The long and dusty road home

I returned to Canberra via the snowy mountain highway once again - enjoying the empty and windy roads through the foothills of the Great Dividing Range.

Jingelic - what you see is pretty much the entire town

All was going swimmingly until the long patch of dirt (about 35 kms) between Tumut and Wee Jasper. I took the signposted turnoff to Wee Jasper, but I supposed to take the next, unsignposted turnoff. I ended up doing an extra 10 kms of really rough dirt road. The other trail, although supposedly longer is better graded and has less hairpin turns despite being the more minor road.

The memorial at Tumbarumba

8 kms out of Wee Jasper, on the final hairpin, my concentration wavered and my front wheel found a nice big trench on the side of the road. Even though I was moving quite slowly down I went, the rocks gouging massive chunks out of my right fairing.

Luckily all the damage is aesthetic and the bike still works fine. I stopped in the Wee Jasper pub, The Stables, for a beer and to watch a bit of the cricket. I ran into a young bloke who also recently walked away from a motorbike accident, although he was hit by a moving car and his GS 500 has since been totaled. Here is a link below to a great video of him and his bike zooming around Wee Jasper.