Sometime in July, I did a job in the inner-west and was passed by a bike that I had not seen before “in the flesh”. It was in military spec so I assumed it was old, it had a single cylinder motor with wartime Harley Davidson looks about it. I followed the bike for a while in the traffic, along South Darling St, across the harbour and lost it about Falcon St.
I have always had an interest in choppers but had become more interested in recent years after watching the American Chopper series, I even bought a classic cruiser push bike with similar looks to the Enfield – black frame with chrome bars / wheels / etc, springer seat and full mud guards as there was no way I could afford the $50k required for a custom Harley. I considered other classic styles of bikes, Triumph, old BMWs even Ural but it was still out of reach. A friend of mine has a 2005 Triumph T100 Bonneville and I always thought I’d like to get a similar bike one day if I had the money. I had heard of the Royal Enfield brand before and knew a bit of the history (well, enough to know it was originally British but then made in India) They originally made guns and then bikes and went broke like BSA, Norton et al with the Jap bike revolution. So I went on the Internet and started investigating out of curiosity. I had no idea they had been revamped, were imported into the country and available new here as I assumed the bike I saw was a private import and old.
The Enfield seemed to “tick all the boxes” – Classic look and feel, affordable, not too powerful, easy to ride, customisable, no work compared to buying an old bike. After a couple of visits to the local dealer Motociclo who were great I eventually went on a test ride. No brainer – within a month of seeing one I had one!
The bike has modern features like electric start, electronic ignition, electronic fuel injection, a twin piston front disc brake, modern performance road tyres, side-stand and roll-over cut outs and lambda sensor/catalytic convertor etc. However it retains some traits of yester-year ; Drum rear brake, 80mm/120mm suspension, no counter balance shaft in the motor, spoke wheels with tube tyres.
All in all a great way to be conveyed from one place to another in a timely fashion without rushing
After looking at the weather forecast we decided to go for a short ski tour on Monday whilst the conditions were fine as it looked like a storm was coming in later in the week.
Angus has recently learnt to telemark ski (see previous blog) and has taken on Emma’s old boots and skis which meant the three of us could go ski touring.
The first time Emma went outside the resort on skis she used her normal downhill skis and just shuffled along. We didn’t go very far, just out to Kosciuszko Lookout so I thought it would be a good place to start for Angus since you can see the main range and some of the more notable peaks from there.
Emma, being the seasoned veteran, with 3 previous back-country trips under her belt, (Kosci Lookout, Dead Horse Gap and Ramsheads) just took off and we didn’t see much of her except her back and her tracks till we reached the lookout.
If there was more snow down lower I probably would have taken them to Dead Horse Gap as there is more opportunity to have a ski but he enjoyed getting out of the resort and seeing the back-country for the first time in winter.
A few years back we took Angus out to Mount Kosciuszko in summer time and he didn’t fair too well with the distance and insisted that there would be a chair lift or helicopter waiting at the top to take us back!
He had similar sentiments on this trip but soldiered on with only one complaint after a false summit however the destination was then in sight.
We stopped in the shade of a granite tor and had a rest, a snack, a bit of fun and a good look around then took off back to Thredbo.
![]() |
| Crossing the creek – no need for brigdes |
![]() |
| Signature |
![]() |
| Looking back to Thredbo |
![]() |
| Almost there |
![]() |
| Rest spot with Mt Kosci in the back ground
Emma being a Unicorn with a icicle ??!!! |
![]() |
| Next he’ll want to take up ice climbing |
Angus and I went to Thredbo the for opening weekend. It’s usually a social weekend, chance to catch up with mates that we haven’t seen since last season, rather than excellent skiing. Due to lack of natural snow at this time of year, skiing is limited usually to the Merrits area which is a bit boring and High Noon which at this time of year is icy and patchy.
