Got’M Girls Weekend 26/27 September 2009

For something different I signed up for the Got’M Girls Only weekend away to Goulburn.  Figured it’s always good to get away with the girls, even if it was only to Goulburn (approx 100km up the road).  I roped Tess into coming along and the plan had been to ride out via Gunning and Crookwell, undoubtedly with lots of coffee stops/breaks along the way :o)

So Friday rolled around and the  weather forecast was truly awful.  Cold, rainy, sleety, hail, gale force winds, storms, etc.  Tess and I reviewed the matter and decided to try and pick a clear window in the afternoon to make the mad dash up the freeway to Goulburn and we’d meet the girls there.

So after a sleep in, I packed up, then headed over Tess’s under a grim sky… we suited up, and hit the road, with a storm hot on our tail.  We managed to avoid most of the rain until Goulburn :)  The wind picked up around Collector and was pretty rough but we made it.  Got into the pub around 3pm, no bikes in sight, so we found a little undercover hidey hole for our bikes and checked in.  Turned out the girls had already been there and had lunch, no idea where they had gone to though!  So we got our room and noted there was only a vacant double bed…. hmmmmm.

Noodles across the road from the pub were a good late lunch and then off to the shops for supplies (coke and junk food) and we chilled out in the room, listening to the rain/hail come down and being grateful for getting into Goulburn when we did!  Still no sign of the rest of the girls… we had a good laugh at some really old video clips and eventually it was bourbon o’clock.

We started drinking, and Mrs Doubtfire came on the telly… hilarious with a bellyful of bourbon!  A sad bit came up and Tess and I are looking at the screen in horror - right smoke time.  At some point I finally phoned the girls, they were up at the Workers Club for dinner, having spent the afternoon there - we decided we would see them when they got back, which turned out to be not long before Mrs Doubtfire finished.

So, bourbon consumed, movie finished, it was time to check out the band that the pub had told us would be playing.  We donned the dancing shoes and headed over… and the band, while they were quite good, was definitely not dancing material.  We watched the band for a bit before giving that up and taking over the pool table.

The place was pretty dead and we tried to determine where the action in Goulburn was (where are all the cowboys?????) and were advised that either the Workers Club or a night club called Flamingos (affectionately known by the locals as “Dingos”) were the places to be.  We were then advised that Dingos was the place to be if you liked drugs and fights :O

We eventually wondered up the street to the workers club.  Scary.  Shit.  We didn’t hang around, decided “Dingos” just wasn’t going to cut it and headed over to the RSL club where we could hear the band.  The band was quite good and there was a total of 5 people rocking on the dance floor… they might have had a full set of teeth between them…. of course we got there when the band had two songs to go…

So back to our room, where Tess and I got to share a very dodgy double bed. 

Sunday… was much like Saturday.  But windier.  We jumped in Becsta’s car for the journey up for breakfast and then when the girls all headed home in their cars, Tess and I went back to bed.  We finally got up around lunchtime, lunch in the pub and then packed up and headed for home.

What followed was probably my worst experience on a motorcycle ever.

We left goulburn and the wind was terrible.  Truly fucking awful.  Out onto the freeway and we passed this poor learner on his little naked 250 being blown all over the place. 

And then we hit the Federal.  We tried the usual “pick up the pace” and it did not help.  I’m leaning the bike so far into the wind, just wondering how long my front tyre is gonna hold it for.  We managed to pull up, what can we do?  Just continue on.  We set off again and the wind got worse.  I’m sitting behind Tess, at a ridiculous lean angle fighting so hard just to keep going in a straightish line… and watching Tess lose her battle as she gets pushed closer and closer to the edge of the road.  We managed to wobble off to the side of the road again and decided fuck it, we’ll have to go slow.  At times we were sitting on 50km/h.  Which is interesting with cars coming up behind you at 110km/h+.  We made it though.  And if I ever see a forecast for gale force winds again, fuck the riding I’m staying home.

FarRide #11 - in memory of Davo

I had signed up a long time ago for FarRide #11 to Tottenham.  And then Davo’s funeral was set down for the same day.  So no FarRide and I was going to head up to Cooroy for the final send off for an inspirational man… but finances and time didn’t allow so it was back to the FarRide.

After some thought, I decided I would do an SS1600 in memory of Davo.  I sorted out a black armband and headed off to the local servo at midday to get my start receipt.  The usual guy I see in there was serving so he signed my witness form, I told him what I was doing and why, and he shouted me my first tank of fuel.  So I headed off, slabbed it to Yass then jumped off the Doom and headed through Binalong, and onto Cootamundra and down the Olympic Highway.  This is much preferable to the Doom!  I went through The Rock (I have always been intrigued when I see the signs to “The Rock”) and there is a rock there… a totally appropriately named town!  No time for pics though, so I kept going, had a quick bite to eat at Albury and then I hit the Murray Valley Highway through to Cobram. 

