Long Ride - Day 17 - Bathurst to Cowra

Long Ride day 17 - Bathurst to Cowra

The plan for today was to always just get as far as Cowra.  I've always wanted to visit the area where the "Cowra Breakout" occurred, it's a part of our history that most people know very little about.

 

Staying in the luxurious Ridges at Bathurst meant there had to be a sleep in.   We left at around 10am and headed down the road to the National Motorsport Museum.  This was another place I have always wanted to see and to be honest, while it was extremely interesting in some aspects, I thought it would have more.

 

There were certainly some interesting displays, the midget speedcar that Jack Brabham raced was a standout, as was a collection of bikes ridden by Gregg Hansford, and a great collection of old bikes including a Honda NSR500 as raced by Wayne Gardner, but I thought there'd be more displaying the history of Bathurst.  It needed a few more cars from the different eras.

Ultimate View!  You can have this during race weekend for
$1000 per night with a minimum of 5 nights.  There's also a
five year waiting list.

Don't get me wrong it is a great collection and well worth visiting, it just needs more focus to it, I think.  And thankfully the Peter Brock collection wasn't too large, I personally don't subscribe to the theory that he was Australia's greatest racing driver, despite nine Bathurst victories he never really achieved anything else.  Of Aussie drivers I wouldn't even put Brock in my top ten.

 

By the time we left the museum it looked like it was about to start raining, we headed into town to get breakfast and after a few laps of the town centre we found a bakery.  A toasted ham, cheese and tomato, a coffee and juice and, a chat to a couple of ladies who thought we were either heroes or crazy for what we were doing.  They were genuinely interested in the whole ride and how we were pushing on despite the weather conditions.  We were then on our way.  Sort of.

Jack Btabham's speedcar was a highlight ...

We all donned our wet weather gear and headed off towards Cowra.  The original plan had been to go to Cowra via Parkes and Forbes so that we could see "The Dish", the radio telescope that had been used during the Apollo space program.  NASA had employed the help of Australia to track the missions to the moon.  While our part was only small compared to the overall program it was an important part and since the movie "The Dish", it has now become an important tourist attraction.

 

With the weather well and truly closing in, and me already feeling the affects of a bad cold, we decided that we would head straight to Cowra and see what would happen.  It was a smart move, the weather was starting to get pretty bad.

 

... as were Mike Hailwood's leathers.

After about 20 kilometres of travelling things started to get worse.  Not only was it getting colder and wetter but the rain had found a way down the back of my neck and by now my leathers were getting wet and very cold.  Add to this that my Ugly Fish goggles had again let water inside of them, so that I was either getting eyes full of cold water or they fogging so bad I could see a thing.  It was getting diabolical and bloody dangerous.  I pushed on to around 40 kilometres to go then had to stop, a few times I had miscued corners due to not being able to see.

 

I pulled off the road and by now feeling absolutely rubbish attempted to clean my goggles.  The prescription inserts weren't a problem however, the goggles themselves wouldn't clean, they seemed to be coated with a greasy film.  I had not choice but to put them back on and get on with the ride.

 

Two names you wouldn't expect to see at
Bathurst.

After a little while we got o Cowra and essentially checked into the first place we came across, a place called the Breakout Inn.  It's a newish place with massive, well appointed rooms.  The quality of the place is second to none.  I'd recommend it to anyone, and the owners were more than happy to take on a bunch of sodden bikers.  I think they felt sorry for us.

 

After a hot shower and a couple of Cold & Flu tablets I pretty much passed out, dozing in and out until dinner time.  Dinner was a pizza from Eagle Boys, something I wouldn't recommend.  They stuffed the order, and it was weirdest Aussie pizza I have ever had.

 

Anyway, off to bed now and hopefully tomorrow I'll get to see some of the history of the Cowra Breakout.

 

The breakout occurred on August 5, 1944.  The POW camp was located near Cowra and was used to detain over 4,000 Axis military prisoners.  It also included 2,000 Italians as well as a number of civilians, mostly Indonesians who were detained on behalf of the Dutch East Indies government.

 

While the POW's were treated quite well, cultural differences between the Japanese and Australians led to tensions.  A riot at a similar camp in New Zealand in 1943 forced Australia to tighten the security which the Japanese thought was unnecessary. 

 

Right, this weather is now officially giving me the shits.

In early August the Japanese got word that they were going to be moved to Hay, 400 kilometres to the west and where we stayed on our first night of the ride.  Unhappy at this they planned and executed the breakout.  With weapons more akin to the stone age they stormed the fences on three fronts.  Many were killed by the guards, others committed suicide, while around 360 actually made it out.

 

Of those that escaped many committed suicide or deliberately got themselves killed to avoid being recaptured.  All survivors were recaptured within 10 days of escaping.  The commanders of the escape order their soldiers not to attack any Australian civilians during the escape.  In fact many locals said that the Japanese acted with respect and grace.

 

The camp continued until 1947 when the last Japanese and Italians prisoners were repatriated.  Cowra now has a significant Japanese war cemetery and a Japanese garden, hopefully we will get to see both tomorrow depending on the weather.

 

With the weather being so bad today we only completed around 165 kilometres, taking the overall total to 6,455.  Tomorrow should add a fare bit more to this.