Surf 'n Turf picture book

[glitch]

Back from a good week along the Victorian + NSW South Coast with a bit of the "hills" for the way home.

Things turned pear-shaped a few days before the planned start with Goodie "doing her back" again, this time in a biggish fashion.
With extremely limited mobility, trying to crawl up and down the ladder, in and out of the tiny camper was out... so it looked like moping around home for those 9 days marked in the calendar.

"Even if we only get to Mirboo and have to grab a motel room....we'll GO!"
Thaddagirl!
Throw in a pile of sofa-cushions to pad out the semi-flattened passenger seat and let's see how things finish up.
No real plans, no bookings, but using the space of a cage, the lappy came along for some nightly planning and and catching up on some daily background info.


Briagolong signwriters....after a hard night at the pub?

Note #1: The old steel-girder/ timber deck Iguana Creek bridge across the Mitchell River is no longer.... replaced with a drab concrete affair waiting for some enlivening graffiti.
The last one I know off who dumped it on that treacherous old thing was Teflon-Rog (wrote off the bike, too, from memory)

Note #2: Beverley Rd. out of Stockdale has had a major update and widening....just don't get sucked in: THAT ONE DROP/DIP into a medium sized gully with a short concrete bridge on the bottom is still as rough and forkseal-popping as ever! Hit the bottom too quick and you'll be chewing your kneecaps.





Happy to recommend the Nicholson River Caravan Park for an overnighter.....some nice, short walks, a small marina, pub + shop next door, and the 4 brandnew cabins are real nice, superclean, space-age bathroom, well set up.

OH yeah....and some family gathering with lots of squawks , quibbles and wing-flapping.











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....NOT to be confused with the old Nowa Nowa Caravan Park of yesteryear.
Not that the later one looks-nor-smells much better with its desolate, muddy, tidal lagoon "beach".

Sad to see the place so run down from what it used to be as a key timber-town with one of those huge Gippsland sawmills, a big timbershop, some artists and carvers, furniture makers ....

Even the pub/ motel closed a while ago going by the size of the carpark-weeds.




Part of the East Gippsland Rail Trail (still in the making in spots) , the old Wairewa trestle bridge (just east of Nowa Nowa) https://tinyurl.com/22sou7an










Newmerella barely exists, a primary school and a truckstop.....I saw the small sign to "Grandview Lookout" at the last second just as the hwy drops into the Snowy River plains at Orbost.

102 Grandview Rd to 100 Grandview Rd

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What a well-tucked-away picnic spot, tables, benches and all.
View into the Snowy River plains and the long, old railway trestle and hwy bridge leading into Orbost.

The old rail trestle is about 10% restored as a railtrail (far end of the pic) at this stage.

 

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Shooting past Orbost to backtrack via Cape Conran to Marlo and Orbost again....50km kilometers of totally deserted beaches. Not even an overseas tourist couple in a bombed-out JUCY van.

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...and right in the middle of Arsehole-East along the coastal road, there's a king-sized brewery.
Not your whilly_nhilly garage or dingy factory in some industrial estate, naw, the real McCoy.

Dunetown · 85 Marlo Plains Rd, Marlo VIC 3888, Australia

★★★★★ · Brewery

tinyurl.com

Note#1: The old River Bakery at the top Orbost Roundabout is a pitiful ghost of its former glory.
Go somewhere else. (not that it's much better, but at least somewhat friendlier) https://tinyurl.com/23g639nx

Note#2: The now fully sealed Bonang Hwy is even a worthwhile run in a 4-wheeler.
Found "Gunther's Corner" for a minute's silence on the demise of the only ever Australian metallic grey VStrom 1000 (and rebirth as the original WTF about 8 mths later).

Note#3 : Bombala is still the same old shithole it always was.

Note# 3.1: The Snowy River Way from Bibbenluke to Dalgety is sheer bliss, even in a cage.

Note#4 : BOOK EARLIER in the day to avoid finishing up in a Berridale broom-cupboard named Cottonwood Lodge at the highest $rate of the whole week https://tinyurl.com/2722cmvg

Note#5: Berridale Pub food. Where's a Maccas when you really need one?

Note#6: It'll all be good in the morning!

 

[glitch]

The tiny, single lane band of asphalt up the dry, brown paddocks was just too tempting.... and the quiet generously sized Berridale/ Monaro cemetery near the top turned out a bit of a surprise.

Incredible views across the Monaro and Snowy Plains.















Another small, sealed road pointed up a hill just outside Cooma https://tinyurl.com/298xnw8c
Miss Heidi's Tea House was still closed, but the views across Cooma were worth the 30mins of poking around the top of what's the Mount Gladstone MTB Park nowadays, if pretty hazy.





Grabbed some lunch-rolls at a bakery in Cooma for one of the main targets of the trip checking out the Badja/ Cooma Rd. into Braidwood and the Nerriga Road extension towards Nowra.
It's been on the wish-list for decades, but it somehow never came good.
Farmland on both ends and around Braidwood, the main stretches are National and State Parks following the lower slopes of the Great Divide.
Incl. ~45km of good gravel mainly between Numeralla and Braidwood.








Historic Gundillion Church....





Maybe it was a woolshed or pub before.....or they just forgot the bell in the first place






Heard a little crack 'n pop nearby while having lunch.
Looks like a sap-pocket burst in the midday sun under the bark of the close-by snow gum





Tianjara Falls about halfway between Nerriga and Nowra.
Should be speccy when the water levels are up.





Just a little further north.
Hazy views across the lakes and lagoons of Jervis Bay from the Jerrawangala Lookout, the dirt road in was a bit sketchy for 2WD in a few spots.







