46. Balmoral Beach

Work's been pretty busy lately so there was no big ride planned for the weekend. For a change, the weather was also fantastic which warranted a ride to somewhere with some sand and water! 

Here's the view at Balmoral - a short 15km ride from home!

Lunch was at the Bather's Pavilion. The view was great and food was DELICIOUS! 

45. A last minute 1,000km Overnighter

Route: Sydney - Jindabyne - Cathcart - Tantawangalo State Forest - Bega - Ulladalla - Sydney
Distance: 1,065km
Google Map: Click here

Totally unrelated... Saturday morning before the unplanned last minute ride, John (my Mr who's still learning to ride) took me to breakfast at Bills - Surry Hills! Those corn fritters with scrambled eggs and avocado on the side was soooo yummy! And so was the hot chocolate! Definitely worth a try!

And back to business... late morning, T and I both agreed to do an overnighter down in the Snowies. The plan was to clock 1,000km over the weekend.  

12pm - we caught up to change my front brakes. We both thought there was none left but really, it was just rusting like mad and needed a good clean! And because of that, I'm now a proud new owner of a Stanley socket set!!

After some very horrible Sydney traffic, we finally arrived late at Jindabyne. After speaking with the local police officer, we decided not to ride into Thredbo in the dark. There was a fatality earlier this year involving a man and a deer. Last week, he hit one which was as tall as the bonnet of his 4 wheel drive.

Interesting fact: those 4 legged creatures are usually out and about until around 8am in the morning.

After assessing the limited accomodation, we ended up in the Lake Jindabyne motel. It was cheap and clean at $95 per room. Parking was out the front door with the back facing the lake.

Sunday morning, after breakfast, we headed off to Bega. The route we took was via the Snowy Mountains and Tantawangalo state forest. It was mostly dirt heading (with some steep descent) into Bega but a well worth trip! 

In Bega, we headed to the Bega cheese factory for a quick visit and lunch. Boy! Can you smell that cheese from afar! Lunch there was fantastic though! Best steak sandwich I've had... tender and cooked to perfection. All for $10.00!!

We also bought ourselves a little souvenir each - the cutest little cow with magnetic legs. Mine didn't survive past the first 10kms and decide she wanted to return to the wild. T seeing my disappointment, turned us around to find my cow but to no avail. T reluctantly gave his up. 

After that, it was an express trip back home to Sydney with some nice sweepers just after Bega along the Princes Highway and again from Jervis Bay. 

44. And A Little Bit More Dirt

Route: Sydney - Lower Portland - St Albans - Bucketty - Wollombi - Murrays Run Road - The Entrance - Old Pacific Highway - Sydney
Distance: ~380km
Google Map: Click here

Woke up Saturday morning... looked out the window and was greeted by a somewhat cloudy day. As we headed towards Lower Portland, the weather grew more and more sinister... however it wasn't pouring hard enough to ditch dirt for tar!

First dirt destination, Lower Portland to Webbs Creek. The best parts were the several hairpin corners! Great fun! View at the start was amazing too!!

We were soon overtaken by a guy on a yamaha dirt bike whom we later caught up to at the Wiseman's Ferry coffee shop. Had a bit of a chat with him and his mate on the KTM about some of the other fun roads to go exploring on.

After a hearty brekky of sausage and bacon, we continued along to St Albans.

And were presented with some awesome looking cows. I haven't quite seen this pattern before! A white patch in the middle of its body.

As we made our way towards Bucketty on this second section of dirt... the weather got even worst!

But as the weather got worst... the dirt got more fun!

And so did the rest of the day.

The first section of dirt along Murrays Run Road was fairly patchy with a little bit of tar and a little bit of light dirt. I did however get chased by a dog so I rode the bike as fast as I possibly could... I thought it might try to pounce on me... =( It was really quite scary!!

As we continued along, we hit the best part of dirt along Bush Creek Road! It was set in a rainforest with little creeks running perpendicular to the road! It was amazing! The terrain was however quite rough and treacherous with some very slippery section which I suspect was clay... Unfortunately there's no photo here. We were having way too much fun!! =)

We eventually popped out at Yarramalong... where T saw and eagle which decided to take off as I rode by... SPECTACULAR!

T was also electrocuted by fences that were meant to keep the cows in... or perhaps the humans out?

The day ended at The Entrance for lunch and before we knew it, it was time to head back home! And of course, we went via the old pacific highway...  

and stopped at ... 

And after such a brilliant day... it was time to give our bikes some TLC...