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Day 1 (Sunday 7 April) Sydney to Milawa, Vic.
An Impressive starting line up of Russ, Boxy & Singo depart Breadworks at 7.30. Down the Hume Hwy to pick up the Gibster at Pheasants Nest Servo. He looked like he’d been there overnight.
Today is all about covering a large distance to get into new territory and the roads less travelled. We refuel at Gunning and wet weather sets in.
A rapid transition down the Hume Highway for Lunch at Niagara Cafe, Gundagai. It’s a beautifully preserved retro cafe. Gibster & Singo order malted milkshakes in keeping with the ambiance.
We trundle into Beechworth and head to Tourist Info to get some advice on the best local roads to ride. “The police never work on Sunday” so we race off on back roads to Milawa about 25 mins away.
The town has one motel (which we are staying at) and four buildings on each corner of the roundabout. Nice.
Thank goodness one of the buildings is a pub. So, it’s Dinner at Milawa Hotel then. The learnings from our discussion tonight are twofold:
i) What do you call people from Naples? Russ opines, “Napoleans!”. Fact check as we fall about laughing; ii) The Gibster is concerned about our longevity on the bikes and suggests suicide en masse when the time comes. We are not a support group and definitely not a cult. The Gibster has been referred to the “Morals & Ethics Committee” and a sanction is expected.
Day 2 (Monday 8 April) The King Valley
We head to Glenrowan for breakfast. The town has been Ned Kelly’d to an inch of its life, but we have to reenact the bushrangers’ deeds (the siege at Glenrowan) before fleeing town on our steeds.
We only have a few hours this morning so its a quick ride to Mansfield and then a delightful run back up the King Valley. Russ was the Navigation lead this morning and he initially filled the role admirably by declining to take us up dirt roads. [That morning Hydro had sent through a video of his recent coming to earth moment, obviously intended to undermine our trip given he now has to drive a mini everywhere.] A few miles from Milawa Russ succumbed to a gravel road and we slid home…shaken not stirred.
We return to Milawa about 11 which gives us ample time to prepare for our Degustation Lunch @ Brown Bros. Its a short walk to the vineyard and first off its a wine tasting. I recall the Rose, Fian, Pinot Grigio & Cab Sauv. were rated by the 🦊.
Then its across to the restaurant for a degustation lunch and paired wines….for 4 hours. The staff are great fun and take the essential photos. One of the young ladies (in her 20’s) says we are adorable cos we are hardened bikies and she couldn’t see her friends having as much fun as we do.
This causes us to reflect on our Fox journey. Where have we come from? We unanimously agree that we had become tough arses at the end of Route 66. What have we become in our 7th decade? Adorable!
We wander back to our Motel to continue the convivial conversation and reconfirm the wines tasted at Brown Bros.
At 7pm it’s a quick dash across to the Milawa hotel for a schnitty kindly produced by Barry as the pub was closed and he was meant to be taking his wife out for dinner! Legend.
Day 3 (Tuesday 9 April) Milawa to Jindabyne
Left Milawa at 7.20 (much to RUSS’ disgust as he was still cleaning his room). Scheduled departure time was 7.30.
It was a cold (we are wearing everything we have) morning as we headed across to Historic Beechworth for breakfast. The Police entered the cafe and gave us a warning (with a big smile on their faces). Obviously, they thought we were tough arses!
Next destination is Tumbarumba via the Mighty Murray River. We’ve stopped along the way for various photo opps as usual to highlight the Foxes natural habitat.
Notwithstanding various pleadings to avoid rain & snow (forecast at higher levels) & the Gibsters comforting assurances, he lead us straight into the snow (as Hydro would lead us to a dirt road). Russ is busting for a snowball fight.
We then head down from the Snowy toward Jindabyne. The roads are in amazingly good shape. We watch hundreds of trucks heading up the mountain to build the Snowy Hydro No.2.
We have managed to avoid the rain all day but we catch it as we head into Berridale. A scramble to Jindabyne and a warm 🔥.
Over a glass of wine, we have decided to add a wine degustation day as a permanent feature of future trips. It acquiesces to the request for a lay day by the wiser group members. Dinner at Rydges.
Day 4 (Wednesday 10 April) Jindabyne to 🏠
It’s very cold!
It’s the final day so we are out of here.
7.00am breakfast and then we hit the road. The landscape between Jindabyne & Cooma is brown and rocky barren.
We do the backroads around Queanbeyan (observing the new satellite town of Gugong) and stop for coffee at Bungendore.
The decision is made to travel to Taralga together at which point Russ & Boxy are heading north to Goulburn to meet the Hume Hwy home. They are on a deadline. The Gibster & Singo (whose wives don’t care when they arrive) have gone across country to Nerriga and then onto Nowra before turning north. It’s a wonderful 100kms of winding roads and little traffic. Singo exits at Kiama & the Gibster continues on his merry way home.
At the time of writing, everyone has returned home safely.
Thanks to the Gibster & Russ for the organisation and leadership. It was truly another “great Fox Adventure”
Silver Foxes Motorcycle Club Australia 