So after some wonderful months of ownership, and a few short trips, it seemed like a good idea to do a little more; a tour, if you will.
Now we started out aware of the limitations on boot space, but we've always packed pretty light, even when we go somewhere in the 'big' car, so we didn't think that would be an issue.
The general plan was to proceed on from Goulburn, where we had a church commitment, last Sunday, and head down to Victoria and visit some very old friends in Drouin, down in the Gippsland area. Needless to say, I've ridden most of the roads I planned on driving, some them multiple times, but Hazel has not even seen most of them. So the plan was to find as many twisty roads as possible, and be back in Goulburn for Easter Sunday. I had no idea how the Mazda would be as a touring car; I've done over 1,000kms in a hit on the bike, many times, and likewise in many of the cars we've had, but the biggest trip we'd done in the MX5 was Wollongong to Newcastle and back in a day. That was fine, but this was up-scale from that.
We left Goulburn in the middle of the day and over-nighted at Batemans Bay; a twisties trip down the South Coast wouldn't be complete without a run down (or up) the Clyde. Weather? Fantastic. In fact for the whole week we had the top up for a total of about an hour, for some rain; the rest of the time it was top-down motoring.
We stayed on the waterfront at the Big4 resort; apart from the cabin-type accommodation featuring a separate toilet and bathroom between each three cabins, I recommend it.
Quick trip into town for an early-morning coffee and then we were off south, to Bega, and then up the mountain again.
Back in September I had ridden from Bega up to Bombala via Myrtle Mountain and Mount Darragh; these both are true rider's roads and since our destination that day was Jindabyne, it made sense to drive them as well. If you get the chance, do these roads!!
We went north from Bombala, and turned left off the Monaro Highway and onto the Snowy River way to Dalgety, and then across through the wind-farms and into the western side of Jindabyne. Some long fairly straight roads, but fabulous high-country scenery to compensate.
We stayed at the motel where our motorcycle group has its annual get-together, Siesta Villa, in East Jindabyne, about 8 kays out of town on the road to Cooma. Again, I can highly recommend this place, Richard and Sharon are wonderful hosts, and the restaurant is great. Room tarrif is under $100 outside of peak times, and this includes continental breakfast.
(It appears the Forum software only allows a maximum of five photographs per post, so I'll post this and continue the story in a new post
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