Eleven of us enjoyed doing what Ulysseans do, enjoying riding and camaraderie over three days on one of the branch classics –

The Bombala long weekend ride. 

Andrew thanks for organising and leading the ride

and thanks for inviting some potential new members Ian and Elfia.

We left Officer promptly at 0800,

rode east, left the highway at Longwarry and used backroads though to Heyfield

for our first cuppa rest break. I stopped and took a photo along the way to confirm we were not dealing with sun glare,

but the grey skies later turned to actual drizzle.  We found some road works around Maffra but still made good time to Bairnsdale for fuel.   After lunch at Bruthen several including

Peter donned wet weather gear to discourage the rain, but that didn’t quite work and proved a prudent choice.

We turned north at Orbost and got lots of cornering practice on a damp Bonang Road before crossing into NSW at Delegate and arriving at Bombala after roughly 500 km on great riding.

Several of us stayed at the Imperial Hotel

and I enjoyed my stay. It is a basic NSW country pub and they provided shelter for us to park our bikes under cover.  Others stayed at the motel.   We dined at the restaurant attached to the motel / guest house on Saturday night 

and the services club on the Sunday night. I enjoyed both meals.  Bombala was extremely quiet on the Sunday morning, and we waited to 0830 for a café to open for our breakfast.  The leisurely start was nice.

We enjoyed a shorter ride on Sunday 

down to Pambula Beach

via Cathcart and on via Merimbula

to Tathra for lunch.  The café at the pier was simply too busy to stay

and we enjoyed a casual stop at Tathra Beach instead. 

Both Merimbula and Tathra were very busy possibly full of “Mexicans” away for the Victorian long weekend.  The coast ride really was the wettest part of the weekend.

We returned back up the mountain via Bemboka and Brown Mountain. 

I took a diversion up to Nimmitabel

for some fuel and to check out an old rail station.

The high countgry vistas up there really are great.  

Another great day’s riding.

In amongst that I also enjoyed some walking and exploring around Bombala. 

It is quiet but really a great base for some riding in fantastic countryside.

Monday morning in Bombala was much more active as it was not a long weekend in NSW.  We left early and rode the open sweeping roads of the Monaro Hwy down to the Vic border and on to Cann River for fuel.     The Princes Hwy was quite busy after that, but traffic got along at a very good clip.  We stopped briefly near Orbost to check out the old rail bridge

and then on.  The highway between Bairnsdale and Sale was also busy with holiday traffic but it did get along at a good clip.  We then took to back roads again and took a rest/lunch break at Toongabbie. 

Amazingly we saw two people in carts behind horses, and it turns out I knew them!  Not sure of the odds on that. 

We then returned to Melbourne via the mountains and Noojee and had a really good run traffic wise, until just before Powelltown so I can only say – Andrew well done on that route choice.  We parted company around Wandin and made our own ways home.  

Another great weekend’s ride and company – thanks all for making it so.

Cheers  John Cook