Tracey and I were asked to come and
share the Forster Ulysses Club’s Christmas in July at the Albert
and Victoria Guest House in Mt Victoria close to Katoomba. We are
connected to this group by Kris and Peter Bentley who are Tracey’s
sister and brother in-law and they are the reason I started looking
at the Ulysses club originally even before buying my Sprint.
I met
this group of friends two years ago when I took my first long ride
after twenty five years, travelling to visit my family near the
Queensland border. I stopped off and stayed the night with Kris and
Peter at Wingham and joined them for a club ride to Kempsey. On the
way back I was invited to join them for their Christmas party so this
was my first example of how big our Ulysses family actually is.
Coincidentally we bumped into three of them while queuing for the
Grand Parade at the Maryborough AGM.
Travelling via the Queanbeyan Aldi
store to pick up some more winter warmers in our new Pearl Wing we
made our way to the Goulburn bakery for a late breakfast then drove
through Taralga, Oberon and on to Mt Victoria. We arrived at a
building still in the 1920’s era with lovely staircases and
fixtures. We were greeted by the Manager and Chef and shown to our
room where we rested until the main group of twenty two arrived from
Taree.
After some brief introductions we moved to the Imperial Hotel,
opened in 1878, to start our Christmas celebrations in front of
blazing open fires. After a couple of hours we walked back to our
guest house to find a long table had been set with a Christmas theme
in the dining room.
The food was delicious – smoked
salmon with a savoury cream cheese filling lying on a rosti bed
accompanied by grilled asparagus, pork and turkey with as many baked
vegetable as you could eat, finishing with plum pudding served with
berries and cream – all washed down with mulled wine. The
festivities went on with the normal banter between members and their
wives and a great night was had by all.
We woke to the sounds of practice for
the Moto GP as members huddled in the upstairs TV viewing area. The
Guest House laid on a hot breakfast with individual tastes catered
for served in the breakfast room – cereal, toast, eggs (cooked to
your liking), bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes and juice with coffee and
tea on tap.
As the Forster
bikes are more used to warmer climes, some sounded a black ice alarm,
even though they had spent the night safely parked undercover, as the
temperature dipped to below zero as they left the warmth of the shed.
After packing and loading the Pearl Wing and saying our good byes we
hit the road to Oberon where the temperature did not rise above 2
degrees. Snow had been forecast overnight and sure enough there was
snow covering the ground and trees beside the road all the way to the
Abercrombie caves.
We thought we would meet up with the
brave riders of the ACT Ulysses Club at Taralga Pub for lunch after
giving the Forster group a hard time about their dislike of cold
weather, but all we did was watch a movie with the publican and some
locals, enjoying a healthy meal of chips and gravy, before heading
home alone.
We considered this weekend a dress
rehearsal for the main event – the Canberra Ulysses Club Christmas
in July to be held at Merimbula and we’ve suggested to our in-laws
that they come to our Club’s celebration next year to see how much
fun we have.
