Trevor McLeod – Ride Leader – Yamaha FJR1300
Peter Arday – Tail-end Charlie – Honda ST1300
Mick & Tracey Winters – Corner Markers – Triumph Sprint 1050
Saturday – It’s always a good ride with Trevor as ride leader – you see parts of the country and roads you didn’t know existed.
Six of us met at McDonalds at Nicholls with Ian and Sally planning a trip to Carcoar. We four (Trevor, Peter, Mick and Tracey) left Nicholls shortly after 9am riding along the Hume Highway before turning off at Burley Griffin Way to travel through Binalong and Harden leaving this road at Wallendbeen to ride along the Wombat Road to Young.
The joys of spring riding are many – the weather is warmer, there are lambs in the paddocks, there are yellow acres of canola and the pong from unseen road-kill warming beside the road hidden in the long grass is that much stronger.
We stopped at Young for morning tea at the Bakery – hot coffee and tea, savoury and cherry pies with Peter buying a fruitcake for later. We left Young to travel along back roads with marvellous scenery through Thuddungra and Quandialla where the unfortunately named Bland Hotel is – we weren’t tempted to stop (although internet reviews rank this pub as very good so perhaps a destination for another day?)
At West Wyalong we had lunch where Trevor and Tracey amused themselves bemoaning the inconsistent use of apostrophes on shop signs in the main street. Leaving West Wyalong we rode along the Mid Western Highway to Rankin Springs giving one snake a bit of a hurry up and passing what looked like baby goannas beside the road near Weethalle, entering Griffith from the north.
After checking in we had afternoon tea outside our rooms with a table, plates and cutlery kindly donated by our hosts. Another Triumph rider, Robert, joined us – he was moving from Griffith to Orange and was retrieving the last of the household valuables.
We had dinner at the Il Corso Cafe in the main street with the usual superb food served very quickly.
Sunday – we decided that as the designated driver was the only one without a bike licence we might try to rent a car for the day to do our own winery tour. The lovely lady at the Information Centre kindly knocked back Peter’s practical suggestion we borrow her car for the day after neither Thrifty nor Avis answered their phones. We then thought that Peter, being an ex-local, could stay and do her shift at the Centre, and she would drive us around the town. So we were back on the bikes.
With Peter as our tour guide we first visited the Pioneer Park Museum created to highlight the Italian influence on the area. After a quick lunch at Bertoldo’s bakery we rode south to Darlington Point along Kidman Way.
The benefit of taking a local with you is that he knows all the interesting things to see – we stopped at Darlington Point for an ice-cream and a walk over the bridge on the Murrumbidgee River.
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| Rules rules rules! |
We then rode to Coleambally to see the Bucyrus Class Dragline. A kindly motorist warned us of policeman waiting at side of the road and we saw him again as we sat in the Lions Park admiring the dragline. After drinks and lollies at Coleambally we rode back to Griffith, seeing our persistent policemen for the third time.
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| Afternoon munchies at the motel |
We again had afternoon tea outside our rooms at the Motel, this time joined by the owners Gavin and Irene who bought with them a chicken terrine and a cheese and fruit platter. This combined with the Young fruitcake, and other cheeses and savoury biscuits ensured there was no walk up the street looking for dinner that night.
Monday – we had a light breakfast at the local Maccas watching the RBT in operation outside the Motel as we returned. The day started off a little windy as we rode towards Leeton with a police car doing a U-turn further up the road in front of us thereby leading us into Leeton. We stopped at the Narrandera bakery for morning tea then rode along the Newell Highway through Grong Grong, Matong, Ganmain, Coolamon, Marrar, Old Junee, Junee, Illabo, Bethungra, to Cootamundra for lunch. During this trip we were again warned by a kindly motorist of a waiting policemen but the 4WD was empty as we rode past.
Lunch at Cootamundra was highlighted with an offer to buy the Triumph by the café’s proprietor whose husband owned a black Sprint – but how would we get home? The ride home after lunch was back through Harden with us peeling off at Murrumbateman for Bungendore.
The trip was interesting for the high number of police that we encountered and the lack of wine purchased – we never even went near a winery!
Many thanks to Trevor for arranging a marvellous long weekend trip with glorious weather.
