Grabben Gullen 21 January 2018

I was kind of hoping no-one would turn up for this ride because it was going to be bloody hot – indeed it got up to 39 degrees – and an empty carpark would mean I could return home and drink gin and tonics all day in air-conditioned comfort.

But this was not to be. When I arrived at the servo at Nicholls, Mick and Neil were already there and we three were soon joined by the rest of the crew, eight brave souls in all. After a brief ride briefing followed by a delay as our ride leader farted around with a new iPhone mount and app he was road-testing, we set off in bright sunshine.

The ride to Boorowa was smooth and sedate, for the app in question uses the phone’s GPS to give a continual digital readout of actual speed (as opposed to speedo-indicated speed). The Goldwing’s speedo turned out to be reading 6 km/h above our true speed (as measured by the GPS) on the highway and 7 km/h above on the freeway.

At Boorowa we adjourned in the air-conditioned but rather optimistically named Superb Café for the customary pepper steak pie with sauce and large flat white extra hot. It was only 34 degrees outside but already three of our number could sense impending immolation and were preparing to jump ship.
I won’t name and shame them, but as these three headed back to Canberra, aiming to get home before the hottest part of the day, the remaining five of us – Mick, John, Chris, Peter and I – rode east towards Crookwell. For some reason the road was even more fun than usual, even though we were still riding relatively sedately.

The Albion Hotel is dramatically situated atop the highest point in Grabben Gullen.

We reached Grabben Gullen, with the Albion Hotel standing aloof at the highest point of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it village, just before 12:30pm and introduced ourselves to Debbie, who runs the pub with her husband (and chef) Ray. She had reserved us a long table for 12, so there was plenty of room to spread out. Nonetheless, being herd-type animals we all huddled together in the middle, though this was more for ease of conversation than for protection.

Ray prides himself on using only fresh ingredients, and the fish & chips and help-yourself salad was delicious. Debbie said the fish was blue grenadier, a kind of ugly looking animal that makes up for its lack of charisma by being very tender and tasty. 

As we were finishing our meals and cold refreshments (non-alcoholic, let it be noted), a great commotion outside heralded the arrival of a dozen or so Harley riders from Wollongong who had headed inland to escape the mild coastal conditions.

After chatting to them for a while and checking out Ray’s array of motorbikes, some of which are for sale, we headed for home via Gunning and Gundaroo. And as soon as I got inside I had that gin and tonic I had been looking forward to all day.

The app I was using, Speedometer 55, also has a tracking feature that lets you record your journey and see it as data, on a map and in a graph. For the record, from Caltex Nicholls to Grabben Gullen (I forgot to turn it on after lunch) we travelled 196 km at an average speed of 97.5 km/h. The whole day’s ride, according to my trip meter, was 333 km.

Ian Paterson

The Riders:

• Ian Paterson        GL1800
• Mick Beltrame    R1200GSLC
• Neil McRitchie    GTR1400
• Peter Daniell        R1200GSA
• Steve Hayes        V-Strom 650
• John Barratt        R1200GS
• Andrew Campbell     FJR1300
• Chris Dietzel        GTR1400

 

Mick has traded in his Victory and brought along his new transcontinental tourer to show us.