Ride Report: Bethanga, Melbourne, Barry Way and Talbingo

[Sibbo]

How'd you cut the wood? I'm picturing a pulley system around the rear wheel attached to an ol' chainsaw. Run the bike to 6Krpm in first, whilst on the centre stand....bingo, neatly cut firewood. Don't disappoint me now!
]

Nah , nothing so complicated , just the standard 2 part BMW sawblade in place of the back wheel ..the feed system is tricky though

[Max Headroom]

Strewth, it's taking you two longer to tell the story than it took you to take the trip!!!

[ontic]

Thanks fellas,

We are getting there slowly Max... slowly

Firewood, of course, this was cut by Charlie with his Swiss army knife wood saw amazing little gadget that! The real story is a little bit cheekier...

Now, what first...
the unladen runs down the Barry Way were always great fun as Charlie said. Sliding the rear out of corners a bit, and trying not to slide the front into corners, while just enjoying being able to throw the bike around a bit was what I was focussed on.
After setting up at Pinch River, the ride down to McKillops bridge was indeed a bit scary to me. A fair few moments of vertigo. Pictures just don't do it justice.


At McKillops bridge, I think I saw a very big trout surface in the Snowy while I was fishing, but alas that was as far as it got. All I managed to do was loose a very nice Tassy Devil lure. I did find a ladys gold plated wrist watch on a beachy section, which has ended up somewhere in Dave of Seldom Seen's junk collection. With magpie eyes he gladly accepted the item and was already scratching his head and pondering the possibilities of some sort of shallow grave mystery behind the object.

this was the day that I took this photo- probably my favourite of the trip so I will post it again


The big Roo incident was interesting- I think Charlie got a bigger adrenaline shock than I did. Not much I could do except slow down and make eye contact with the big boy as he jumped off the upper bank and landed just in front to the right of me. Very calm and collected he seemed as I (frozen) passed and I could only hope he wasn't going to do anything silly. He didn't. That was a good excuse to pull off the road up a side track for little smoko and recollection of our selves at a spot now becoming familiar.
This photo is of the first time we stopped there- it was dusk this second time.


So, we had another of those agreements that now was again the time to 'take it slow'.
We'd be arriving back at camp after dark so we might as well get there with bike and body intact.
An odd thing it is 'taking it slow'. Just how slow is slow enough? Fresh in my memory was that Video posted here on boxerworks a while ago with (can't remember who it was on the RS?) the Kangaroo crash. If something was to bolt out of the dark bush straight into the front wheel like that, then there would be little one could do.
Oh well, it was just about reducing risks- not eliminating them. Slow enough to keep ones eyes peeled. And there were plenty of animals to keep them peeled for.
On these occasions doing the Barry Way in the dark I think it was mostly me in front because my headlight is a bit brighter than Charlies. Boy, was this favour repaid later in the story on the snowy white road night-run to Talbingo! I was very glad to be following then.

Now, back to food.
Shopping in Jindy we (or I) was on the hunt for another great steak. However, the overpriced pickings were slim at the supermarket, and with the justification of 'well, we are camping after all' we got a tray of snags (sausages) that turned out to be most excellent. First dinner at pinch river was suasages and fire roasted Dutch Cream potatoes, with the necessary too much butter. Second nights dinner was another round of the Chick Pea stew- time again to keep mum happy, with some brocolli and a side of butternut pumpkin stewed to perfection in... too much butter

Time to deal with the Chick Pea Stew.
Usually I use red kidney beans, or a mix of many different beans. It is a camping favourite of mine. I've done it at the hut last time I was there, and also a memorable one when camping in a big convoy of friends at Cradle Mountain in Tassy.
The beans, of whatever sort used, have to be dried. Then soaked for a full 24 hours.
Once soaked, they can be par cooked over the fire in water, with a few additions- bay leaf, whole dried chili, whole or half chunks of garlic, a few slabs of ginger, and an onion halved.
Next step is to add the real flavour. Lots of spices- whole cinnamon, whole nutmeg with the mace- smashed, whole star anise, whole green and brown cardamon, mustard seed, a few cloves, sweet paprika and a pinch of Garam Masala. Salt and pepper of course, and a very very generous pour of olive oil. More ginger slabs, more rough cut onion and garlic. Fry up this 'masala' till the onion is translucent and starting to caramelise, and then dump the lot, with some canned tomato or tomato paste, into the already par-cooked beans. The secret ingredient is a big heap of whole non-pitted olives.
Stew this whole lot up for another day or so, adding salt to taste, a shake of brown sugar, maybe some sour (from lemons, vinegar, etc) maybe a splash of wine and probably another pour of olive oil, or two.
Then it is done, and just gets better and better.
The first round we had back at the hut was just this. No meat, but the olives become 'the treats' you go after. I think there was also a round of this with some mozzarella cheese in it. The next round we seperated a generous ration of the original stew to save for later, and then added in the left over slow roasted pork in nice big cubes with some Dutch Cream potatoes. That was a good round.
After that with the remaining remainder we had the vegetarian round again- brocolli added, with the buttery butternut pumpkin on the side.
Which brings us back to Pinch River.

