Victorian High Country Motorcycle Adventure - THE HARD WAY - Part 4

Good morning everybody, Josh and I are just leaving our campground for morning number four, but before we get on our way to Craig's Hut and then hopefully all the way over to Blue Rag. This morning I was coming down this way to do my morning business and I was greeted just on the hill there of a wild dog just staring at me and I'm in my thongs and you know pretty much my pants around my ankles and we had a bit of a standoff and thankfully the dog just decided to run back down the other way. So that was pretty cool and a bit you know potentially full on if it had a few other dogs with it, but yeah I was just standing there and it let me be so I let it be. Anyway we're going to head down this way to Craig's Hut and get amongst it. She's pretty bumpy this morning to start with, but yeah I'm feeling much better today. I've got a sore neck but I'm very coherent and thinking straight because yesterday afternoon after a crash that I had and I whacked my head or Josh whacked my head we don't know what really happened there. Yeah I just couldn't, just wasn't myself really, it was just a bit funny and doing silly things and not riding great, but no dramas this morning so thank you very much to whoever was looking out for me on that accident. The Bluff Hut, what's this all about? Oh yeah, just one of many many huts out here. This one looks pretty grand actually, quite large, five bedder, dual bathroom, beautiful. We're on our final ascent to Craig's Hut up the Monument Track. It just had a sign saying steep and rocky, not suitable for towing, so I suspect if that's the only warning it should be fine for us. Alright, Craig's Hut. I've never been here before. I didn't get to make it on my last trip two years ago. Josh has been here before but he said if we're going to be out there it's worthwhile going again for him in order for me to get my first visit, tick that one off the buck list I guess. Craig's Hut, where are you at? Ah there you go, up there. Okay, bit of a walk, that's something I can do. Alright, Craig's Hut. Are you allowed to go in or? Oh yeah? So, a bit of history, I guess you could say recent history. I have a bloke on Instagram by the name of Andrew A. He reached out to me talking about my Victorian High Country trip and I don't have the facts on it but I guess I can take his word for it. He said his father had a major part in rebuilding this because it was in set construction and he did a bit of stuff for Mad Max as well, so that's pretty cool. The Hut Log Book. Alright, let's put my details in there. The 6th of the 3rd, 24, the Apprentice Adventurer. There we go. Doesn't count if you don't put your name in the notebook I guess. Wow, look at this, we've just climbed out of Craig's Hut. Far more challenging than I thought. I thought Craig's Hut access would be super easy but Josh took us on two tracks that were quite difficult in terms of something that I thought was very mainstream, unless it's a track I'm not aware of. But anyway, enough jibber jabber, have a look at that. The Ski Fields. We're just on our way to the Maroomba store to get some petrol on the west side of Mount Bullar. That's as far west as we'll go. But I just had a look at my speeder and there are 730 odd kilometres and approximately 30 only of those kilometres have been on tar. So in three and a half days, Josh and I, Josh and Harrison, we've been able to connect 700 kilometres of hardcore riding all on the dirt in the Victorian High Country, thus far. We've still got tomorrow as well. I didn't think we had that much dirt to be honest. Wow, very impressed with our efforts. So this is the Maroomba store. We couldn't find much information on this. There was only one location online that said they have petrol. I looked on Google Earth and saw the Bowser. The only vehicle requiring fuel to park in front of Bowser. So about this place, this trip as we know it would look very very different. We've had the detour to come here, which we're happy to do. But we wouldn't have had the fuel range to get all the way back over to the Dargo area. So luckily, Maroomba store does have petrol. 