Exploring the dirt roads of the Alpine NP then over Dead Horse Gap S1 - E16

Morning. A bit of cloud cover this morning, which was predicted had to be all in cloud, but the sun might just sneak through. Today's plan, make it up to the Mount Kosciuszko area, Thredbo, Jindabyte, all that sort of thing. Try not to make it another 11-12 hour day on the bike. Nothing wrong with that. Just two days in a row I might start to feel it's sore. Yesterday was the ride of a thousand corners, or maybe two or three. It was a lot of corners. If you want a lot of corners, do a couple of mountaintops. And because I couldn't camp anywhere near Mount Hotham up the top, just the day dragged on. Felt like I was rushing it a bit. So today I'm going to take it easier. Theoretically it's about three and a half to four hours to get to the New South Wales side of the mountain range. So hopefully there's not too many long distractions, but otherwise I'm just going to chill here for a bit longer. Probably go for a swim if I can brave the water. Is moving water colder than lake water? Or is lake water colder than moving water? Anyway, it'll be cold. It's late. I think it was 10 degrees last night, so it wasn't too cold here. I think that's because of the cloud cover. Yeah, so swim. Take things slow. There's no rush. And enjoy the rest of today. It's fresh. Fresh would be the word. Before I get in, have a look at this sucker. And I reckon that's a nest of babies. Hundreds, if not thousands. Gotta love Australia. And remember, with animals in Australia, don't mess with them and they most likely won't mess with you. Sometimes they will. Just the way it is. But if you start on them, they'll have a crack. As I said, fresh but totally worth it. Now to get some clothes on and get warm. The fog was still trying to lift from the hills behind me and the locals weren't in a rush to do much. I went and checked out the old bridge that the campsite gets its name from. How's this old bridge? These metal bits were obviously put here after to keep the thing from falling over. Seems to be a historical bridge. It's got its own plaque. My mate Dave would love this wood. I mean, he wouldn't take this one down because it's still intact. But if he found one like this that was fallen over, imagine what you could make with it. What you could recycle. Even the floors double-layered. The Mitre Trust bridge was an important link to the goldfields of Mount Wills. The first bridge was built here in 1891. But the bridge would continually get damaged due to debris collecting around the piers during flooding. And by 1908, the bridge was closed due to the damage it sustained. Eventually it was replaced with this Trust Bridge which was opened in April 1910. The bridge was officially recognised and registered under the Historical Building Act in 1991. After checking out the bridge, I decided it was time to pack up and tackle the day's riding. I'd only gone a few kilometres up the road and then I saw what might be a good photo. So a quick u-turn. So this is one of the reasons I rode alone. Most people wouldn't put up with me doing this all the time. Seeing something, then turning around to check it out. Sometimes I'd look and think, no there's no shot there. Other times I'd take a photo but it wasn't worth stopping. But sometimes you do get a decent shot. But man, this would annoy a lot of people. I spotted another old bridge from 1918. It looked a little dodgy but it has been here for over 100 years. And as they say, things were built to last back in the day. And lasted this bridge has. Look at that. I'd spotted a wooden structure that had actually fallen down. Take note Dave, just as you leave Omeo, on the right. I'd come back into Omeo as I needed supplies. And yesterday when riding through, I got a glimpse of a piece of artwork that looked a little out of place in an old mining town. Also I wanted to get another photo. Ah, me stopping again. In front of the old Omeo service station. Now to head into the mountains. Hopefully making it over the top through Dead Horse Gap and dropping down the other side to Jindabyne. The crosswind was blowing pretty hard. I had to lean on, hanging for the road to turn left. The road I was on eventually turned to dirt and I found myself in the Alpine National Park. The track ran beside the Gibbo River. That's a very Australian naming protocol, adding an O to it. Like Jonno, Jacko, Robbo. I'm not exactly sure how logging trucks fit across these really narrow bridges. Well here's where the rule of tonnage applies. Whoever has more has right away. And here's why it's best to wait for the dust to clear. As you wouldn't want to miss seeing another one of these. I pulled over off the road as the dust ball coming looked like it was going to make it really hard to see. I continued snaking my way up this valley logging road. More trucks, more dust. It quickly got a lot colder at the top so I cranked up the grip warmers. It was time for a quick stop to fuel up and dust off. I've just pulled over on the NSW Victoria border, which is actually a river. Didn't know that. But just pre-empting and putting on my puffer jacket because we're going up and it's going to get cold. How good was the dirt road? I didn't know it was going to be dirt. It was 60, 70 car of dirt. A lot of corrugations and a lot of rocks and the bike did well. I had to check over it just before. Make sure nothing rattled apart. It was rough. So holding up well. Now it's going up. Should be fun. With the wind picking up there was a lot of tree debris on the road. It started to feel like I was moving into the alpine region and the black stumps on the trees were due to a fire that came through here in the last couple of years. Also you can see a lot of snowy gums are dying out. They think it's due to the native longicorn beetle. Grip warmers back on again. They were definitely getting a lot of use today. I was making my way up to the pass called Dead Horse Gap. It gets its name from the Brumbrees, that's wild horses for anyone not from Australia, that sometimes became trapped in the area due to unexpected snowfalls and would end up dying. I made it to Dead Horse Gap. This is the pass from one side to the other and it's cold. Probably another 30-40 maybe an hour to get down to Jindabyne. No real camping up here unless you book. You have to book in advance so that sort of counts me out. The road down from Dead Horse Gap runs along the side of the Thredbo River for the first half and it is one of the most stunning small mountain rivers I've ever seen. And that is the ski resort of Thredbo. It also has great mountain biking tracks if you're here in summer. So made it to Jindabyne and it's very windy. First things first, I forgot to eat again. As there were shops close by I grabbed some food. The wind was so strong it had pushed the lake water over the walking path along the shore and for setting up a tent, let's just say the wind wasn't doing me any favours. But in the end after a lot of struggle I did get the tent up. The tent seems to be the only safe place to be although I've had one blow down already and the tent's laying flat even with the poles. It started at Dead Horse Gap, started getting really windy up there and all the way down and then a bit of a chop on my lake at Jindabyne. Besides the wind it was a pretty pretty good day. It was only going to be three and a half to four hour ride but with the dirt road, what 70-80 km's of that, it slows you down especially with those logging trucks and then me wanting to take a photo all the time I see something. I have mountain biked up at Thredbo before which is pretty good and the Thredbo river that runs along it is stunning but again really windy just couldn't really stop. I had to get down here. I was surprised I got to the gate at the National Park on this side there isn't one on the other side and I was sure Parks and Wildlife New South Wales were going to still charge me riding through the park. I think it's 20 or 30 dollars to park entry but the lady at the counter said no if you've just ridden through it's okay so Parks and Wildlife doing the sensible thing. Who knew? So I have ended up at my second caravan park for the trip. I've been in the area before and it's hard to get in. There's no free camping and when you're sort of stealth camping you've really got to leave it late and with this wind and I hadn't eaten I threw in the towel to the caravan park. So tomorrow's plan I'm not sure I don't know whether to go the coast or head more towards Sydney or through Canberra or I just I think I'm gonna leave that till tomorrow. I just no clue. I'm gonna crash out now and hopefully the tent doesn't lay down through the night with the wind or take off altogether. I'm sure the bike won't blow over. That's what's protecting me well somewhat from the wind. I've put the bike between the wind and the tent sort of and there is a tree there. Hopefully it provides some shelter. Stepping it up from the can tuna for dinner tonight because I could get to a shop gourmet. I could be in France or Italy right now. Here comes the wind. It's just trying to hopefully it's only a small shower. I don't want to get too wild.