Wednesday 23rd February 2011 – What a joyful day’s riding it was today. I left Tathra, rejoined the Princes Highway north for a few kms, then took the Snowy Mountains Highway west to Cooma then Jindabyne. It was the most gorgeous day – clear blue skies, radiant sunshine and stunning clarity. It was quite cool climbing up over Brown Mountain so I had to dig out my windproof jacket again. At Jindabyne, I turned onto the Alpine Way to Thredbo. This is where the Kosciuszko National Park starts and where the Australian ski resorts are located. Until this point the roads had been lovely wide open ones with sweeping bends and gentle gradients, but after Thredbo the road narrowed and became another tight alpine pass. At one point a pack of other riders, heading for the SuperBike Races at Phillip Island it turned out, passed me. However, round the next bend we had to stop for road works. One guy looked at my overloaded bike – before he could say anything I said “Don’t say a word.” So he turned away then obviously couldn’t resist and said “Moving house?”. It was quite funny though.

It took me most of the afternoon to get from one side to the other but it was beautiful country so I didn’t mind at all. So thanks to Mark (from Canberra) for suggesting it.

I then took the Murray Valley Highway to Tallangatta (which is back in Victoria) and booked into the local hotel which was doing a super cheap deal for motorcyclists. Its not the plushest place I’ve stayed but the 2 guys that run it are very friendly so I may even stay a day.