Queanbeyan to Pambula Beach and back

"It's hard to beat a person who never gives up." - Babe Ruth.

Time for a good long ride. First stop, Jindabyne.

There’s two ways to get to Jindabyne from Queanbeyan - either down to Cooma and turn right, or through Namadgi National Park on a road with lots of squiggles. Any motorcyclist knows Squiggles = Corners = Fun, whereas the road to Cooma is mostly straight with barely perceptible inclines and lots of traffic, being the main road from Cooma to Canberra.

So, squiggly line it is, and beautiful it was. Barely any traffic and a road I hadn't ridden before, lots of picturesque scenery with fields and farms, rosellas flying into the air, cockatoos watching me zoom past, it was terrific.. and then rounding a corner, the road turned into dirt road.

A sign promised 19 kilometers of dirt and while I’ve done dirt roads many times, it’s not my preference. It's slower, there's higher risk of coming off, large sharp rocks can slice your tyre, there’s a lot more variables to watch out for especially on a cruiser with road tyres. But I don’t like turning back and figured I can knock over 19 kilometers with a bit of gumption. Besides, in my experience dirt roads usually have a gift or two that makes it vastly worthwhile. So, took off on what was initially gravel which turned into dirt with stretches of rock.

This dirt road had three gifts for me. The first was this view from Hospital Hill.

Continued on with the road improving in sections and worsening in sections with heavy gravel in parts and potholes of water. Keeping an eye directly in front while keeping an eye ahead to plan your path so you don't wind up in boggy mud or deep gravel or boxed into a group of potholes takes some concentration while enjoying the scenery and I only trapped myself into a cluster of deep potholes once, steering through them but keeping the gas on which helped me to power through without losing the front.

Found a shack in the middle of a field and stopped to have a look.

Turned out to be Brayshaw's Hut, built in 1903. Beautiful spot to stop and rest.

Walked to the shack and tried the door, surprised to find it unlocked.

Signed the visitor's book inside - on average one person per day stops here. Today, I'm it.

Good taste.

Great spot.

At this stage, it’d been 25 kilometers on dirt with no indication of how much further. Ah well, in for a penny and all. The road got worse, corrugations heavy enough to slow me to a crawl mixed in with some good dirt sections, it ended being just over 40 kilometers of slow-going dirt road before I saw beautiful flat bitumen.

Glorious.

I opened her up and enjoyed this beautiful vista with great long corners and terrific visibility. Most 1.5-width roads which don’t have a center-line have terrible visibility as they're built in remote or difficult terrain - and with cars possibly coming around the blind corners in the middle of the road, they’re dangerous to ride on. But this one – long visibility on perfect quality bitumen in gorgeous scenery, I was able to ride right down the middle of this road snaking through the scenery with the throttle opened up and loving it. It was like having my own small footpath to ride on through the countryside.

That continued on for about 10 kilometers before joining more traditional country roads for the remaining 50 kilometers which were all good quality, beautiful and fast.

Arriving at Jindabyne, there were little white soft puffs floating everywhere through the air.

These were seed from trees – and the video barely shows a quarter of how heavy the sky was of them. It was like snow, pretty.

Checked in, surveyed my muddy bike and went for a walk partway around the lake.

Got caught in the rain on the way back and had a good rest for tomorrow’s ride.

The ride the next day was a more straight-forward blast with roads I’ve never ridden before and great quality surface the entire way. Google tried to send me down a dirt road at one point, but another road nearby gave me bitumen all the way.

A deer ran out and in front of me while I was riding. I saw it reasonably early all considered and got on the brakes quickly and hard, and it all worked out but another second of delay in reaction could have been different. That time moves slow, I was admiring it with long thoughts while making my reactions. It’s difficult to know whether to dodge or brake when this happens, wildlife can be a bit unpredictable on the road.

Stopped for lunch at Bombala which hosts a motorcycle gathering once a year and has “motorcyclists welcome” signs everywhere. I usually stop or ride through Bombala traveling north or south - so it was interesting to approach it from the west on my way east.

Took off again and the long fast roads turned into lush downhill curves on the way back down to sea level before the approach to Pambula Beach.

Spend the weekend here in a terrific small cabin.

Only 10 meters walk from a beautiful beach in a cove.

Rocky cliffs to the right and a two-hour beach walk to the left.

Lots of kangaroos lazing around in the sun all day, birds hanging around and wild hares.

This rosella turned up about a minute after I'd pulled up. I reckon it's used to being fed by charmed newcomers.

Spent the weekend here relaxing and working. It was the most restful weekend I've had in quite a while and I'll definitely be returning.

Took a 2-hour walk on the beach one evening and got up at 5.30am to catch the sunrise.

On Monday I did the short ride up to Narooma, bought a few drinks and took an easy day before riding the next day into Ulladulla, washing the bike and seeing all the unique and beautiful blue there.

Had an entree meal and with the rain ready to come down, decided on riding back to Queanbeyan through the better surfaced and more populated roads via Bateman's Bay rather than through Jerrawangala National Park and I rode through medium rain and then strong fog on a good run, stopping at Braidwood for a coffee before completing the week-long ride.

Thanks for reading!