2020 Aussie FJ Rally - Dartmouth Victoria

[X-Ray]

Extra large burgers at the Royal Hotel, Warialda. What a trip, can't wait to revisit the Warialda area again.

[Firehawk068]

Awesome pictures!
Looks like a fantastic time was had.
I am thoroughly jealous.
Really missing my crew of riding buddies right now.....................

[ribbert]

You've been playing in my backyard. Great write up Gavin. It is indeed a wonderful part of the world for riding, not only are the roads fantastic, they're always empty, sometimes eerily so.
Many of those roads have only been sealed in relatively recent times, the back road to Falls Creek, the Mitta Mitta Valley, Eildon – Jamieson Rd and to ride them beforehand was quite an adventure as the lack of traffic and the fact they were slated for sealing meant they saw very little maintenance.

Riding from Harrietville to Omeo (over Mt Hotham), over Falls Creek, the Mitta Mitta Valley, up Mt Buffalo, Eildon – Jamieson Rd etc without seeing a single other vehicle is common. Most countries / states have their great riding roads but not many have an entire area like the High Country and Snowies that is practically devoid of vehicles and with 1000's of km's of "made in motorcycle heaven" roads.

When folks ask how to find the good bike roads, the answer is simple, you can't miss them.
This goes some way to explaining how I put nearly a quarter of a million km's on the FJ over the last 11 years.

Another of my favourites are the routes to Bermagui and Nowra manshed weekends, over Kosciuszko.
The fast flowing roads through The Snowies even get an old fart like me whoopeeing and yahooing out loud inside my helmet, even after 50 years of doing it.
Glad you had the extra time to enjoy a bit more of it, guides and riding companions don't get any better than Pete and Alf.
Roll on Manshed season!

Here's a bit of what Klavdy had to say and a few of his photos of the area, and as you know, he's pretty well travelled.









"....The Snowies is a fantastic destination for a ride, the scenery is beautiful.....

....and the roads are fantastic,how they rate such an investment is beyond my reckoning but its a bloody good thing.....

....it's always remarkable when you get to a region in our south east known as "The Snowies".....to find these manicured ribbons of hot mix blend winding their way through the region...."

Noel

[Troyskie]

Awesome pics from Klav Noel. Well found.

That looks like part of the run on the way up from Harriteville to Hotham, but if not, doesn't matter.

This is my favorite part of Australia to ride.

So many cool roads, and as you say mate, almost no traffic.

Even with my new super racy leathers, that have knee and elbow scraper pad thingys, I took it slow. Way slower than the Harrietville rally.
The funny thing is, at Harrietville my personal best left me with 3-4mm chicken strip.
Dartmouth, no chicken strip 

Yet I was waaaaaaay behind Pete, Alf, Johno, Dave, Greg, Steve, Lenny, Glenn (he he he), and others, but I still took my tyres further than I have before

On the ride home, near home, I fell victim to 'get home faster' itis, plus I was on familiar roads that I love to fang down.
After the fires most of the roos are dead. After the rain, the roos that are left are away from the roads, finally.

WOT .

I checked in at a small town before home and confirmed I had a window of unenforced opportunity  ..... WOT.

[Troyskie]

    Hang on, just checked Harrietville pics. No chicken strip there... . Purple brakes!

[fj-f3a]

Here are three videos of the first day of our 2020 FJ Rally.

The first video is riding along Wilson Drive from Thirlmere to Colo Vale.
These videos are by no means the most exciting videos but they do show some of the devastation caused by the recent bush fires in NSW during the summer of 2019 / 2020.

The intensity of the fire will be noticed around the 2 min mark in the first video.
Also, around the 6 min mark, notice the houses still standing amongst the burnt trees.
The effort put in by the fire fighters is to be commended.
Take note of the green paddocks on the right. Imagine what they would have looked like before the rain.  

https://youtu.be/orX4nbFLZBE   2020 FJ Rally Wilson Drive.

