We met (most of us anyway) at the new cholesterol corner at Caltex 'The Foodary' Weston Creek.
We headed out through Uriarra Crossing onto the highly entertaining Mountain Creek Road. The scenery along this road is looking magnificent even in drought conditions. We then followed Wee Jasper Road to Yass, and Lachlan Valley Way to Boorowa, managing to avoid any meaningful interaction with the highway patrol.
Of course, it hadn't occurred to any of us that the Saturday of the October long weekend is the date of the world-renowned Running of the Sheep event in Boorowa. Our normally peaceful entry into sleepy old Boorowa was rudely disrupted by a blocked main street, jumping castles, bagpipe players, market stalls, street performers and the general annoyance caused by large numbers of sheep-running aficionados. I imagine there were also numerous visitors from Pamplona. We still managed to procure the mandatory coffee and pies at the Superb Café.
Having extricated ourselves from the sheep-induced frenzy in Boorowa we backtracked slightly to Cunningar Road, onto Galong Road, Bouyeo Road, and through the busy metropolis of Galong. We headed down a section of McMahons Reef Road and then onto Berremangra Road.
Berremangra Road is a bit of a revelation for back-roads enthusiasts. The scenery is beautiful and the narrow, sealed road has lots of interesting twists and hilly bends, not to mention blind crests and stray cattle. Dave described it as a real roller-coaster. You certainly need to have your wits about you – no lapses of concentration on this little road!
Berremangra Road joins the Hume Hwy a few kilometres East of Jugoing. We turned off at Jugiong, following Jugiong Road and Rosehill Road to Cootamundra. Again, the scenery and roads were very entertaining - lots of hills twists and turns, and very little traffic.
Lunch at the Family Hotel at Cootamundra. The 'Family' is a rather plain, working class hotel on the outside but has a nice big dining area and good pub food at very reasonable prices. The roast pork special at $14 was hard to pass up.
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| Roast of the day - Family Hotel Cootamundra |
We returned home via Cullinga Mines Road, Jugiong Road, Bouyeo Road, Burley Griffin Way and then onto the boring old Hume and Barton highways.
This was a very well-planned and researched ride (thank you Ian) with a group of capable back-roads riders. There were a couple of alarmingly close encounters with grey kangaroos, but while we maintained a very good pace, everyone rode safely and well within their limits.
Hopefully there will be plenty more back roads tours in the ride calendar in future.
John Grace
Riders were:
- Ian Paterson – Honda GL1800 (Ride Leader)
- Andrew Campbell – Yamaha FJR1300
- Scott England – BMW R1200RT
- Darryl Cullen – Suzuki Bandit 1250
- Dave Jones – Yamaha XT1200
- John Grace – Triumph Tiger 1200 (your correspondent).