91 only though, that's alright. Alright guys, the Maroomba store is good, but after stuffing around a bit here, it's closed and their Bowser is empty. So this is not ideal because we now need to go to Mansfield, 25km away, and return. And our goal was Blue Rag Summit and Camp tonight, but it's going to be midday by the time we get to Mansfield. Anyway, it's just another bit of adversity and an obstacle to deal with. And it just has to happen. We've just got to make do with what the circumstances have given us. I didn't expect to be doing 100km per hour on the tarmac on this trip, just dropping down to 80 now, but because we had fuel problems where we're going to now, we had a detour in the opposite direction, it's caused a bit of tarmac to transpire at high speeds. But I'm actually secretly glad that it did because my Motoz Rall-Z and Tractionator tyres, I haven't done anything over 70-80km an hour on them yet on the tar. I've only got 16psi in front and back because I'm carrying the same pressures as the bush, and I'm going back to the bush so I haven't changed the pressures. And the tyres are doing really, really nicely on the tar. My 6A6s, which I do believe overall would be better on the real hardcore stuff in the bush that we've just been, but on the road they're pretty ordinary to be honest. But these tyres feel really, really nice. So that's a positive, I'm glad that I've got to experience that just now, and I'm fully loaded up as well, and it's just sitting nicely. Well done, well done indeed. So we've just turned left onto Speculation Road, road meaning hopefully decent condition, it's not named track. But there's about 50-60km of straight ahead of the unknown for Josh and I. We've connected it to the Jeep track and the Twins track, which will take us to Blue Rag, but we really don't know what it's going to be like in between from here onwards. So hopefully we're presented with easy going riding because we're both enjoying the break on the body and the bikes, taking the sights. But whatever's presented to us we'll have to tackle because we've got no other option than to get to Blue Rag so day 5 can be epic. Well as expected, like everything on this trip, Speculation Road is no longer a road and it's just rock everywhere. It's not hard, but it's hard going if that makes sense. Just this rock is just relentless and it just trashes your bike, it really does. My suspension sucks again, it's not responsive at all. Must have been going on for a few kilometres now, that rock stuff. Probably averaging around 20-30km an hour at the moment. Lake Cobbler track. It's just going up and down, scenic views, just so hot, no rivers to be had to fill up with water yet. That's what I really need. Wow. I think we came across this track by accident. It's delivering though. Look at this tree. Please be able to get around That is spectacular. This has got to be one of the highest points we've had for sure. Far out. An accidental track. What a climb. I thought that tree was on the track. Yeah, I just thought someone's got to figure it out, I'm not walking. That's like an unexpected treat this track. I said this track's an unexpected treat. Yeah, I didn't think it would have this many hills. But it's still pretty smooth. Hard, but not ******* rocky. Yeah. Wow. Bikes are working hard in the heat though. I think the next river I might just fill up just to be on the safe side. We're making our way to, we're slowly getting to Blue Rag. We're 60 kilometres away. But it's 3.30 in the afternoon. And we just don't know the quality of this track. But it's the one that we need to take, apparently. A little bit deep. I hope this track is friendly. It looks like it's had a lot of road works and tree clearing done on it. But we're still getting there. We're travelling in a true east direction at the moment. Oh wow. Come on big ball kit. This big ball kit in second gear. It's going to be a good one. Second gear just has power. Oh yeah. Second gear, go, go, go. Yes, yes, climb Sally. Oh beautiful. It's not over yet. Just powering up at 50k an hour. Just stop on that. Come on torque, torque. Yes. So much more power at my disposal. Oh beautiful. That was a decent hill climb. Josh and I are now on Buffalo Range track. We just came up a track I don't know the name of but the maps took us there by, really by an accident. And it was so awesome. The hill climbs, the descents, it was smooth, it was steep. And no one talks about those tracks out here but to me that was just as fun as any billy goat or blue rag. It was scenic. But now on this track have a look at the views. Another unexpected track for us to take. Looks like a pretty main track. But you can see these trees are all dead. We're getting close to the blue rag which is evident by the scenery around us because that's what it looks like as well. But just look at these trees up here. Just wow. That looks crazy. I've just had a quick stop. Hopefully Josh doesn't think anything is wrong. But I love, I love, love, love this sort of stuff when you can see all the other tracks that just zigzag all up the mountain range. You can see them all the way to the end over there. It just looks so cool to see them zigzagging