Michael & Tracey Winters - Triumph
Sprint
Andrew Campbell - GL 1800
Chas Towie - ST 1300
Gary McCurley - VFR 1200
Chris Dietzel - FJR 1300
We set off for meeting point at Epic
from Bungendore passing police conducting RBT due to the Ute Show at
the Showground the night before. We met four other single riders at
Epic – where were all the pillions who were looking forward to a
few hours Christmas Shopping in Berrima?
We spent some time discussing which
route to take. Last week there were stretches of dirt road on the
road from Bungendore to Tarago, yesterday there were roadworks out of
Canberra on the Federal Hwy near the NSW border, Macs Reef Road is
just one long stretch of filled in potholes and today there was the
possibility of being breathalysed on the way through Bungendore. As
no-one had partied hard the night before it was decided to return to
Bungendore via Bungendore Road and fortunately by the time we got
there all the ute drivers had been dealt with and the police had
moved on. We headed east along the Kings Highway turning left at
Braidwood Road travelling through Tarago before joining the Hume
Highway at Goulburn. Braidwood Road was enjoyed as it had lots of
sweeping corners and is a good alternate to Tarago Road.
We stopped at the usual place at
Marulan for coffee. We left after about half an hour with yours truly
test-pillioning a Honda Goldwing. I must say that it was very
comfortable, much like sitting in your favourite armchair whilst
travelling at above 100kms. And I loved the GPS! And whilst I
remained true to my original ride, I did have cause to re-evaluate my
preference later in the trip. We left the Hume Highway just after
Marulan travelling along the Highland Way. Having gone to great pains
to avoid the roadworks between Tarago and Bungendore we were
horrified to find that kilometres of this road had been dug up ready
to be resurfaced. Rocks, gravel, dust from cars going the other way –
not to be recommended. We rode through scenic Tallong, Penrose,
Bundanoon, Exeter and Moss Vale before arriving in Berrima.
We dined at the Surveyor General Inn –
lovely grilled barramundi, beer battered flathead, great slabs of
quiche and a very tasty looking beef and Guinness pie. Alas, no room
for desert but I remedied this by purchasing some calorie laden
pastries at the Gumnut café to be taken home for ‘Ron. Here I was
disappointed that there were no fellow Christmas shoppers on our trip
as the pub had a crech operating where we could have safely left our
chauffeurs to while away some time. We
did a bit of window shopping but never got the dreaded plastic out of
the wallet so back to the bikes where we persuaded a kind tourist to
take our photo.
Who would have thought some basic
physics would have been our undoing? I was already on the bike, when,
as Mick tried to gain his seat, it fell over. I do remember thinking
“%$# I’m falling off the bike!” before landing in a messy heap
on my hands and knees in the gravel on the side of the road. Lesson –
parking bike perpendicular to a hill in gravel is not a good plan.
Mick will tell you it was the Triumph trying to toss me off after I
had sampled the Goldwing but I prefer the more scientific
explanation. Everyone kindly rushed to help us right the bike with
all concerned that we were OK. I have two matching bruises on my
knees and bike has a pannier with some war wounds. Rider OK and bike
OK to go.
We stopped for petrol at Sutton Forest
and to discuss the bike drop before turning off at Marulan to travel
through Bungonia, avoiding an echidna on the road, back to Tarago. We
retraced our forwards trip riding back along the Braidwood Road to
the Kings Highway. Fortunately a kindly motorist and another rider
warned us of a sneaky policeman training his radar on all oncoming
traffic. Chris reported that he looked very disappointed as we all
travelled past at a sedate 100kms. The original plan to stop for
coffee in Bungendore was scuttled due to the rainclouds and wind so
while the rest of the riders travelled onto Canberra, we were home in
a minute.
