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Canberra Australia to Bateman’s Bay, Woy Woy then Canberra

"The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance." - Arnold Bennett

Zipped into Canberra on a slow train, changed the oil on the bike and had the rear tyre tube replaced to fix a slow leak.

Map

Rode out to the Loaded Dog Hotel in Tarago. So good to be back on my own motorbike, it’s a great bike.

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This building used to be the Tarago general store in the late 1800s opposite the Loaded Dog Hotel.

Funny thing, Tarago used to be known as Sherwin’s Flats and a town nearby was called Tarago. When the nearby railway line was built, the maps were transcribed and sent to England to be printed. Unknowingly, the two village names were mistakenly reversed. By the time the error was discovered, the maps had been printed and returned, and it was easier to rename the towns to match the maps than to correct and reprint the maps.

I like having a beer or two here on the balcony at sunset before the good ride the next day.

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Figured to ride the curvy well-made road to Bateman’s Bay as being the main road from Canberra to the coast, it’s usually crowded on the weekends - so it made sense being a weekday to ride it hopefully without traffic. Every time I ride this road on a weekday I think this and while I get some good runs, there’s practically always too much traffic for a clear run and this day was no exception. I should learn, but sometimes I’m an optimist despite the facts – but I know the smaller northern roads that travel through the bush are more empty and more directly beautiful so I’ll be taking that route next time I ride this way.

Once on the coast, I turn left and the roads are fast and spirited through great bushland with plenty of beautiful spots to pause.

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A great meal and evening where it rained all night, shelter from the storm which didn’t show signs of stopping the next morning – a problem since I was working the day after in Sydney and needed to get the bike at least level with Sydney to avoid a big push on my schedule after I leave. So when the rain eased up, I rode fast up the coast. After an hour the rain appeared to be left behind so I turned to ride through the beautiful Kangaroo Valley and skirt around the outskirts of Sydney via Penrith where I stored the bike for a few days before zipping into Sydney for work and spending time.

After that it was back on the bike to ride up towards Wiseman’s Ferry where I chose a left and discovered a great small side-road.

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Zipped through that and onto a ferry..

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..then rode up to St. Albans which has a beautiful peaceful pub with great looking pies and peacocks wandering around. This road is quiet since it’s the only road into St. Albans that isn’t dirt or gravel. I relaxed here with a coffee and I’ll certainly be back here soon for a longer visit, perhaps camping there as it had a great camping ground.

Then it was back towards Wiseman’s Ferry and the well known motorcycle road from there to Woy Woy. Rode the same road on the way back stopping for a coffee at one of the common motorcycle cafes listening to Rodriguez sprouting his beautifully unsettling musical truths.

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Rode the pretty ride up to Katoomba where I stopped for the night.

Next morning I did the ride out to Oberon then turned left to ride south along beautiful roads through forests and farmland towards Canberra. I’d done this ride about six months ago in the chilling winter cold when I had to stop every 50 kilometres to defrost my fingers and toes. I was surprised that even in the afterglow of summer on this ride, the forest hills carried a refreshing and slightly chilly wind. Cool sunny days, my favourite.

The roads are well made with fast curves and not too much traffic, so it makes a fun route to ride – however zipping through some farmland I saw a lamb on the side of the road.

It doesn’t look like drastic braking at all on the video, but I squeezed and feathered the brakes as hard as I dared feeling the front tyre either slightly deforming as I braked or the front wheel or suspension getting squirrely slowing from about 110kph to about 70kph in that short time. A reason car drivers shouldn’t tail-gate the way many do on country roads – the 3 second gap rule saves lives. Looking at the video, without the braking there’s a good chance I’d had run straight into that lamb running right out in front of me where it did.

I did “pre-load” the brakes which means lightly braking before heaving braking. It means if you need to brake hard, the brake pads are already in contact with the brake disc so they’re much less likely to “grab” and have the front wheel lock up. It also compresses the front fork suspension down a bit, so the bike doesn’t dip as drastically which helps keep the bike settled. However, I could have pre-loaded and braked hard a fraction of a second earlier instead of deliberating for a moment whether to brake, so I’m going to work on pre-loading at the instant that see the possibility of hard braking.

Rode on to Taralga, trailed through the beautiful roads to Goulburn, stopped for fuel and completed the ride into Canberra before parking the bike and taking a train into Sydney for a few more days of work. Then it’s teaching Excel in Melbourne, teaching Outlook in Adelaide and finally back to Sydney for more work, admin stuff and spending good time.

Happy days, thanks for reading!


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