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rydnhy

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Me and my man

From: Dimitra
Description:

Me and my man at Janolan Caves.

Notice I'm standing on the curb and still don't come up to his shoulders LOL Couldn't fit the heels in the luggage! Not that it would have helped!!
1 day ago
Views: 87

No Return Ticket

From: vilchesm1958
Description:

No Return Ticket

George Carlin's Views on Aging

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

'How old are you?' 'I'm four and a half!' You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key.

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you
2 days ago
Views: 12
Forum: Jokes! Joke...

Extra pics Day 5 and 6 road tr

From: spacemonkey69
Description:
Blog post
2 days ago
Views: 36

Day 5 & 6: Road Trip - Canberr

From: Dimitra
Description:

Day 5: Road Trip - Canberra to Janolan Caves

Woke up on our last morning in Canberra and rode down to the Canberra Motorcycle Centre in Mitchell. The regulator hadn't arrived yet and we were a bit nervous, but they assured us it should arrive this morning. We left the bikes there and went next door for a coffee (good coffee joint if you're a coffee junkie like me). Dim decided since we were waiting around to get a haircut. Finished the haircut and got the call that the bike was ready at the same time (see it was meant to be!). The guys were brilliant, replaced the part under parts warranty from Yamaha and didn't even charge us for labour.

Late morning we headed out of Canberra on the Federal Highway and cruised. Thoroughly enjoying just being out riding again and on the adventure. Pulled in to a rest stop along the highway, and had views of a wind farm in the distance... see Adam shows us how it's done:

Then we cruised on till we got to the Big Merino in Goulburn. Fuelled up the bikes and ourselves before heading on. The freeways had numbed our brains so much that Adam said "The twisty long straights" were his favourite roads (?!?!) We rode on to Taralga where the roads were very rough. Nice and windy but very rough. Once we got past Taralga the roads got really good. We pulled in for a photo op:

Adam had a wee on the fence (he said it wasn't electric, but I dunno, he's been acting strange ever since!)

From this point the roads became awesome. Beyond awesome actually!! (Dim's favourite road here). Big sweeping curves and bends and up and down hills with great views. One very very steep twisty decline, followed by a very steep and twisty incline, then the road stretched out nice and windy again until Black Springs. Wanted to go back and re-do the Taralga to Black Springs road over & over. Do it if you get the chance.

Next stop was Oberon for fuel, then we headed down to the Janolan Caves. Noticed a few signs as we got closer to the caves, which said that Trucks and Caravans were not allowed to go down that road. I knew something good was coming up... Dim's literal diary entry after doing the ride down to the Janolan Caves goes like this: "OMG crap that was a scary ride. Down down down the very steep mountain side with all those 15km p/hr bends and all that camber on the road! Barely one lane wide with vans and 4wd's refusing to move over to the edge while they were heading up the mountain and we were coming down."

Booked into the hotel and were given a free upgrade due to a school coming in and taking the motel rooms. So we got a beautiful "Traditional Stay" room with antiques and fantastic mountain views (but no TV). Checked in and explored the grounds for the evening.

Day 6: Road Trip - Janolan Caves to Sydney

It was hard to fall asleep last night with thoughts of having to go back up that mountain and dreams of "The Shining", which Adam had told me about because the traditional hotel had reminded him of the hallways in the movie. After breakfast we headed down to pick one of the cave tours. We picked the Orient Cave tour which was great. Lots and lots of stairs and tight passages but well worth doing. Spectacular views of the cave with stalactites, stalagmites, and other rock formations. Nature is incredible, makes you wonder what else of such beauty lies in dark caves undiscovered!

We decided not to take the mountain road up and out, and instead to take the only other way out of Janolan Caves, which is a less steep but longer windy ride out of the mountains. This road happens to be closed between 11.45am and 1.15pm daily, as it's one lane only for part of the road, so they close it to allow only bus tours to come in. So after the cave tour we had a bite to eat while we waited for the road to open.

Light misty drizzle and fog started as we headed out of the mountains. Much nicer roads, still twisty but nowhere near as steep. Just before Lithgow, pulled off the road to check the maps, and an older local guy pulled up in a ute to see if we needed help.

Headed into Lithgow looking for the Bells Line of Road. Great start to it with a cop car having pulled someone over to the side of the road right before the beginning of Bells Line. Mostly 60 - 80km/hr speed limits and we have to say, a very disappointing road. Sorry to all you Sydney folk who think it's brilliant. A small section in the middle at 100km/hr was okay. Maybe it had been over-hyped because we've heard about this road so much, or maybe because we'd just come off such great riding the day before (e.g. Taralga to Black Springs), but it's not a road we'd recommend to people or that we'd make an effort to do again.

Came in to Sydney and for the first time ever had to pull over to a pay toll booth on the bikes (I'm sure that novelty will wear off quickly). Went through a few other electronic tolls as we got closer (must remember to set up a toll account) and we rode in over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Unfortunately there was a lot of traffic so we had to keep eyes on the road for braking traffic, so didn't get much chance to enjoy the experience or check out the scenery. Once we were in the city we started looking for the street our hotel was on. When we finally got to it we were in the right lane but the hotel was a left hand turn. So we had to keep going and I thought we could just go round the block... but this is Sydney hey? So noooooo... once we turned right, we found we couldn't do another right at the next block, and so we were on a wild goose chase to get back to Point A. Finally got there & checked into our hotel. Set up the toll account & time to unwind. We got a call from this strange bloke, they call him Al... made plans to meet Al & his wife Coz the next day.

