International Female Ride Day Tutus on Two Wheels 2025

5 May

*Not the whole crew, but this is where we started at Cooma*

3 May 2025 marks the 19th International Female Ride Day. It’s the first Saturday in May EVERYWHERE in the world. On this day, women motorcycle riders enjoy getting together for a ride.

Some of the women riders of ROC - Riders of Cooma, The Monaro and Beyond, thought we would make a weekend of it.

So the idea was born to ride from our home in Cooma to Lakes Entrance for the night and back.

Here is our journey.

Day 1 - Cooma - Bonang - Lakes Entrance

Firstly, let me say, that Annie on her BMW GS 750F and Geri on her Suzuki 250 VStrom, came the furthest from Berridale. They had to get to Cooma to meet us at 8am. It was a whopping -5 degrees when they left at 7:30am. Hats off gals, that’s hard core.

So back to our 8am meeting in Cooma. Michelle was already at the meet point on her Suzuki GSXR1000 (Stevie pictured here). Michelle is sometimes a little tardy, but this day, she was early. Must have been excited. Renee was also ready to roll with a billion layers on to keep warm. She is riding a green Kawasaki 400 Ninja. Lis is also on a 400 Ninja, which is black and silver. Great bike choice Gals! Me, well I’m on the Honda CB1000R.

We found a friendly motorbike rider who obliged with a quick snap that you see at the beginning of this blog, not everyone, but you will get to meet the others soon enough.

We head off to our first stop Nimmitabel, yes, pretty damn cold, and not 150 metres up the road, we head into a thick thick fog. As you can imagine, it’s 100% humidity with very low visibility. The water vapour quickly settles on the outside of my visor. I pop my visor up as I really couldn’t see anything, to quickly get the water vapour on my glasses and the inside of my visor. Shit! Now my vision is really impaired. The five girls behind me are definitely suffering the same. When will this fog lift?

About 20 kms into our ride, finally the sun peaks through the fog and we get to Nimmitabel. That was a hard start to our ride, but things were to look up.

We stop at the Nimmitabel BP to collect our next rider, Sue on her gorgeous Yamaha Ténéré 700. It has been pimped up with the universe decal. She looks amazing.

On to Bombala to pick up the next rider, Nicole on her 2018 Sportglide Harley Davidson. What a machine with an exhaust to match. (There’s one in every crowd ;)). We now have our eight riders for our Tutu Adventure. That’s Nicole in the pink tutu with the balaclava on.

The Mighty Bonang

After a quick stop at Delegate Cafe, which is a great place to refresh before getting ready to tackle the mighty Bonang down to Orbost. Yep, as you can see, we are about to tackle 105km of windy road, and anecdotally, over 700 corners in total. This took us over 2 hours to ride.

Now some of our riders had never done this many corners before, nor the Bonang, so there was some tired Tutu’s, me included, when we all regrouped at the bottom of the Bonang. What a great road for honing cornering skills, even though there was a couple of hairy moments. Yes green moss and some slippery, wet bark. Myself and Michelle hit the same slippery spot on a corner and very quickly regained our respect for our beautiful machines.

The onto Lakes Entrance. Only had 60kms to go until we reached our destination for the evening. We arrived at around 3:30pm to a much needed break.

Our accommodation at Lakes Entrance was so great. We stayed at the Lakeside Waterfront Motel and to everyone’s pleasant surprise, we opened our doors to find freshly refurbished motel rooms.

There was a lovely garden table right out the front of the motel overlooking the Lake, where we all enjoyed a beverage, or two, before getting ready for our night at the local RSL.

A lovely dinner was had at the local Rissole and a few cocktails, might I add, before retiring. We all were tucked up by 9pm. Very exhausted little tutu’s.

Day 2 - Lakes Entrance - Cann River - Eden - Cooma

Early wake up for an 8am start. We headed for a lovely brekky at Salty Groms Cafe - Lakes Entrance. Quick pic at the Lakes Entrance lookout before heading to Cann River.

So back to Orbost for a fuel up before a leisurely ride to Cann River. Nothing too strenuous today, but it was a long haul to Eden for lunch. It was a lovely change from the twisty Bonang, which we all enjoyed.

‘Stevie’, Michelle’s bike, had a little moment at Cann River and wouldn’t start, but she finally got her going and we regrouped for fuel before heading off to lunch at The Australasia in Eden. Lunch was great, the weather was sublime and we were all refreshed before heading off again.

Quick pic at the Fishing Co-op area in Eden before embarking on our journey homeward bound.

Left at around 2pm and turned left, off to Wyndham, just out of Eden. I knew this sneaky beautiful ride through Myrtle Mountain Road. This stunning little ride takes you through this gorgeous rainforest with lovely lush tree ferns and massive gums reaching to the sky. The sun was peaking through the trees which gave a beautiful filtered light as we rode. This road pops out at Candelo which is a quaint little town first settled by Europeans in the 1830’s. We didn’t have time to stop, but there is the General Store there at Candelo which is great for a coffee and does fab brekky and lunch.

The last road to tackle for the day is Brown Mountain. Have you even been up or down Brown Mountain? Highly recommended. The surface of the road is amazing and each corner is cambered with perfection. Ahhhhh, lovely corners once again.

We regrouped at the top of Brown Mountain and said some goodbyes before Nicole peeled off to head towards Bombala. Said a fond farewell to Sue in Nimmitabel. Then home to Cooma. Got home around 5pm, safe and sound. Exhausted, much!

Until next time we ride Tutu’s on Two Wheels, you bunch of amazing, daring, gutsy women.
I love you all.

Please enjoy our gallery of extra pics.