A small group of us congregated at
Caltex Nicholls for the Chomp’N’Chat ride to the Burrinjuck
Recreation area on 16 December 2012. I had a call from Detlev (Det)
Voges earlier in the week (from Murrumbateman) who I’d not met
before ‘Sure, come along – We’ll pick you up at Murrum or you
could come up to Nicholls’.
As it happens, Det and his wife Hemmy
were already at Nicholls when I arrived. As it’s close to Christmas
and some of us may not have been out to Lake Burrinjuck before, I
gave an account of what could be expected on the road down into the
Lake reserve (narrow and winding, and with the potential of 4WD
owners with boat trailers that tend to consume the entire road, the
message is to use the provided convex safety mirrors that exist, to
allow a look around the corners). It is however a good enough sealed
road all the way.
The weather was a bit overcast with
winds brewing, but putting a positive spin on it ‘Wets not needed’,
we headed out. See the attached images, compliments of Detlev, who
posted them to his Dropbox site. One of the Jpeg images is the
recorded route taken for the day. What a great idea!
We headed out (the seven off us,
including the two pillions) via Gundaroo (via Nanima Road onto the
Murrumbateman-Gundaroo Road), Gunning, Hume Hwy (boring!), onto Yass
Valley Way, and back to the Hume again (via Yass of course). 30km or
so south of Yass we rallied at the turnoff to Burrinjuck.
After about 15km or so more, the
road narrows with warning signs ‘Please turn on headlights’. Of
course, on bikes we always do! The road narrows, and the last 8km is
as expected narrow and winding, so we use the safety mirrors. Not a
challenge in sight. If there are 4WD’s with boats, they’re either
going our way or already at the lake. It wouldn’t be so easy a week
from now though!
We arrived at the park arrivals area, where normally
you could expect to pay a day entry fee of $5, get a #4-digit# access
code to punch into the keypad to the boom gates, but luck was on our
side; the caretaker asked how many bikes (five) and so she recounted
the tale of bikes falling over when people lean over to put their
code in for the gate. Sounds ugly. She says ‘Entry on the house
today, line up two-by-two at the gate, and I’ll hold the boom open
for you’. Great!
We headed for the shop/service
station, to order lunch; a big, fat legendary Burrinjuck burger with
the lot ($7) has my cholesterol on the rise again, washed down by a
can of coke. A great start to my Christmas diet regime (as if!). We
relaxed for a while and headed out on a gentle (I thought, but not
for Lin who has recently had a knee reconstruction) walk down past
the boat ramp and along the lake front to Carols Creek campground.
A
surprise awaits – I thought we had a lot of rain this year. But
they’ve released 30% of the dam for irrigation purposes. I’m
coming back here for camping/water skiing for a few days at New Year,
so the look of the exposed rocks on the ‘beach’ does not impress.
We discussed the geography of the area for a bit (where is the
opening to the Murrumbidgee River, where is Wee Jasper and Good Hope
etc), and then headed back to the shop. Bade farewell to our fellow
riders, and headed out the way we came in. With the majority of the
group, I took the short way home via Murrumbateman (Christmas
shopping to be done) while Det & Hemmy headed further north-west
to catch up with friends in Binalong.
- Ride Leader - Chris Dietzel, Yamaha FJR1300
- Gary McCurley – Honda VFR1200
- Graeme & Lin Barber – Honda Goldwing GL1800 (Red)
- David Greig – Triumph Thunderbird
- Detlev (Det) & Hemmy Voges – Yamaha FJR1300 (ex AFP bike)
