have an aversion to big towns.
Yass for afternoon tea and a refuel,there's no fuel in Wee Jasper.

A little incident here which had me laughing for the rest of the afternoon.

I'd ordered my smoko at the counter in the bakery and went outside to find a table in the sunshine.
The young twenty-something waitress brings my brings my meal out and sees my helmet and jacket on the chair.
Her eyes light up, "Ooh, do you ride a bike? I love bikes"
I says "yeah", and half-jokingly "I'll take you for a ride if you want".
She surprised me with "sure, that'd be great, where is it?"
"that's my bike across the street there",
She looks over and her face just fell, "Oh, um, no, nevermind.... I thought you had a Harley, I'd go for a ride if you had a Harley".

Strike up another point for the fat hairy brigade, what is with young girls and Harleys?
On second thoughts, don't answer that.




A great run down through here, and my first taste of the sort of country I would be riding in the high country over the next few days.

Here comes Mustang.




Camping at Wee Jasper.







A lovely spot, but no food, petrol or beer. You've got to be self-sufficient. Mustang (Trev) is a local where I come from and one of my ride mates. He has made his own way down here, it was good fun to meet up so far from home.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?hl...39,2.90863&z=9



Tomorrow we will ride together to Bright.

Cheers,
Pete.

If I had a week off I would do it again right now Pete. The feature to my run down to Wee Jasper where we met, was Bylong Valley Way - a must do. Captains Flat area looks great, and the Kangaroo Valley climb, well I remember that run from 20 years ago and can see why you did it twice. A nice relaxing read, good to see....Cheers

__________________
'07 DL650
('94 XT600, '85 XL500S, CR125 all gone)
(pre bike days - '65 & '67 289 Ford Mustang coupe's)

DAY 6 WEE JASPER TO BRIGHT 360 KLMS

What a relaxing evening we had with a great little campsite right on the edge of the river. The sound of the water running over the rocks, a million stars overhead and a small fire, camping is always better with fire.
And stars, can't help but think when I'm in places like this how most of us sit indoors in front of the electronic gizmo and miss the real show every night. Slowly but surely technology etches at our souls and robs us of the important things in life.
The alarm clock this morning, starting in the pre-dawn was hundreds of cockatoos screeching and calling to each other at full volume, showing absolutely no consideration at all for a couple of tired riders trying to get a bit of a lie in. Once they were sure we were up and about they were satisfied that their job was done and they moved on up the valley. Maybe they knew we had a long way to go today and wanted to make sure we got an early start.



The road out of Wee Jasper is fairly rough with corrogations and some erosion trenching, but we took it easy and after around 30 klms it improved to well formed gravel and later onto the bitumen as we got closer to Tumut.


Mustang on the move




Running up out of Wee Jasper




Good roads, great scenery





Wee break...





I had pumped up the rear tyre again before we left camp, it had gone completely flat overnight. It is leaking a bit faster today, from 40 down to 20 in around two hours. Tomorrow is a rest day so I'll fix it then.

Batlow, where the apples come from




Fairly uneventful run down to Tallangatta where we had lunch. Highly recommend the bakery here, excellent tucker. Fuel and air and onto the last leg for today, down the Kiewa Valley and over Tarwonga Gap to Bright.

Somewhere near Jingellic






Mt Bogong





Just love this country down here, everywhere you turn your head there's another photo. All of this area from Tumut rght through to Bright is very scenic, the little township of Mt Beauty is overlooked by Mt Bogong, the highest Mountain in Victoria. This would be a lovely spot to see in the winter when it is all covered in snow. Maybe that is another trip, in the campervan though.

Mt Beauty from Tarwonga Gap



Arrived at Bright in the mid-afternoon and set up camp at the caravan park, as it turns out right next to Mark and Fran, who had made the journey down from Queensland two-up.

Home for the next couple of days



Having never been to this area before I listened to many people tell me it could turn cold and even snow at any time of the year, but the weather was behaving itself admirably and it was a fine warm afternoon.
After a bit of a rest and a clean-up we all wandered down to the park for a barbeque and a few beers with the other Friday arrivals.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?hl...7,5.817261&z=8



If you have any pics to add in here Trevor, feel free to do so.

Cheers
Pete.

DAY 7 REST DAY 0 KLMS

Today is a rest day and the official Stromtroopers get-together dinner is on tonight at the pub. I won't post any pictures of that because 1, it's been well recorded already, and 2, because I forgot to take my camera.

The Rockabilly festival is in full swing in the centre of town. Sitting here right now under a tree next to my tent, I can hear the music thumping away in the distance.
What a great coincidence to have our meeting on the same weekend as this festival, loads of entertainment going on and great old hotrods and such. rock and roll dancing and Brylcreem and hoop skirts, it's like a small version of Wintersun.

Seeing as I'm not moving today I don't have much to report, so I'll just add some pics from my wanderings around the town.


Some of the guys went for a Saturday loop, I decided I needed the rest more.




Buncha bad guys







DKW. It goes. The owner fired it up a couple of times.














































Oh, and this...fixed.



A great day, perfect weather and lots to do, I'm gunna sleep well tonight.
The dinner went off without a hitch,always good to catch up with other Strommers. Lots of good things I could say about it, but it's all been said. I'll leave it at that.

EDiT: One thing worth mentioning. Each year at the dinner we present a "Hard Luck Award", a perennial trophy which is passed on to whoever has had a worthy mishap (hopefully not too serious of course) on the way to the get-together. This year it went to the absent Cooldollar who, halfway to Bright, had to return to Adelaide when Mrs Cooldollar had a minor off from her CB400 and hurt her knee. In their absence I volunteered to deliver the trophy to them. Up until that point I hadn't decided whether I would go to South Australia on this trip. Well, it's decided now.
Cheers,
Pete.

... to all who are reading and to those who have replied to my thread.

Please don't take this as attention seeking, but I love getting lots of feedback, writing does not come easy to me and it helps to know somebody is reading it. Please let me know if you're enjoying my journey or, let me know if it's boring you to tears . And let me know how I could make it better. I'm new at this writing caper and I'm open to any suggestions to make it more enjoyable. Send me a PM if you'd prefer.
Should I drop the chatter and just continue with pure photos maybe?
I know it is not compulsory, but I do enjoy getting the feedback. It's what makes continuing RR's continue.

After all, I've already been there.

Pete.