Finished up in the "Purple" one at the Sussex Inlet CP, run by a young couple that had just taken over the place as managers a couple of days earlier and needed some help finding the keys





Note#1 : The local Sussex Inlet RSL is HUGE, the outside decks overlook the water, the food is a couple of grades above, and the pints are still $-reasonable.
Ohhh....and every night is Bingo-night!

 

[Williamson]

Note#1: The old River Bakery at the top Orbost Roundabout is a pitiful ghost of its former glory.
Go somewhere else. (not that it's much better, but at least somewhat friendlier) https://tinyurl.com/23g639nx

Last visit to that bakery was in 2017 on the way home from SEQ with Sidecar Wags, it was somewhat bitter sweet. Sweet - I recall the coffee, pie and service being okay. Bitter - leaning back, scoffing our pies, I spied this.



Sprinting up and down Macquarie Pass, Brown Mountain and the Monaro Highway had a penalty.

Marshall's Commonwealth Hotel (opposite) does not feature in the pubs closed category (it's been closed for years). It must've been a very grand old establishment in it's day. What a pity!



The Orbost Bakery https://maps.app.goo.gl/a8njv57fPV1JAPkDA is a better choice and our go to, if you can't wait until you get to Cann River.

 

[Williamson]

Note#3 : Bombala is still the same old shithole it always was.

Aye!!!

The Bombala Bakery & Café has great food & great coffee, even if they say so themselves. And I agree.



The Club Bombala is my choice for an evening meal and a beer or three.



And diagonally opposite the Club (within staggering distance) is a beaut little B&B - well it was in the CB1300 days.

 

[glitch]

Last visit to that bakery was in 2017 on the way home from SEQ with Sidecar Wags, it was somewhat bitter sweet. Sweet - I recall the coffee, pie and service being okay. Bitter - leaning back, scoffing our pies, I spied this.

Ouhh.....'cause the only hoops one can get around Orbost are ....

Marshall's Commonwealth Hotel (opposite) does not feature in the pubs closed category (it's been closed for years). It must've been a very grand old establishment in it's day. What a pity!

I know why they finally shut down....
they ran out of bedside bibles!
Bedside anything really.
There were at least 2 bibles and a matching brown brick missing at opposite ends of the bedframe to act as props/legs back in 2000.
The frames themselves were pre WW2 surplus Army (mattresses too, turning it all into a hammock, arse scraping the floorboards)
The common showers bare, naked concrete, the sash windows needed the remnants of a chair for a wedge to stay open, the sole powersocket was in the skirting board outside in the hallway and the bare bulb dangled from a 6ft piece of frayed fabric-covered wire, the globe baking 30 years of yellowing fly-shit when turned on.
One of the top3 memorable stays for any reason, ever!

That joint was screaming out for a tin of acetone and a match...even then.
This was 2000....on our way to Canberra (via the Bonang with it's...then...24km gravel) for the first "Celebration of Australian Motorcycling" event.
Mick Doohan's speech from the back of a semi flatbed-trailer parked in front of the old Parliament House, 20.000 riders from all over Oz on the lawn in front. Good times
(there must be a couple of old photo prints around from that, somewhere)

The Orbost Bakery https://maps.app.goo.gl/a8njv57fPV1JAPkDA is a better choice and our go to, if you can't wait until you get to Cann River.

That's the one we finished up with. Nothing to write home about either.

 

[glitch]

The Club Bombala is my choice for an evening meal and a beer or three.

View attachment 7050

And diagonally opposite the Club (within staggering distance) is a beaut little B&B - well it was in the CB1300 days.

Yeah, tried for a cot in Bombala, all booked out but the ancient flea-bunker Imperial Hotel at the roundabout.....a drive into the setting sun to Dalgety + Berridale across the Monaro Plains looked the more appealing option.

 

[glitch]

Goodie found the old cap from the subsequent 2001 Canberra-meet....2. and last one.
From memory, at least one of the events coincided with the SummerNats.

 

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There were even a few bikes around on an ordinary weekday....Tarago Pub







Seems like there was plenty of paint to go around, too....looking neat.









Canberra-prices busting the budget, Queanbeyan is a quieter and more reasonable alternative nearby
The pub up the hill isn't a bad choice for tucker either.

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Another top-target of the trip was the Brindabella Road from the back of Canberra (Cotter dam area) to Tumut.
Pretty familiar with the various Wee Jasper options, this was a new one for us.
Including the ~40km of gravel, which included quite a few scenic stretches.
Don't wait for the 10.6km Upgrade before 2032 though, just ride/drive it whenever the chance comes along, it's worth it.
It's a good and easy gravel road.

 

[glitch]

One of my favorite stretches around the Tumut/ Tumbarumba/Jingellic/Granya areas has always been the Wondalga Rd.

Still remember it as a part gravel "timbertruck" road, it's been long since sealed and is a magic rollercoaster across the gentle, rounded shoulders and saddles of the pine-covered hillcountry around Batlow, Australia's apple-capital.
Great riding the sweeping dips and climbs on any bike, the road quality is EXCELLENT!

Right now (and likely for the next few years) you can add epic vistas and panoramas ALL along the ~65km stretch.
Nearly the entire length of plantation timbers has been logged and replanted about 2-3 years ago, the hills are green but the views unobstructed...and fabulous!

















YESSS!!!




On the map from near the top right hand corner to near Rosewood in the center







We took about 12km of good gravel through the backblocks to the tiny Woomargama Pub for some pretty decent accom and pub meal / coldies at the end of a stinking hot afternoon.
The pub is the town.....