Arriving in the dark was when I gathered the big load of logs as Charlie got the fire going again with some smaller gathered wood.

Most of these logs were soon piled on and we had a roaring great fire.
Very good we were, so the amber rewards for good boys were flowing freely.

Then my bloody camping chair broke. It had lasted all of a week. Snapped through the metal right at a crucial riveted hinge. I spent the next hour or two jigging the thing up with rocks and sticks, and trying to trying to get comfortable before another pole would give out and snap.
Charlie knew it was a lost cause, and said as much on a few occasions.
"Charlie, I would kindly ask you to stop mentioning the bloody chair" as I continued on with my elaborate and futile efforts.
I meant to get a photo of the sad results of this thing, but I forgot. There were a few propping sticks and stones to hold the front left side up, a large flat rock under my but, and a very strong thick stick on an angle dug into the ground that propped the whole thing up from the rear left shoulder and would conveniently slide down from the shoulder to poke me in the kidney every time I leaned forward to do something.
Lots of fun.

The next morning Charlie was uncommonly having a little sleep in, and I was up, so I headed out early to wander up the Pinch River for another fish. You know, the usual, finding bog holes to sink my boots into and blackberry patches to fall into.
Arriving back to camp unsuccessful again, with a few new blackberry scratches, breakfast restored my enthusiasm and while Charlie probably did a nice bit of reading and then packing, I headed off to try my luck in the Snowy river again.

another repost- I scambled through the bushes and fished all along this stretch. Again, entirely unsuccessfully.

But it was a nice day and I enjoyed a bit of sun by the flowing water and caught myself whistling happily. A good sign that I am feeling that relaxed and mindless feeling that only camping and adventuring can give me.

Back to camp and it was time to pack up for the run back to the farm.



more to come.

[Sunbeem]

Excellent reading you two, many thanks for the inspiration.

It may be a year or so before I can take the RS to the Sierra Nevada, and a new home, but the landscape is very similar, though there are very few kangaroos, and the tarmac is really good.
I won't let Gertrud see the pic of the logs, she would go quiet on me.

I had trouble with my bars at first, Ontic - the PO had fitted K bars, which I'm sure would have been my choice too.
I did my usual thing of sitting on the bike and putting my hands forward to where they felt right, and the grips were angled perfectly, but an inch or so too low, and too far forward.
I made up simple brackets (which I've still to paint...) to get the bars where they needed to be.
The damper had to go, but it didn't work anyway ...
The grips were not right either.
When I make doorhandles, I tell the client "When you get hold of this, you're getting hold of your house ... so how do you want it to feel ?"
That was the spirit in which I approached the grips.
I wrapped strips of soft leather around them, overlapping them slightly to create ridges and furrows that fit my fingers, and as well as being more comfortable, there's extra leverage on the twist grip.

Hope you get yours sorted.

Sunbeem.

[ontic]

Aside from different bars I have considered finding or making up some extended bar risers. My feeling is that they need to be higher and possibly wider with the grips more flat to each other relatively

Something like this?
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Handle-bar-riser ... 2c5778afac

Thanks Steve,
I've got them on watch now, and if they stay cheap I might just give them a try.

Sunbeam,
Thanks for that post. When I go to Ross' place I'll make sure to check out the K bars he has (if he has any).
I love your description of 'getting hold of your house'... I am going to have to get creative with this solution I think. I really like the sound of your leather wrapped grips. Did you just wrap leather around the bars and throttle sleeve thing or have you wrapped the leather over the rubber grips? I am thinking that a fatter grip is going to suit my large hands better- plus like you say, more purhchase on the throttle can only be a good thing for my not-so-smooth (notchy) throttle action.
Got any photos of your leather grips?


