1015
– Gave the lunch venue (Mayfield Mews, Bowning) a call, to advise around half
dozen of us coming for lunch, we will be there within a couple of hours. 1025; Andrew
is back, and still no more starters. “Why not?” I ask myself; the weather is
fantastic. So be it, just the 5 of us.
Ride
brief: “I’ll surprise you all a bit – we are not going directly to Bowning, but
a bit of a back road to Yass Valley Way and on to Bowning from there”.
The
route took us back through West Belconnen and onto Uriarra Road. Up through the
new estate area Denman Prospect (haven’t been out that way for a while, the
development surprised me), and turned right at Uriarra Crossing, rising up
through the tight narrow road and the recently-sealed Fairlight Road (it is about
time!). Turning right at the T-junction onto Mountain Creek Road, it was found
that a lot of care is needed here. So much loose stone on the surface that
Mark’s W800 decided it would almost get lost in the gravel. All good, and we
proceeded at a leisurely pace (the road is a bit broken and full of potholes) that
took us by green fields and lots of sheep. These were reportedly not too happy
at being startled by the busy and quirky sound of the W800 twin. After 20km or
so of Mountain Creek Road, another right turn onto Wee Jasper Road and over the
bridge across the Murrumbidgee River and the rather large flood plain. Lots of green
contrasted with a very low river level.
We
eventually arrive in the north-east end of Yass, and turning onto Yass Valley
Way we ride on through the town, joining up on the Hume Highway for a few
clicks, and then turned right onto Bowning road, arriving at Mayfield Mews (4 Leake
Street). Andrew noted that if you haven’t been there before, must do that with
the bride (he hadn’t). Lots of garden stuff for her to buy and give you some
projects to do. I was just about to settle down for a coffee when another rider
comes into the place and says “Does Chris Dietzel want his credit card back”.
What the …?; turns out that when I took my wallet out of the top box it fell
out onto the ground next to my bike outside the Bowning pub. A Good Samaritan,
and that doesn’t happen every day. That is my stroke of luck for the day!
Lunch
(Coffee and Turkish rolls with a variety of different toppings – I had the
smoked Salmon). Kim wasn’t so happy though. Her ‘untoasted’ Turkish came out
later than the rest of ours, Toasted! Chomping and Chatting done, and after a
while Andrew took the lead and said, “I’m off” and so we headed out to the
bikes. I noted that we hadn’t had any pictures of the group yet, so we hastily
clamoured around the “Mayfield Mews” signage out the front for a selfie taken
by Andrew.
Everybody
bade their farewell and made their own way back to Canberra through the most
direct way – the very well trodden Hume & Barton Highways. A round trip of
some 180km door to door.
A
pleasant day. Thank you to those that made it.
Chris
Dietzel
Neil McRitchie
– Kawasaki GTR1400
Andrew Campbell
– Yamaha FJR1300
Kim Tito – BMW
F700GS
Chris Dietzel –
Kawasaki GTR1400
Mark Sayer – Kawasaki
W800