Knowing this I decided to bring along Emma’s touring Tele skis and boots so Angus, Telecrag and I could go for a cross country ski, probably to Kosciuszko lookout which is not far as the crow flies from the top of the chairlift at Thredbo.It would have been a chance for Angus to get out of the resort and see Australia’s highest mountain covered in snow, however due to low overnight temperatures and a frozen snowpack, we decided not to go.
Instead, after lunch on Saturday, Telecrag and I gave Angus a Telemark lesson on Friday Flat, Thredbo’s beginner area.
Angus has professed to having “retired” from ski school, since his normal alpine or downhill skiing has progressed past the fun and games that kids going to Thredboland enjoy.
I suppose there’s only so much you can learn from skiing behind a bunch of kids following an instructor and his recent “melt-down” at ski school in Canada proves he’s over the “heads shoulders knees and toes” games they play sometimes. (he let the instructor have it and told him he wasn’t playing his stupid baby games and he just wanted to go skiing black runs). He eventually went back to “Whistler Kids” and had a great time by the way.
Anyway, he was very excited to learn Telemark skiing, which for people who don’t know is the original technique of making a turn on skis and it originated at its namesake in Norway.
Modern skis have the boot fixed to the ski at both ends and to turn you push the heel out to steer the ski around a curve. In Telemark skiing only the front of the boot is affixed to the ski. This is so you can lift your heel and walk normally up hills which is the major advantage / attraction with Telemark. However the drawback is that to gain stability you must put one foot forward and one foot back and turn in this position. This has been aided, in recent years, by the development of Telemark gear to the point that it resembles alpine ski gear and gone are the skinny skis and short leather boots of yesteryear that were nightmares on any slope more than a few degrees.
The technique requires a fare bit of leg strength as you are constantly doing lunges and hence is more tiring than alpine skiing. It is also more demanding as you have to coordinate more bio-mechanical actions than alpine skiing which is about as technically challenging as sitting on a toilet compared to Telemarking.
We started him out at Friday Flat which is the flattest area of Thredbo and has the worlds slowest chairlift the Easy Does It. Telecrag could walk up the hill on his pattern base cross country skis quicker than we could line up and catch the lift up. Hopefully that was the last time I have to ride the EDI during this lifetime.
On Sunday Telecrag went home after lunch and Angus had his second half day go at Tele, this time up on Merritts which has a bit more gradient.
He thought it was great that Phil skied past and yelled out “nice turns” and got a big rap at dinner that night.
By Monday he was a converted Tele skier and left his alpine skis behind and skied all day on Tele.
We also caught up with Kate and Rocky and the boys did a few runs with them too.
Angus did surprisingly well given he is only 8 and after skiing Saturday and Sunday afternoons and all day Monday, he could get very close to pulling off a Tele turn.
He got lots of comments from people especially the local Tele-Mafia at Thredbo who thought it was great the he was learning to Telemark.
Now my only problem is finding an new pair of Tele boots for Emma as I dont think she will get hers back from Angus.
Here is a Video
I have been self taught in most of the sports I participate in and its only the most extreme sports like scuba diving, sky diving or the like that you go to a school to learn the necessary skills before you actually do the sport.
One usually starts doing a new sport after being introduced by friends and the skill progression is usually aided by input from the people that got you into the sport or others that join you along the way.
Sometimes the consequences of being “green” in a given sport are low and training is not required unless you want to move up to the next level or be an instructor yourself.
In other sports you can quickly find yourself out of your comfort zone or with a huge knowledge deficit.
Such was the case with packrafting, which is a very new sport that has come about from the fusion of paddling with other sports like bush walking, fishing, biking, climbing or skiing etc. People. wanting to go that extra mile, leverage the packraft’s light weight ( a few kilos) and portability (size of a small tent rolled up) to assist their other sport by means of taking advantage of the river – if it’s there you may as well use it.
However, as the sport gains momentum rather than a fusion sport it has become a whitewater sport on its own, aided by its whitewater versatility, packrafting, rather than being another tool in the draw when needed to compliment another sport, we find ourselves just going out and running whitewater on these really fun boats.
