It was an early start and the day looked, oh so promising – beautiful clear skies a bit of a breeze, so it looked perfect for a longish sort of ride. Rocked up to Heathcote expecting a multitude of expectant riders – a bit disappointed at the turnout. Nevertheless Dane, Peter (Monkey) and Scott were there to greet me – Craig rolled up as I was explaining the route but advised he would have to do a Half-way Dave – no worries. I had heard from Martin (The Bus) that he would meet us at the Bargo Turnoff – great.
So, five of us set off – down the OPH, Appin Rd., Broughton Pass, Picton Rd., Hume H’way. – there picked up Martin – through the ‘Y’ towns, Old South Rd., Moss Vale, turned up Throsby St./Yarrawal Rd., Werai, Bundanoon, Penrose Rd., Wingello – here stopped for a pleasant interlude, and said our good-byes to Craig. Then pressed on via Tallong, Marulan, turned off at the Marulan South exit and via Jerrara Rd. to just north/west of Bungonia – along the way we stopped at Pheasant Wood Circuit as Martin and Scott had never been there for a look-see. From there onto Mountain Ash Rd. and proceeded to Goulburn, after first viewing the 1924 Motorcycle GP Memorial. Might add that nearly from the start of our journey we were subject to gale force wind conditions with the temperature in the low double digits.
We stopped at Goulburn to fuel up – Scott advised he was suffering from the early throes of hypothermia – it was bloody cold – and made the difficult decision to head for home – turned out to be an excellent choice. This left the fabulous (foolish) four to proceed on – we hadn’t travelled far, in fact we were still in Goulburn, and it was prudently deemed necessary to don wet weather gear – for obvious reasons. The temperature was now in the mid-single digits with the added assistance of a very chilly wind factor. Needless to say, we toughed it out and though Gurrundah pressed on to Grabben Gullen,.
By this time the temperature was solidly around the 5⁰C mark and coupled with intermittent showers hrealding our way to Grabba Pub. Here we were welcomed by the owner and his son – who runs the hotel – directed to an open fire and given well appreciated genuine country hospitality.
After a very nice lunch and a few beverages we mounted our very wet two wheeled velocipedes and made our way to Goulburn via the Range Rd. (another one) and then slabbed it home. I wish to express my sincere and extreme thanks to the five brave souls who accompanied me on this venture and especially Dane who acted as sweep for the whole trip – thanks guys!!!
Oh, if anyone’s interested I logged 486.6K’s.
TTFN
Gerry Bloemen (Bullfrog)
# 1309
