Jindabyne Ride– Australia Day Weekend – January 25 – 28^th, 2008

With no limit to the passionate pursuit of excellent roads to be ridden, this time it’s off to Jindabyne. I’m so impressed how this Club cleverly discovers such brilliant roads in vastly contrasting landscapes and then how it eagerly presents them to us in a delicious package for us to enjoy... such was Jindabyne.

Captured in my mind is an early morning ride of 20 km across a valley of vast emptiness, no sign of life, only parched grass covering the flat lands and surrounding hills; soft yellowing sunshine, an unnatural stillness in the thick air with only the muted sound of our bikes disturbing this strangely isolated landscape.

We continue on for many isolated kilometres and eventually find ourselves riding through a lush, fresh, green, ferny landscape full of twisties, very much like the Black Spur. Brilliant. Somewhere in the midst of this, we ride through some very claustrophobic mountain cuttings, blind corner after blind corner and extremely narrow road. It felt quite bizarre and very disconcerting, but an amazing riding sensation, nevertheless. Finally, to the top of the mountains, usually shrouded in winter snow, yet in summer presenting us with a feeling of ancient desolation -wild, rugged, cold, rocky, skeletal trees with minimum foliage and tough looking shrubs – survival of the fittest here. Lakes and rivers viewed from this height add an interesting dimension.

An evening ride to Charlotte’s Pass (pillioning with Misho) remains vividly in my mind – it felt like I was racing on the MotoGP circuit at Phillip Island except I was going up a mountain- exhilarating sweepers and bends at very exciting speeds… so thrilling, so satisfying, with the winning prize being the spectacular view at the mountain top.

Day 3 of the ride I pillioned (to conserve my rear tyre for the ride home) sharing between Misho and Marty. When I pillioned with Misho, I knew what to expect, having pillioned with him before, but when it came to Marty, I wasn’t quite sure what I’d get. After a very mild-mannered ride, I foolishly suggested that he could go a little faster. Well, I asked, and he delivered one hell-of-a-ride, much to the amusement of the other riders, when I finally collapsed on the ground after the ‘you can go a little faster’ ride. Very grateful to Marty for letting me experience two highly diverse riding styles. Back to Misho for the rest of the ride.

I enjoyed this experience so much as it was my only chance to be at the front of the pack and feel and see the thunderous power. Also, I’m hugely entertained, if not a little frightened, by the chasing game you boys get up to – something I only get to see when I pillion with a fast rider, as I did on this day.

When I’m riding on my own, all I get to see is you all disappearing from my sight, and not only that… being the last rider coming down the road after you boys have already thundered your way to the next stop can have a few negative consequences, as I realised on this trip. Here I was, having myself a lovely time coming down some nice sweepers, followed by the most-patient and good-natured Geoff Jones as rear-rider (thanks Geoff for all you kindness) when two Harley riders appear on the other side of the road coming up the sweeper toward me with very cranky looks on their faces. One proceeds to make a most-alarming and menacing gesture of kicking at my bike. Apart from being a little frightened, I was most confused as to what I had done to cause this behaviour. After a little group discussion I was enlightened by my fellow-riders that the Harley riders may have been a little startled by the sight and sound of the MSR boys passing them at a slightly ‘faster’ pace. Hence, the bunny (me) bopping along a little further down the way ends up paying the price. I was greatly reassured when I was told I do have an advantage if this should ever occur again – I have a very speedy bike which can aid my escape and should ride quickly to the safety of the group, who shall duly protect me if the pursuers have managed to do a u-turn and set chase. Thanks guys, I’m counting on you… fearless gods of speed.

The ride home also provided some unexpected entertainment. Having missed the turn-off for Mansfield from Whitfield, Misho, Geoff and I ended up on a very scenic, but very isolated dirt track where we proceeded to ride for 25km before realising something was not quite right. Well, actually Geoff quickly realised that something was not quite right but was finding it difficult to catch up to Misho, who was enjoying the 100km+ speed on the dirt, to alert him to the fact that it may be the wrong way.

Misho eventually stops and we do a u-turn and a 25km journey back through dirt to where we started. Finally we get onto the right road and eventually the long-suffering leader (Ben) who sensed that something was ‘not quite right’ had backtracked to try and find us and met us on the way to Mansfield. Sorry Ben… but we did manage to put a smile on your face when you saw our leathers and bikes completely transformed with a fine dusting of white dirt.

After reaching home safely and feeling quite tired after our wonderful riding weekend, I say to myself “I think I might have a little break from riding the coming weekend”…but not for long… by mid-week I’m checking out the ride calendar to see where I’m going for the next Sunday ride and feeling a sense of anticipation of doing it all over again.

Thanks Ben for organising this weekend so well and for all the great rides you led; thanks also to the very patient Geoff Jones who spent most of the time close to me as rear-rider, and thanks to all my fellow riders for all the crazy fun you give me.

Pina Garasi