RIDE REPORT
SUNDAY July 19, 2009
CHOMP & CHAT
 

Riders
Sylvia SinfieldSilverwing
Gordon WhiteTiger 1050      
 GSX750F          
Trish HoldsworthAquila 250
Dave SuttonV-Strom           
Terry MillsVT750
BMW650 GS       
Yvonne LairdGS500
Michael BelcherBuell              
Ruth & Ian & Laura WillsK1 LT
Honda 750          
Judy PerryH 650
Gary McDonnaldDnepr MT9 650         
Joe & Raija AllenShadow 750
Garry McCurleyVFR800            
Leigh GannonK100RT
Colin WilsonVT750 Shadow

There were a few other riders attending but these are the ones who wrote their names on the list. (The ones I could read at least). Sorry, being relatively new to Canberra I don’t know everyone and their bikes yet. Try to make sure you get your name on the ride list (clearly printed) so you can get a mention in the ride reports as attending.

Sunday morning July 19, 2009. Great day for a ride. But that could be said about any day. The day before my birthday and since I hadn’t been out for a ride for a few weeks I promised myself that this was my birthday present to me so I told my wife and family not to make any other plans that included me for this Sunday. Well Happy Birthday to me cos I got my wish and had a great day for a ride and I enjoyed every minute. Keen to go I got ready to leave home at 0900 thinking that we were meeting at 10.00. Final check and … ooopps it’s 1100. Back inside for another cuppa. Eventually got to the servo at 1040 to find a fair number already there and waiting. Good to see a few new faces turn up for the day. All were made welcome as I was a few months ago as a new comer to Canberra.

After a bit of a chat it was decided that Garry would be our ride leader for the day and that we would make our way to the Green Grocer in Goulburn for lunch as the restaurant in Captains Flat we were headed for was closed till the end of July. How inconsiderate! 

So, two ways to get there and couldn’t decide…… we were going to split up in two groups and meet up in Goulburn. We’re ready to go. Wait, what’s happened now?? New Plan. We are all going the same way, Garry leading. Let’s go before we form another new plan.
Leave the servo at Watson about 11.00 and head up the Federal Highway to the Bateman’s Bay turn off. Right turn and down the road we head. Road kill everywhere! Rabbits, foxes, kangaroos, wombats. I presume nobody has the ‘Road Kill Recipe Book’ as no one stopped to pick any up. What a waste. On to Bungandore. Visa up with the cool breeze on my face, gee I have missed this over the last few weeks. Get to Bungandore and turn left towards Goulburn. Bright sunny day and a few clouds but the wind is a real pain to ride in, especially with a full fairing on the K100. Riding along this road open to the elements with open fields the wind was pushing us around a bit. Sometimes I was riding along a straight stretch on a 30 degree angle fighting the wind. I was watching some of the others also battling against it. Ok, stop up the road a bit and let the troops catch up, a 5 min stop. Remember that extra cuppa I had back at home. We’re all caught up and back on the bikes again. A group of Harley riders was pulling up for a break just as we headed off again. They were the first of many groups of bikes we saw on the day. Everyone out to enjoy a winters day ride. On we go toward Goulburn sun in our faces wind at our sides and a full bladder. 20 k to go. Goulburn in sight and I can’t wait.

Another stop in town to gather everyone again. No toilets here either. Garry assures me it’s not far to go to lunch. This time I stay on the bike. 5 minutes. Great, let’s go. Finally we’re here. Off I go to find the loo. Ok that’s done let’s have a nice lunch. Pretty packed at the Green Grocer so some head in there and some head to the main street for lunch.

Garry’s instructions… meet back here at 2pm. By 2pm some who had to get back early had departed to make their own way home. After some refueled, at 2pm we headed of behind Garry again towards home. Through Goulburn backstreets we found ourselves on a beautiful country road, green rolling hills and as we went on the road got narrower and the rolling hills started to look more like back country and the road got narrower and I was starting to look for hillbillies and a funny looking bald kid sitting on an old house verandah clutching a banjo while his cousins were makin out on the back of the old ute parked in the driveway. When Garry stopped at the next corner waiting for the troops to catch up again I just had to ask…’Where the Fukarwe??? He assured me he knew and not to worry. As we continued along this road that was like a ribbon that had just landed on the landscape flowing all over the place off in the distance I could see the front riders of our group off in the distance looking like they were just ridding across the paddocks.

The fields were covered with sheep and flocks of white cockatoos and galahs were dashing across the road and over the fields. Damn, you don’t want to hit one. A pound of parrot meat in the head or chest at 80k would really hurt! And what’s the go with all the sheep in the paddocks just been shawn? Don’t these farmers know its winter? And how would you like to be born in the middle of a field in the middle of winter? It’s lambing season as well. Lots of cute little lambs running around trying to keep warm. No good snuggling up to their mothers, they don’t have any wool on them. Any way it’s all very interesting and lovely countryside to ride through. Thanks Garry. Eventually we get to Collector and regroup to bid each other farewell after a great day. Some head home and half a dozen of us stop in Collector for a coffee before heading off. Before leaving I asked Garry where the nearest petrol station was, someone forgot to fill up in Goulburn didn’t they. He tells me Eagle hawk is the closest and I think I should make it there ok.
Everyone leaves as do I and Garry is last. Along Lake George Garry passes me and I bid him solong. A few hundred metres up the road Garry is on the side of the road waiting and when I catch up he pulls back on in front of me and I assume he must have remembered I had said I was low on fuel so he rides with me till we get to the servo at Eagle hawk where he bids me farewell and heads off home.

Thank you Garry you show the true spirit of the Ulysses club. Well I hope everyone else had a great day cos I really enjoyed it. I look forward to every opportunity I can get to head out for a days ride with the members of this great club.

Leigh Gannon
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