Stay tuned for the next episode... Will Als try and push Dim & Adam off The Gap? hmmmmmmmm LOL

Dim & Adam
Blog post
2 days ago
Views: 46

On the way to Lithgow

From: Dimitra
Description:
Day 5 of our trip, this was between Janolan Caves and Lithgow.
2 days ago
Views: 27

Janolan Caves 3

From: Dimitra
Description:
Last one... inside the Orient Cave at Janolan Caves.
2 days ago
Views: 22

Janolan Caves 2

From: Dimitra
Description:
Inside the Orient Cave at Janolan Caves. Guess who.
2 days ago
Views: 36

Janolan Caves 1

From: Dimitra
Description:
This is inside the Orient Cave at the Janolan Caves NSW
2 days ago
Views: 24

Caves House - Janolan Caves NS

From: Dimitra
Description:
Day 5 we ended up at the Janolan Caves. This is Caves House, the hotel we stayed at in a "Traditional Stay" room fitted out with lovely antique furniture and a spa. A nice upgrade from our original booked room! Notice the road heading out on the right of the shot, that's the bottom of the mountain road we came down.
2 days ago
Views: 26

Taralga, on the way to Black S

From: Dimitra
Description:
Day 5 riding, just outside of Taralga on the way to Black Springs. The roads because Awesome after we took these shots.
2 days ago
Views: 25

Big Merino at Goulburn

From: Dimitra
Description:
Day 5 of our trip, Big Merino sheep at Goulburn
2 days ago
Views: 32

Wind farm out of Canberra

From: Dimitra
Description:
Day 5 of our road trip, views of a wind farm on the Federal Highway out of Canberra... Adam shows us how to be a windmill!!!!!
2 days ago
Views: 24

Corpus Christi Trip

From: dledge
Description:
2 days ago
Views: 22

Extra pics Day 3 and 4 road tr

From: spacemonkey69
Description:
Blog post
3 days ago
Views: 32

Day 3 & 4: Road Trip - Albury

From: Dimitra
Description:

Day 3: Road Trip - Albury to Canberra

We woke to a beautiful day, 32c degrees. Headed out from Albury, across the Hume Weir across a huge girder bridge. Absolutely awesome road along the Murray River (pic on right of page) to Jingellic, where we crossed back over the border into NSW.

Then headed from Jingellic up to Tumbarumba, all bitchumen with big sweeping curves which Dim really loved. Except for one spot where we came around a corner and had a 5 foot long Red Belly Black Snake sunning itself in the middle of the road!! Adam went to the right of it (on the wrong side of the road), it lifted it's head to look, and Dim passed it on the left side, right in front of it's raised head. (No pics of the snake, didn't really want a closer look!!)

Got to Tumbarumba and checked out their Information Centre / Museum which had a lot of information on a famous 1930's plane crash called the Southern Cloud. From there another fun ride up through Batlow to Tumut where we had lunch, beautiful food from a run down looking little milkbar.

We asked some rangers about different roads through to Yass, one road we'd been told about was very rutted and dirt and wasn't advised even for 4WD vehicles. So they sent us on a back road from Tumut through Brungle, then to Gundagai which was a really good ride! It was on this strip of road, that Adam spotted a massive Goanna on the side of the road... (He must have scared him off cos he was gone by the time I passed by).

Pulled in to Gundagai and took some photos with the Dog on the Tuckerbox (pic right of screen). Got back onto the boring Hume Highway and droned on to Canberra. So boring Dim's average speed crept up to 120km p/hr to avoid falling asleep. (Will that defence work with the cops?)

Booked into a nice Country Club in Canberra who were very good by letting us park the bikes under cover and even gave us sponges & a bucket to give them a wash the next day.

Day 4: Road Trip - Canberra

This is where Adam ran into some trouble, his bike refused to start after the wash.

He'd had a regulator / rectifier replaced just before we left and this had died again. One in a million chance, faulty part failed. We searched out a local Yamaha Dealer (Canberra Motorcycle Centre, Mitchell). They checked out the bike and confirmed it was the regulator again. They ordered the part in after our local Yamaha guys from home (City West Yamaha) faxed up the paperwork to do a parts claim through Yamaha and we went off to do our sight seeing at the Canberra War Memorial and Parliament House.

Cruising around Parliament House we were approached by a security officer on a bicycle, and we were expecting to be told off for going in so close, but he just suggested a good spot for taking pictures. Then we cruised to the War Memorial down Memorial Drive, which is a long stretch of road between the two buildings and the middle of the road is divided by red gravel and on the sides of the road are monuments the whole way down, which represent each of the wars Australia has been a part of. All the while expecting Adam's bike to die at any minute, because it wasn't charging.

The Australian War Memorial is well worth a visit. A huge place and very interesting. Adam loved it and could have stayed there overnight looking around. Some amazing interactive video, light and sound displays and the most amazing exhibit of the Japanese Mini Sub which was sunk in Sydney Harbour.

Took the bikes back to the country club and did a 'once over' on the bikes before Adam's bike goes in for work & hopefully we can leave town!

Stay tuned for the next episode... will Adam's bike ever be fixed or is he stranded in Canberra while Dim galavants off into the sunset? LOL

Dim & Adam
Blog post
3 days ago
Views: 38