Narooma 23rd December 2012

Attendees:

• Andrew Campbell Kawasaki ZX14R
• Chris Dietzel Yamaha FJR1300
• Garry McCurley Honda VFR1200

Well most people must have had some last minute Christmas shopping to do, as a hardy band of three turned up for the ride to Narooma. Nevertheless what we lacked in numbers we possessed in spirit!

The route for the day was to be down the Clyde Mountain to Narooma for lunch and then on to Bega and the Brown Mountain to make our way home. We were also going to meet up with Tracey and Michael Winters and Jan and Butch Wills in Narooma for lunch as both couples were holidaying in Narooma at the time.

We decided to have our first stop in Braidwood to have a coffee/pie, etc. We were discussing Chris’ impending purchase of a new bike with the merits of the Kawasaki GTR1400 and the soon-to-be released Triumph Trophy being discussed. Well as luck would have it, Anders of Eurotune had just taken delivery of a new Trophy and lent it to a couple who’d just arrived in Braidwood and had parked it right next to our bikes!

So we all had a good like at the bike and a fine looking machine it is too. Seems like it could be worth a look if you’re in the market for a sports-tourer.

So on to Narooma for lunch at Taylors fish and chip emporium, where we met up with our fellow Ulyssians.

Meeting at Taylors Fish and Chip Emporium

The weather forecast for the day had been for late showers, so I was a bit surprised to see the sky turn very black with thunder being heard occasionally. Looking at the radar I could see that there was no chance of escape as there were storm cells everywhere! So we set off south from Narooma and got to the Snowy Mountains Highway when the heavens opened (and I mean opened). It really bucketed down and with our vented summer jackets we all got pretty soaked. The good news was that after Bemboka the weather turned into a hot summer’s day so we were all virtually dry by Nimmitabel.

We said our good byes at Nimmitabel and continued on our individual paths home.

All-in-all a great ride.

Ride Report – Lake Burrinjuck 16 December 2012

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)

Ride Report – 9 December 2012 – Berrima

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.