1999 - Guthega to Adaminaby

Day 0 - After a pickup in the city for some of us around noon it was a quick drive down to Canberra with dinner in a roadhouse. We checked into a cheap and cheerful hotel before an early night.

Day 1 - We hired a bus to carry us to Guthega Power Station with a stop for breakfast at Jindabyne.  Once at Guthega it was another check of the bikes and packs and a look up the hill for the first climb.  The same climb done by the Queen back in the 1950's in a Rolls Royce - dirt then and dirt now.  Trouble is our climb was further and on bikes loaded with 4 days supplies.  Some of the group even had canned food !!

Schlinks Pass was a rough climb on a rocky surface.  Around mid-afternoon we made it to Valentines Hut.  Decision - camp or go onto Grey Mare Hut the original objective.  We decided to push on.  A fun creek crossing, another climb then a big down hill and "crack!" - Yarro's rack broke which meant converting his packs to a back pack and moving stuff to other bikes.  Ok - but then the fun really started when we found the track to Grey Mare was overgrown - really overgrown - over our heads in places.  A four wheel drive mustn't have been through in years. 

As the sun was setting a few of the less laden ones made it to Grey Mare and as the day passed to night the rest struggled in for a well earned food and rest.  Beautiful starry night with some very loud snoring and "Bush Rats" in the hut. 

Day 2 - Early start because we had a long day ahead.  Our goal was half way to Canberra but already some felt that was going to be too far.  Gray Mare Fire Trail to Round Mountain Fire Trail then onto the Round Mountain Car Park by lunch.  Not bad going.  We then hit the bitumen for the ride to Tumut Ponds and up to Cabramurra.  Sounds easy riding it.  Well the down hill to Tumut Ponds was ... fantastic long downhill with the only concerns being cars coming up and running out of brake pads.  At the bottom however, with an 8 km, 800 metre up climb, the idea of being half way to Canberra vanished.  The "Cooks" (Geoff and Gordon) had a quick start on the hill fully laden with pots, pans, cans and more.  The rest of us contemplated the situation a little longer and to our advantage.  Just so happened a nice guy with a station wagon was at the bottom of the ponds too heading to Cabramurra at the top of the climb.  A quick chat from Phil (now known as the Marketing Department) had him and his friend put our packs in the back and agree to drop them at the Cabramurra General Store.  Huge!

About 3 hours and a lot of sweat later JohnD (the Spin Doctor) emerged first in Cabramurra.  Not too far behind was Phil, Paul, Yarro, JohnO, Richard, Colin and Andrew.  The "Cooks" were struggling but determined.  Paul negotiated accommodation at the local Scout Hall and after a shower, shave, shampoo, etc we headed to the SMA Restaurant for a fantastic meal.  Not part of the original plan but after that climb no one argued for "de-hy" or noodles for dinner.

Day 3 - Breakfast at the General Store and another up hill to Mt Selwyn.  Not too bad after the day before.  We then headed onto the Kiandra junction.  Decision time.  Onward to Canberra or a side trip with a bus from Adaminaby.  With the Yarrongabilly Caves and swimming hole about 18k up the road the decision to head to Adaminaby instead of Canberra was made.  Tough 18k though particularly when you add another 4 k dirt downhill to it.  Downhills to the swim hole and rest spot was fine but it's the up that started to hurts a few.  JohnD ran out of juice on the way back toward Kiandra and where we planned to camp.  He made it but it wasn't fun for him. 

Again the "Cooks" blasted ahead to their disadvantage.  They ended up climbing a huge hill that was past the campsite for the night on the Eucumbene River.  Beautiful night again and plenty to talk about from the past few days.

Day 4 - Early next morning we headed to up the hill.  For the "Cooks" it was the second time in 16 hours.  Anyway, the road was hard and clear.  Some uphill and some really nice down too.  The wear and tear of the last few days though took the juice out of Phil who struggled onto Adaminaby slower than the rest.  It was a huge relief and sense of achievement as the cake shop and take-away came into sight.  Both provided some really bad fatty food that we all really enjoyed.

Paul arranged a local bus to carry us back to Canberra and by late that afternoon we had packed our bikes and bags into the cars and started heading back to Sydney.  Great trip that we learnt a lot from.  For next time we'll have a much better idea of how far we can go each day with 7-12 kgs extra strapped to the back of the bike.