through the mountains. Just goes to show how much exploration can be had out here by a four wheel drive or a motorbike. Just epic stuff. I'm having a blast today. An absolute blast. We're now 39km from the trig point of blue rag. About 29km from the start of blue rag and all we need to do now is conquer this track which is I think the jeep track which then takes us onto the twins track and then we're on Dargo Plains High Road. But the day is getting away from us. It's now 4.30pm and we're just in the absolute thick of it. But we're going to get there I'm telling you right now. I tell you what we're getting so close to blue rag now about 15km. Just finishing up on the twin track. But it has just been a relentless barrage of rocks, rocks, rocks on this trip. And these poor Motoz tyres are copping a flogging. They really are. And I'm running 15 and 16psi. Josh is running 20psi. I'm surprised. I really am but none of us have had any pinch flats. I tell you what the tyre is really performing highly. The more I get to use it. There's a couple of things I've got to do with my head in. But overall they're a bloody rock solid bit of rubber. Oh come on. Ah the famous blue rag. We've gotten here at 5.40pm. There's no way we'll get to the top. Let's go Joshy. Hopefully our campsite is there. Available. And first thing tomorrow morning we can take on blue rag. Because that would be epic. Especially if there's no mist. We'll see. This comes up on the hillside. We're going to have to hint at it as a campsite. Pretty gnarly to get to. I'll just check that spot. Not much wood here but just before we commit to something. I've done that before where you commit and adjust around a corner of something better that you see the next morning. Oh this has more wood. Mate I reckon we treat ourselves and we just go on this soft grass. And we can be barefooted and see if we can have our third fire in a row. Which is unheard of for me. I think it's a good call man. It's 5.40pm. So let's do it. Well this is what our campsite looks like. I've got my bike, my tent, Josh's bike, Josh's tent. We believe we're going to get a fire going. We've scavenged enough wood to give it a good shot. But in the background there, Blue Rag is going to be just over that little hill. With the sun setting. We are officially camping on and along the Blue Rag range track. So it's going to be fantastic. I'll do a quick Q&A with Joshy and then that'll be us for night number four. Tomorrow, our last day, we've got to climb three major mountains being Blue Rag, Mount Gibbo and Mount Pinnabar. And then cross at Tom Grogan Crossing. That's a must. It's going to happen. That's what we've been saying every night and every day. But that one's going down for sure. Big Josh JB mate. What's up? Another day that got away from us but we nearly got to the goal of Blue Rag summit. But that's tomorrow morning. Yep. Major hiccup was petrol. Yep. What a bummer. That was a stuff around man. If we had that, about an hour probably we lost there. If we had that, we could have got to the top of Blue Rag and easily got back down here. Yep. A hundred percent. That was an extra 60 kilometers of travel and then obviously we stayed and had lunch. But what about, I've been talking about my whole video, the rerouted, rerouted route. And I reckon we counted one of a pretty bloody awesome bunch of unknown tracks that we just, or you probably just strung together. I didn't even know half of the ones we ended up on. I'm like, I don't remember that name being in the list of ones that I picked. So yeah, but anyway, most of them turned out pretty good. Yeah. What about Cobbler Lake track? That was epic. Yeah, it was good. Steep climbs, but it was smooth in between it. So you could actually keep a decent pace rather than try and bloody bounce off all the rocks or something. And I think, I think even though we try to get an easy day today, cause I know tomorrow's going to be pretty full on. I think today was just as hard as any other day. Yeah, today was massive, man. What, it's 6.40 now. We got on the bikes at 8 pretty much. At 8 on the dot, yeah. We didn't get to eat just before 6, so. Yeah. Another massive day. Well guys, we're going to have some food. I've only had one little meal today. Josh's had a bit more food than me, but we've got one last day. There's zero complaints really because it's all, it's all getting done bit by bit. And the tracks have been epic. We're both beat to shit. Definitely. The bikes are getting it done though. And we've got one last day to really wrap this high country trip, wrap it up I guess. So yeah, we'll catch us tomorrow morning. Blue rag in the morning. Yes, yep, absolutely.