twovespas

Day 17 – Wagga Wagga to Canberra

The day was here – but sad to say that we weren’t looking forward to it that much. The weather outside did not look promising and the radar pictures on the web looked even more foreboding. We resolved to let things take their course while we ate breakfast in the main street. The cafe recommended to us was very much closed so we found ourselves once more in the Coffee Club – or as we call it, The Cluuuurrrrrb.

Outside the Cluuurrrrb

We had planned on this day to do a long way home – via the Snowy Mountains Highway and then north from Cooma. We were both keen for the corners and scenery but as it turned out, the weather was not on our side. Doing mountain corners in the wet takes away all the enjoyment.

And so it was that we farewelled Wagga Wagga to make the final trek home. The highway was thankfully quiet. I guess there weren’t a lot of people visiting Wagga this weekend. With only a relatively short stretch to ride until Gundagai, we took our time and enjoyed the scenery so familiar to us now – rolling hills filled with grazing sheep or cows. With music playing in my helmet I hunkered down for what is for me a very boring ride. Nikki loves this rural scene as I’ve said before so she was really enjoying it.

On joining the Hume (yawn) once more, I called Nikki and just groaned – I must have been a barrel of laughs to be with! Then we started to see them. Bogans, tons and tons of bogans. It had occurred to me the night before that we would be heading back home on the final day of Summernats and I couldn’t have been happier. I know lots of people get a kick out it but I personally would love to see the whole thing collapse in on itself. How much does a small tactical nuclear device cost anyway? That being said, I appreciate the time and effort that some people put into making their car look really good – it’s a passion that I understand all too well. What I don’t need is to see them burning through a set of tyres in 8 seconds while some bimbo jumps around without her top on. Honestly, I’d rather cut my own leg off.

We copped a little bit of rain once on the Hume but not that much. All in all we were very fortunate but still had flashbacks to last year when were destroyed by a storm coming in from the south. We made the fatal mistake of stopping at the Maccas near Yass for a coffee break. The Summernats traffic was immense and the place was packed – I mean PACKED. We found a small table to ourselves and I went to order the coffee which, rather surprisingly, came very quickly. We couldn’t get over the vast variety of people streaming through the doors. Every kind of mullet and blue singlet you’d every want to see.

The Barton Highway came and went in a flash, so it seemed. The scoots could smell home so we gave them their head. It seemed that no sooner had we crossed into the ACT that we were dealing with idiots on the road again. I could go on – and often do.

It was a great feeling to pull into our little laneway and an even better feeling to discover that the garage door still worked. We hugged and felt like we had really achieved something great. Here’s a little summary:

Barton Highway

Hume Highway

Bass Highway

Midlands Highway

Lake Leake Road

Tasman Highway (and back again)

Lake Leake Road (again)

Midlands Highway (again)

Bass Highway (again)

Princes Highway

Great Ocean Road

Princes Highway

Henty Highway

Glenelg Highway

Maroona-Glenthompson Road

Pyrenees Highway

Calder Freeway

Midland Highway (in Vic, not Tas!)

Northern Highway

Cobb Highway

Riverina Highway

A bunch of NSW backroads – middle of nowhere!

Sturt Highway

Hume Highway (again)

Barton Highway (again)

All up – 2915km ridden on our ponies. Not bad I reckon.

We’ve decided to name our best/worse experiences for the trip. For me, the best was eating at the Royal Mail – an experience I won’t soon forget. My worse was being laughed at by that blonde idiot in the orange car. I hate that I’ve let it get to me but there you go.

Nikki’s favourite was also dinner at the Royal Mail – seriously people, you need to go there. Nikki really didn’t like the leap frogging trucks on the Hume and the oncoming cars in Tassie being on our side of the road.

We both feel really lucky to have been able to do this trip. We marvelled often while out and about that we were actually doing it – not talking about it. We’re proud of ourselves and proud to have shown the nay-sayers that it can be done – and done easily. To all those who think you need something with capacity of a Mack Truck do go touring – harden up – you’re not hard core.

Thanks to everyone who followed the blog for the trip! Click HERE to see today’s pics.