You know something is not quite right on a ride when tail-end Charlie gets to the destination before anybody else and corner markers are strung out across the countryside wondering if they should stay at their posts till they starve to death.
This was the situation on Sunday’s ride to the mysterious Illawarra Fly, which is rumoured to exist but which I have never seen despite having visited the place three or four times. But first, let me assure you than nobody starved to death or even missed lunch, though we could very well have died of thirst at the Fly (thank god for Coca Cola!).
Our little band of eight people on seven bikes left Watson at 9am and rode via Macs Reef Road to Bungendore (sorry, Mick and Tracey!) and then to Tarago and north on the Braidwood Road to the Hume Freeway and east to Marulan for a coffee and a pie. So far so good, although a pink teddy bear crucified on a telegraph pole 15km south of Goulburn could have been a harbinger of what was to come.
From Marulan we rode through Tallong and Bundanoon, enjoying the beautiful scenery and near-perfect weather. We intended to turn right onto Ringwood Road, which bypasses Exeter and Moss Vale, just before the railway line, but because of roadworks at that corner, Ringwood Road was closed. While this was unfortunate on the day, in the longer term it is great news because they appear to be upgrading what has been until now a dangerous intersection.
So, we continued straight ahead into Exeter, turned right under the railway line and got back onto Ringwood Road (or Werai Road as it is at this end), heading north on the shortcut that bypasses Moss Vale. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, our last two riders – including, of course, tail-end Charlie – missed the corner marker in Exeter and continued straight ahead towards Moss Vale.
If you’re familiar with the bypass route, you will know that there are four more corners to be marked before you join the Illawarra Highway. If you can do simple arithmetic, you can probably deduce that by the time I got to the Illawarra Highway, all our remaining known riders were marking corners somewhere on the Southern Highlands, waiting for tail-end Charlie – or anybody! – to come along, and I was alone like a shag on a rock waiting to turn onto the highway.
The next few details are a bit hazy but, with the help of Chris, who had spotted the errant pair somewhere between Exeter and Lake Cargelligo and figured out what had happened, I rounded up all the others and we made our way to the Illawarra Fly. And yes, there were rider number six and tail-end Charlie who had beaten the lot of us.
Not only that, there were about 30 riders from the Ulysses South Coast branch, for indeed this was an inter-branch meet-and-greet ride. To tell the truth, it was kind of humiliating to be leading this ride. In Canberra branch we have 300 members on our mailing list and we could only muster seven to go and meet up with a neighbouring branch. The South Coast branch is spread out from Wollongong to Ulladulla and they had more than four times as many people along.
To add to the weirdness, the Illawarra Fly café had no water, which meant no tea, no coffee, no toilets. And on top of that, the Tree Top Walk was closed for some unknown reason (perhaps because it doesn’t really exist), which took away part of the justification for going there.
Some of the South Coast group rode back to the Robertson Pie Shop for lunch while the rest of us dined at the Fly. When we could no longer ignore the need for a toilet, we rode into Robertson for a pit stop and a welcome coffee.
We also fuelled up in Robertson, where amazingly the petrol was 12 c/L cheaper than in Moss Vale or Canberra. It had been a beautiful 22 degrees at the Fly, 24 in Robertson, 28 in Moss Vale and it crept up to 30 on the freeway on the way home. Despite the day’s oddities, it was great to be out with friends and chat to some of the South Coasters.
Ian Paterson
Ian Paterson GL1800
Mick & Tracey Winters Trophy 1200
Les Robinson Trophy 1200
Maritta Heiler Kwaka 900
Kris Jirasek GSXR1300
Craig Fraser GL1800
Chris Dietzel GTR1400
