JOHN’S TRIP TO SNOWIES

John had planned a trip on his BMW K1300S to Tasmania, and promised to write and tell us about it on his return. Well, he’s back, but circumstances prevented him from doing the Tasmania trip. He did, however, spend a bit of time riding to the Snowy Mountains and areas around there. He tells us about the trip.

I had to cut short crossing the Tasman so had a week in southern NSW, NE Vic and the Snowy Mountains.

Most of your readers will have done the Sydney – Albury black-top route via the Hume so no comment there.

The highlight of my trip was the section from Albury (B400) to Thredbo via Walwa to Khancoben. Turn off the B400 (Murray Valley Highway) at Bulion to the C546. Make sure you stop at Walwa General store for a coffee and sambo. From there to Khancoben.

I have done the Murray Valley highway trip to Thredbo before (B400) which isn’t bad but going via the old road was unbelievable. For around 2 hrs (less perhaps) I had no one overtake me and no oncoming traffic apart from one or two utes.

Long, fast, sweeping corners were just what the K1300S loved. No men in blue! Beautiful scenery and the upper Murray River was emerald green – deep and swift flowing. The road follows it.  See the map below. (The finer print, like place names etc you won’t be able to read, but you’ll get the general idea of where it goes. Elwyn).

After Thredbo I headed down to Bega via Cooma and the Snowy Mountains highway. The Monaro Plains are – as I am sure you are aware – also fantastic for fast riding with plenty of visibility.  Browne’s Mountain was clear of fog and I had a good ride down to Bega.

Princes Highway home – nothing special. The traffic starts at Nowra and just gets busier and busier through the Gong (Wollongong).

I will be back down there in a couple of weeks and will probably do the Walwa run again!  Highly recommended for those who have not done it. Also Khancoben to Thredbo sounds exciting to many but tight corners and on-coming traffic means a very measured approach to riding. Also there are brumbies in the upper areas who tend to leave steaming piles of you know what on the road, which if interfered with lead to significant loss of grip. 

Thanks for the story John. Really makes us want to get down there and ride! Well it does for me anyway!

Click here to go to the front page. Click your BACK button to return to the previous page.