I've taken a related strategy with my car (BJ42),
bought a nice wooden steering wheel (because it would have been too hard for me to make)
turned up a nice timber boss for the wheel



and a couple of nice knobs for the shifter (I've gone with the one on the right- a nice old fruit wood of some sort- smooth as silk)


I love it.

For the bike I need to do a tiny bit of fiddling with footpeg and shifter positions just to see if it is at the best position it could be, and I am entirely happy with both my double and single seat, but I am miles from where I want to be with everything on the bars. My hands hurt everytime I even think of riding at the moment.

[Sibbo]

Hey hans ! That chick pea recipe was great , I'll have to try it .We eat a lot of chick peas , but mainly curried ,good stuff . A pity there's no room aboard for a little 4 litre pressure cooker ...the best hing yet for chick peas and all dry beans .

A great read !

[ontic]

Cheers Peter,
let me know what you think if you give it a try. I'll happily add a few more details such as spice ratios by email or something if you want. It can of course be altered greatly. The spice mix, and keeping as many of them as possible whole, is pretty central for me. As is a fair bit of ginger. For me, the olives are also essential. With the whole spices there are always a few things to spit out into the fire- but the flavour is so much better that way IMO. I like things hot, but many don't, so I use good whole dried chilies. They impart a bit of flavour and small amount of heat, more heat if you want to actually chew them, and sit like deadly UXO's in the brew for the chiliphobic

and yeah, a little pressure cooker would be great. I am sure Charlie should be able to fit one somewhere... maybe hanging off the other side from the billy?

[Sibbo]

This is the one I want for a boat Hans , it would be good on a bike too .

http://www.pressurecooker.com.au/go-68/ ... ure_cooker

[Airbear]

Ah, the snags. Yes indeed – just plain beef sausages they were, but of excellent quality; the sort that are hard to find these days and cooked to perfection with the spuds. I’m having flashbacks about that meal by the Pinch. Mmm! If I recall correctly, we had been very good, too.

Thanks for the bean stew recipe, Hans. Duly recorded.

I’m liking the sound of soft leather handgrips too. With so many gear changes per kilometre on these dirt roads, the hands really take a beating.

Back to the Pinch River. This was Thursday, and we were due to be in Talbingo the following afternoon. We had to get back to the hut for another night, tidy up, pack and hit the road. Should be plenty of time – Jindabyne to Talbingo is only 200kms – we might even get there for lunch, we thought.

So we said a fond farewell to the Pinch campsite – we’ll be back one day – and headed up the Barry Way again. It is now a very familiar road. We are on nodding acquaintance with some of the wallabies by this stage and know which corners are the tricky ones. We get back in on the muddy track without mishap (always a pleasant surprise). More sausages and spuds I think (?) and of course, we had been so good that we deserved to drink the rest of the beer and drain the last of the scotch.

After a good night’s sleep we started to clean up the hut, stock up on firewood for the next guests and pack our mountain of gear. O, and there were showers. We forgot to mention the bathing facilities. Here is a pic of the bathroom.



The water supply consisted of a 1000 litre tank outside, collecting rainwater. This had to be carried inside in buckets and heated in a pot suspended over the fire. There was a portable camp shower that could be filled and hung from a hook in the ceiling over the bath. We had done this only once about a week before (yeah, ok. It was cold, and we didn’t smell that much). Showering this way was not very satisfying. The camp shower was not big, and the trickle of warm water was barely enough to do a decent wash. Hans hit on the idea of filling a big Esky (insulated cooler) with hot water so the shower could be replenished quickly a number of times – sufficient to have a proper soak, soap and rinse. This worked very well, and our second shower in two weeks was a lot more satisfying than the first.

Anyway, there we were, shiny and clean and getting packed. The sun had been out all morning but now there were dark clouds gathering. We could see rain coming across the valley. A rainsquall hit at about 10:30 so we covered the bikes and sat it out by the fire. We had about an inch of rain in an hour (quite a worry considering the state of the track). Then flurries of snow began to fall. Beautiful. Hans had been looking forward to snow – it had snowed every time he visited here in the past.



The snow didn’t last for long. The sun appeared and we continued packing the bikes. We said goodbye and thanked the hut for its good work in keeping us dry and warm and headed out. The track was really slippery – the kind of mud that instantly fills up the tyre tread and it made for some very hairy slipping and sliding. Good for the adrenalin rushes but damned scary with all the gear on the bikes. We got out with only one tipover, but both sweating.

