I’m not sure who put together the last ride calendar; I wasn’t at the planning meeting but here I was suffering the consequences. It was 8:30am on a frigid foggy near-winter’s morning with the temperature hovering around 5° or maybe minus 20° (it was hard to tell) and I was at the BP Watson trying to figure out how we would make a short ride to Marulan expand to fill three hours.
OK, I had figured that out the night before, but you catch my drift. So did the nine other riders, who stamped their feet trying to keep warm and watched as the steam leaking from their trousers formed little snow clouds that blocked the weak, bleak sunshine that was struggling to break through the early morning fog.
But as we questioned and debated why such a short ride would demand such an early start on such a cold morning, we started to warm up; it is amazing how much heat a simple conversation can generate! And by the time we hit the road, just after 9am, we hardly noticed that it was still only 5° (or minus 20° as the case may be).
With Kim filling the vital role of tail-end Charlie, we headed out on the Federal Highway and turned north on the Sutton Road until we reached its logical and physical conclusion at the Merino Café in Gunning for our smoko stop. By now the fog had disappeared and the sun was shining so we sat at the tables outside in the back garden, gulping down our coffee before it froze in the still chilly air.
From Gunning we continued north on the Grabben Gullen Road for 19km before turning east on the bumpy but fun Gurrundah Road, which we followed to Goulburn. Here we waited for some time for tail-end Kim to turn up, which she eventually did, claiming she was delayed because she had stopped “to talk to a wombat”. Make of that what you will.
As it was already getting close to lunchtime, we abandoned our leader’s ambitious plan A, which was to navigate to Marulan via a complex route that might or might not have included Bungonia, in favour of a much shorter plan B, which simply entailed a short blat up the Hume Freeway. We reached the Meridian Café in downtown Marulan bang on 12 noon and settled into our Specially Reserved tables.
The overwhelming favourite for our 10 diners was the Italian sausage rolls with side salad and spicy chutney, and I can report it was all very tasty. Toasties and soup were also popular. Full as googs, we drifted off in dribs and drabs, with the last of us leaving at about 1:30pm. Kim complained of wind on the way home (make of that what you will) but I think everyone enjoyed the 300km-or-so ride.
Sorry, no photos from this ride.
Ian
Sorry, no photos from this ride.
Ian
- Ian Paterson (Honda GL1800)
- Mike Carmody (HD Softail Slim S)
- Kim Tito (BMW F700GS)
- Les Robinson (Triumph Trophy 1200)
- Neil McRitchie (Kawasaki GTR1400)
- John Barratt (BMW R1200GS)
- Mick Riddle (BMW R1150RT)
- Genelle Mills (BMW F700GS)
- Chris Dietzel (Kawasaki GTR1400)
- Andrew Campbell (Yamaha FJR1300)