The second video is riding from Wingello to Braidwood.
Look to the left around 1:04. You will just catch the remains of two completely destroyed cottages.
This is a good example of how hard it is to film a video on a helmet cam while riding a motorcycle.
I clearly remember these two cottages but, when reviewing the video, as you can see, I only just captured them.
It is now obvious to me that when you turn your head, you also turn you eyes and thus do not turn the camera as far as you thought.

https://youtu.be/xTgjETknCZs   2020 FJ Rally Wingello to Braidwood.

The final video is from Batemans Bay through Mogo.
During the first 90 sec of this video, you could not have imagined there was a bush fire but, look how quickly that changes.
Look right then left around the 4:17 mark.
This is the township of Mogo.
It is amazing how many buildings are still standing and how these two building were completely engulfed.
Again, notice the land scape just out of town.
This can only be, once again, to a monumental effort on behalf of the fire fighters.  

https://youtu.be/6VPuu3AvZHI   2020 FJ Rally Batemans Bay through Mogo.

In the upcoming videos, I shall try to add some fade in / fade out and some comments.

Any other suggestions welcome, eg, are they too long.

Gavin

[oldktmdude]

   Thanks for the video's Gav, helped fill in some forced boredom time. It's a shame that the rain spoiled some of the clarity of the footage.
I spent the first 20 years of my life at Wingello and still have a few friends that live there, the fire did a lot of damage in that area, hopefully they are
getting through the clean up and rebuild ok. Haven't been through there for a couple of years but plan to after this virus lock down is finished.
   Looking forward to seeing more of your footage Gav. Stay well mate!
   Regards, Pete. 

[Sparky84]

Just when I thought I'd forgotten the rainy bits, Gavin 

Bought back some wet dreams watching those 

Cheers
Alan

[fj-f3a]

Here are a few videos of Day Two of the 2020 Australian FJ Rally.

These videos range in length from about 10min to just under 17min.

If you are short on time, videos one and six are probably the two to watch first.

Once again, my movie making skills are not the best and remember, it is raining.


Video 1
https://youtu.be/pjDOZ_Hp0_I

Video 2
https://youtu.be/x8AMjFauQBM

Video 3
https://youtu.be/QKk6Z7Fa9qI

Video 4
https://youtu.be/OnCx8u50614

Video 5
https://youtu.be/sRp6BNQfOn8

Video 6
https://youtu.be/0U5sJkhv0rQ

Video 7
https://youtu.be/tgk5FO6KWxg

Video 8
https://youtu.be/hJD9Gq5Jhgo

Days 3, 4, 5 and 6 to come.

Gavin.

[oldktmdude]

   More great vids Gav. Although the weather wasn't fantastic, the riding and the company was. Still cant believe just how much country was burnt,
everywhere we went, seeing it again revives my memory of it.
Looking forward to the next instalments mate.
   Regards, Pete.   

[fj-f3a]

A couple of videos of day 3 of the rally.

Firstly, I must apologize for the cross wind correction (ie, the slight angle of the video), at least, that's what Alan told me to use as an excuse for a misaligned camera. Good one Al.

The first video is virtually straight from the helmet cam with very little editing. The scenery shows why.

https://youtu.be/ZiiNDfpFIro Day 3, 1

The second video is virtually two 15min helmet cams edited to one video.

https://youtu.be/5WQbkj3ajBY Day 3, 2

More day three videos to come.

Gavin

[Troyskie]

Nice one Gav.

The fires were fierce there.

I'd forgotten about the cows. That was funny.

[ribbert]

A couple of videos of day 3 of the rally.

Good stuff Gavin, looks like your wet weather endorsement is well and truly up to date. I believe the rally ride up the Mitta Mitta Valley enjoyed both good weather and empty roads. A shame I missed it all, can't wait to get back up to that country but I think the window is just about shut until Spring with the lock-down running straight into Winter.

This was Mt Hotham a couple of days ago.....



...and this was Thredbo yesterday....



Hard to imagine it is such a short time ago that you were all there.

Noel

[Urban_Legend]

I Thought that given that Gavin had put some video up, then I should sort mine out.

Here is what I got, minus the rainy bit. Sorry for the lack of any sound quality. You might just have to hum a song in your head.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4sNPQgPuWM&t=62s

[Urban_Legend]

Power Ranger Troyski