Back into Jindabyne for supplies. More snags and spuds, chocolate rations, another bottle of scotch (we had been so good). Hans dumped his fekkin’ chair and bought a tripod stool. With the Ladies full of juice we pushed on towards Talbingo. It was already mid afternoon and we had a couple of hundred kms to go. The weather forecast was “Windy, scattered showers, snow down to 1200 metres.”

We soon encountered the scattered showers, then some torrential rain. The wind was very strong (and biting cold) and we were being blown all over the road. We had to stop a few times to fondle jugs to warm the hands.

We pulled into Adaminaby and headed straight for the takeaway to order Burgers with the Lot. I’ve been here a few times before and knew about these burgers. The shop is ‘motorcycle friendly’ and the hospitality is legendary. The burgers are so big that they are served in two halves on a plate with knife and fork. The coffee is very good too. Highly recommended. Sadly no picture.

With full bellies we pushed on. In Adaminaby we had seen cars returning from the direction we were headed, and they had a lot of snow on them. Hmm. It was getting dark at this stage and there was light drizzle falling. Pretty soon we were above the snowline and needed to fondle jugs more frequently. (thanks, BMW, for the nice hot jugs). The Ladies were purring nicely – they seem to really like the cold crisp air.



Soon we were up above 1300m, and it started to sleet as night fell. Then we were at 1400m and it started to snow. At least the wind had died and we pushed on. Everything was white – the road, my visor, my spectacles when I lifted the visor. I eventually had to remove my specs and go bare eyed, blinking out the snow but still able to see a bit. I was surprised at how well the tyres gripped – I have only ridden in the snow once before. We simply stayed between the orange road markers and tried to keep as upright as possible.

I guess it snowed for about an hour until we started to drop in elevation after Kiandra. With a black road in front of us again it was easy to just purr along. Seeing the lights of Talbingo below us was very heartening.

We pulled into the Jounama Creek campsite to find a roaring fire and a happy bunch of inebriated Boxerworks blokes. We flicked the new cap off the bottle of scotch (as the Scots are fond of saying, “We’ll no’ be needin’ that again.”)
To be continued …

[ontic]

Good telling Charlie,

I'll only add a couple of things.
Dinner the last night of the hut had me scratching my head too...
then I remembered the tortilla a la española. Dutch creams, lots of onion, the remaining bacon, the remaining olives (pitted this time), some thyme and other seasonings, slowly fried in a lot of olive oil, then with the egg addition a good heap of the mozerella cheese. Actually one of my favourite meals. Last morsel of it I think we finished at Talbingo.

Snow as we were trying to leave was great... just not the best timing.

either way it was the rain that was the biggest problem, it had dropped the heaviest on this day during our whole time there I believe (puddles forming to the right)


The ride to Talbingo- cold cold hands. Everything else I was fine with. The BMW system of a waterproof liner on the inside that my gear has is not exactly optimised for riding through heavy rain, sleet, gales and snow, but it did its job, my body was warm and dry even if the outside of me was dripping. My bmw goretex gloves even kept my hands dry I think, but I couldn't really tell because I couldn't feel them.
Adaminaby burger and coffee was a lifesaver.
And then we went over the top. Interesting riding on a white road, and I think we got pretty lucky with the timing. There were cars that had been not far ahead of us, but there were no tracks visable on the road. The snow was coming down reasonably quickly. Another hour of snow building up on the road like that probably would have felt a lot different.

Anyway, we got there. Sitting around the fire, my gear steaming, completely exhausted and a bit delirious I got to begin to meet some of the boxerworks turnout. As Charlie said, there was no need for the lid to the new bottle of scotch. The bottle didn't last long.
I set up my tent, in a deep squelchy mud patch, and cooked up something horrid (chicken sausages). Stayed up reasonably late and felt it all in the morning.

The Saturday was a good day for me, and entirely different than what most of the other guys including Charlie did.
I had a bike free day. After moving my tent and drying out my gear I lazed around in the tent doing some reading and enjoying the view

and tried to bother some fish again. This time I spent hours doing it, catching only a lot of sun and relaxation, again. I tried every trick in my bag including a lot of nice juicy earthworms.
A slow stroll back to camp collecting firewood, got our local fire going to heat some water, and hung out with Bob for a while who was back from his run to town.
I was knackered. I had reached the point where I was ready to go home. As it turned out, in a little over 24 hours I actually would be home, but we had another great night of drinking and campfires and another day of great riding, and then lone night of slab riding, before that would happen.