Barry Way Ride, Snowy Mountains, Australia

[IanJ]

Greetings All

Travelling back to Melbourne from the Snowy Mountains HU meeting I decided to go back along the Barry Way. It runs from Jindabyne to past Buchan (173km) and travels through the Snowy Mountains national park over a couple of mountain ranges and along the snowy river.

About half that distance is dirt/gravel track and the rest is tarmac. The dirt sections are either long wide straight runs along the river where you can get some speed up or narrow windy runs as you climb over the mountains. There are a few sections that have some big pot holes you need to keep an eye out for and there are other sections that have a light sand covering that can get a little deeper in the outside track of the corners. I was on an old R100GS with pure road tyres and I don't have any sort of offroad skills to boast about, but I didn't have any issues. That said if it had been raining it would have been a slower trip, I suspect that some of the clay sections would be very slippery.

The tarmac sections has similar features, either long stretches of sweeping bends or windy sections over hills. There are very few speed warning signs on the corners so you need to read the road ahead very carefully, there are a few surprise corners to keep you on your toes.

Fuel could be an issue for some bikes. I filled up at Jindabyne and the next fuel station at Buchan (173 km) was closed due to no power. The next petrol station was in Bruthen another 50 km from Buchan. Before I got to Buchan there was a place on the west side of the road that advertised fuel I don't think it was a regular petrol station and I didn't take note of exactly where it was. There are other tracks in the area to check out but fuel range will limit any exploring.

Along the river are a few marked camp spots which looked like great places to stop overnight.

Here are a few photos, They don't really show off the track but I didn't plan to do this write up until after I got home. I was having too much fun riding.



The first viewpoint on the way down



View from the rail, the road is visible in the distance



Along the river



Higher up along the track



A seldom seen sign

A highly recommended trip if you're in the area.

Ian J