When it comes to whitewater I have zero experience, I used to look at whitewater like I would at a volcano, something to stay the bloody hell away from. But as usual my desire to do more before I’m too old got the better of me, I bought a packraft and started out, with guidance from the usual suspect, Darren, and ran a few rivers, very cautiously I might add.
Then a trip came up that up’d the ante, a river in flood, Grade 3 rapids etc. Although, we were very care full and checked everything out before running anything, I got wet twice, and ended up floating down a set of rapids and Gus did the same only he peeled his fingernail back which required some on-river first aid, but in the end no one was hurt badly. Notwithstanding, Darren had broken his coccyx on a remote multi-day whitewater river trip at Xmas which knocked him back a bit too I think. Usually he is unphasable !!!
It made us sit up and think we need to know more about this sport and after discussion with like minded paddlers from the packrafting forum we organised some informal training provided by a very generous and experienced kayaker who also packrafts.
We had a great weekend with a great trainor/mentor and a great bunch of people.
Darren as usual was the photographer.
He’s like a Ninja, you’ll be paddling along and next minute click click click, you don’t even see him get the camera out of the dry bag !
Not only is he an excellent photographer, He has a great a skill for writing and a witty style.
A true wordsmith.
I’m usually the video dude but left the GoPro at home for this trip.
I just used my iPhone 4s, which is all I use for stills now since Jenny took my SLR off me !
Here some photos from around the campsite at Thredbo Diggings in the Snowy Mountains.
The Group
The campsite
Old Faithful
Gus’ and Darren’s tents
Darren getting his stove and kettle out of his tent for an early morning cupa !
Be vwery vwery qwuiet….I’m hunting macwos
Some frosty grass in the morning
It was that cold even the turds had ice on them
Turd Macro
Duck!
Looking towards Bullocks Flat / Ski Tube / Lake Crakenback Resort
Crackenback Range behind the campsite
The Thredbo River….looking cold in the shadows
Looking up the Thredbo Valley towards the ski resort.
Remnants of some early season snow from Tuesday’s blizzard remains in the torrs above
I thought I’d put up some images and video from last years holiday to Crescent Head
Only took a year!
Most probably all photos were taken by Jenny on my Canon 1000d
I have also created a video of a motion sequence taken of me surfing CLICK FOR VIDEO
** UPDATE – 21/3/2012 **
I just updated the vid to High Definition as the DVD quality one I did was not that good
Please give it a try it is much better resolution
let me know if it does not run properly as its the first HD one I have uploaded
Did my second white-water Packrafting trip with Darren on the weekend.
For those who dont know a packraft is a small blow up boat, they weigh about 3kgs and roll up like a 2 man tent.
They are virually indestructable – like an IRB “rubber ducky” surf rescue boat.
My first river entry was sitting on top of flood debri like dead tree branches and pointy sticks, and you can scrape over boulders all day long without popping it.
I got interested in Packrafting with Darren initially because of the multi-sport aspect of being able to walk, ski or mountain bike to a creek, run the creek and then bush walk or climb out which is something that you cant easily do with a hard shell kayak.
Recently we have been running rivers to gain skills in white water which is a little more fun that flat paddling and a sport all in its own.
Anyway, the trip we did on the weekend was from Pheasants Nest bridge on the Hume Hwy to Maldon Weir which is near Picton, about 11kms on the river.
The water had been high due to all the rain and we were lucky that it came down to a reasonable level that turned out perfect as we were able to experience the river with a good volume of water but it was not too dangerous.
It was a great trip and learned a lot from Darren and Gus.
Here is a link to Darrens blog with some pics
PHEASANTS NEST TO MALDON
Heres some video I took
I just updated the vid to HD as the DVD quality one I did was not that good
2012 03 18 HD Packrafting Nepean – Pheasants to Maldon
Recent Comments