Woohoo! COVID 19 restrictions are lifting and it’s great to be able to get back on the bikes and enjoy rides with mates again. I didn’t know what to expect today seeing it’s the first club ride for a few months. Six of us turned out at Caltex Hume at a ridiculous hour to start (8AM) – given how cold it was this morning. I thought I’d hold for a bit beyond the advertised start time, so I held out on the very brief ride brief until around 0810.
The route today – rather predictable to start - down to Cooma, left and a coffee stop at Nimmitabel. From there, it’s “down the Brown”, and right at Hwy #1 into Bega. We’ll refuel there before jumping onto the back road “Tathra Road” and into – Tathra. From Tathra we will continue along through Bermagui, and lunch at Narooma. After Narooma, predictably north and through to the run back up the Clyde, home. The ride should be around 530km door-todoor from my place.
As we set out, the temperature kept falling – it started at 3 and was down to zero as we pulled into the café on the left at Nimmitabel (not the bakery). All of us needed to thaw our toes out, so it was a timely break. We then tip-toed down the Brown Mountain – which looked a bit slick with the wet mist which preceded us. We gathered on the main road into Bega township (which is Carp Street) and made our way to a servo to top off the tanks.
The meander from Bega to Tathra and Bermagui is just sublime, lots of old 1-lane bridges to get through as we snake around the Mimosa Rocks National Park and the numerous south coast lakes. It’s nice to just take our time (after all, it’s a long weekend and double demerits are in force). Through Bermagui, and we arrived in Narooma for lunch. I’m not one to call ahead to book tables; given that we left at 0800 it wouldn’t have helped anyway.
There are only 6 of us – how hard can it be in a town this size to find a place to eat. I decided to head for “O’Brien’s Bistro”. The other likely choice would have been ‘The Quarterdeck’ along the promenade at Wagonga Inlet. I chose Obrien’s, as the view of the Narooma wharf precinct and Heads is always nice.
Well, it turns out the choice might have been the wrong one. Seems the combination of places being closed during COVID and a new chef didn’t help. We were told there is a 45 minute wait for lunch, which become 90, and for a few of us it looked like we would never get fed. How hard can a burger (John and Bill) be, or a Chicken Parmigiana for me, be? John and I finally got ours, but Bill called it quits and cancelled his order.
We arrived at Narooma at about 1, and it was just after 2.30 that we were done and headed off. I mentioned that we’ll stop for fuel (those that need it) at either Mogo (always cheapest in this area) or at the base of the Clyde just north of Batemans Bay. Bill waved us off at we stopped at the servo (he decided to have an extra long ride up through Nowra and Kangaroo Valley), and it was only the Indian (Kevin) that needed a drink. My god, should have stopped at Mogo after all – as although it was the middle day of the long weekend, the amount of cars that were at the servo. Must have taken at least 20 minutes for Kevin to get fuelled and saddled again.
As a result, we only have about 90 minutes of daylight left – so I advised that I’m not stopping anywhere between here and home, and set off. Fortunately there was not a lot of slow traffic back up the mountain, so the ride home was brisk and enjoyable. And the highway patrol was friendly – while they were ever present none of us (to my knowledge!) were invited for a chat.
Thanks to those that decided to break the restrictions today.
Chris Dietzel
Riders:
- Kevin Sherman: Indian
- John Grace: Tiger 1200
- Chris Dietzel: GTR1400
- Neil McRitchie: GTR1400
- Bill Henshaw: Triumph Explorer
- Colin “NewFella” Sweeny: BMW K1200LT
