From Victoria to New South Wales via McKillops Road & Barry Way
23rd March - 1st April 2021
After 5 days, the rain finally stops and we’re able to continue riding. Some places in NSW became unpassable due to flooding, but hopefully, the situation will get better soon.
We were really starting to get bored at the campsite. Even more so, after realizing that the advertised wi-fi connection was limited to 1GB per person and we couldn’t work on the videos and the website as much as we’d planned. We’re slowly and reluctantly getting used to the Australian Internet quality i.e slow, limited, expensive (especially, when travelling). We’ll probably need to rely more and more on mobile data…
Anyway…
Watching all the rain, we kind of abandoned our plans of crossing to NSW through the mountains thinking that the gravel roads have turned into muddy rivers. However, on our way from Lakes Entrance, we stopped at a visitor centre in Orbost and asked about the road conditions. “It’s a good road. It’s open and shouldn’t be too muddy. You’ll easily go through it with your motorbikes”, said two ladies working at the centre.
Yay! We could go back to the original plan and head north to Jindaybye in NSW through McKillops Road and Barry Way.
McKillops Road is considered one of the top 10 most dangerous roads in Australia. It’s very narrow with lots of blind corners and a big drop on one side. However, it isn’t particularly difficult or scary if you’re on a motorcycle and ride slowly. The road traverses beautiful Snowy River National Park and one of its iconic spots is McKillops Bridge. It also passes next to the deepest gorge in Victoria – Little River George.
At the end of McKillops road, we turned north towards Suggan Buggan (still can’t figure out where the name came from) and the NSW border. The road is known as Barry Way. It passes through remote landscapes of the Australian Alps and Kosciuszko National Park, winding along Snowy River until it reaches Jindabyne in NSW. Most of the Barry Way is unpaved, but in good condition, with occasional ruts or rocks. We had no problems going through on our DRs.
We spend the next three days in Jindabyne waiting, again, for the weather to improve. We can’t of course miss climbing Australia’s highest peak – Mt. Kosciuszko (2,280m), but Unfortunately, we didn’t get much of a view from the top…
From Jindabyne, ride on the Alpine Way which traverses Kosciuszko National Park and camp on the bank of Murray River near the VIC-NSW border. After Barry Way, we were much less impressed by the Alpine Way, which is completely sealed and has fewer spectacular views. However, it does go through “Siberia”.
At our camp, we meet for the first time another rider – Volker from Germany. We spend the rest of the evening talking about places we should visit on our round Australia tour, the adventures we all had and our life in Australia. (Thanks Volker for all the recommendations!)
The next morning, we say goodbye to Volker and start heading towards Canberra. On Volker’s recommendation, we pass through a picturesque road leading to the village of Wee Jasper, before riding the last 50 km on a boring highway to Canberra.