After adding some layers and switching to the clear visor I headed up the road a little further before joining the Newell Highway and heading back up into NSW.  It got colder and colder as I went on, but I had found a little van setting a very nice pace so as much as I wanted to stop I didn’t, until I had to for fuel at Narranderra.  Another layer went on and I continued on with the road pretty much to myself.  For once there was no full moon on a FarRide and the stars were spectacular… had to keep reminding myself to watch the road.

By the time I got into West Wyalong I was freezing… usually I’d pull up at a local park or in town but being about 11pm(?) and there being a few dodgy looking people about I decided to find somewhere else, and ended up pulling up outside a motel which still had its lights on.  I was wriggling into my wet weather gear when a bike pulled up… it was another FarRider!  We confirmed that I was in fact OK (and later I had to explain that I don’t usually hang out in gutters!) and eventually I’d wriggled into that damned one piece suit and was underway again.

Peak Hill, NSW

I got into Dubbo and was feeling OK - I am comfortable with getting to Coonabarabran in the dark but after there I was heading into unknown places… so I decided that I’d probably be best to grab a motel in Dubbo rather than continue on.  After many laps of Dubbo I finally found a room, more expensive than I wanted to pay but hey… it was 2am!  Took me a while to wind down but eventually I fell asleep…

…. and woke up to full daylight…. faaaaaark, I dont know what happened to my alarm!  I looked at how far I had to go, I had like 500km to do in three hours or something.  Dammit.  There goes the SS1600.  I had plenty of kays up my sleeve for the FarRide though so I went back to bed for a bit before making my way out to Tottenham in a leisurely fashion. 

We all gathered in the pub and we had a minutes silence for Davo as well as Nico reading out the FarRider One poem.  very emotional.

Skip and I stocked up on supplies before heading out to the rally site where we were to have lunch.  Set up camp and then Skip went off to visit the Cairn and I wussed out at the thought of all the dirt roads.  So I hung around chatting heaps, talked to some people I had met last year and had some awesome discussions with Ken from Very Far Away and he gave me  a photo that he had taken of me and Jimmy last year.

Camp Mel

The sun goes down on an emotional day

Eventually it was dark and the rally got underway properly.  Had a really nice time chatting with Nico and the others, I won the longest distance female again (1300km this year) and eventually crawled into my little swag amongst the chorus of snorers and was quickly asleep. 

I woke up pretty early and found Ken scamming an early cup of coffee so I convinced them to let me have coffee early too :o)  I function better on coffee.  Packed up and was underway in good time…

Tottenham, NSW

 I pulled up at Bogan Gate for a photo and realised that I had about 300km to go home and all day to do it… stuff it, I decided to head west instead. 

Bogan Gate

I looked at my little map and decided to go to Condobolin as I had never been there.  It was very pretty. 

It's just a road...

From there I decided to go to Lake Cargellio (sp?)

Lake Cargelligo

and then I headed for West Wyalong where I stopped for some fuel and bought a pie at the servo and headed to the park to eat it… it wasn’t until I headed back to the bike that I spotted this through the trees:

West Wyalong

Yes, I managed to walk past a big arse plane without noticing it…

From here I just headed home, through some pretty little towns and I had a nice chat with a truckie at a rest area as well, the name of that town escapes me now.  I still got home pretty early but it was a good days ride!  I am sure Davo was riding with me this weekend.

KSRC Gingers Creek run September 2009

It was on again… with much anticipation 4pm Friday arvo finally rolled around… I geared up and found MickC waiting downstairs for me… now where is Gos??  Eventually Gos turned up and we were ready to roll.  Just a straight slab up the Doom and on to northern Sydney to the wonderful hospitality of Dave#3 and Cath.  After some confusion we eventually found their place… what a shed they have! *drool*  Pizza and a couple of drinks and it was off to bed…

Saturday morning dawned beautifully and before long we were all kitted up and ready to roll the short distance to the meet point… what a sight!  So many beautiful bikes :o)  After much chatting we got underway and headed up the Old Pacific Highway.  I hadn’t been up there since they’d re-opened it the full way so it was a bit of an adventure!  Through to Wollumbi for the first regroup/stop and then onto Singleton for fuel and smoko.  The sun was shining and it was WARM!  From Singleton we bumped our way through to East Gresford (I think it is called) and onto Gloucester before heading up Thunderbolts… I don’t know where my mojo was but it definitely wasn’t with me this trip, so I was just hanging out at the back… come around a corner and OH NO bike down! Rooster had been distracted by the pretty river he was about to cross and gone off the side.  His bike was righted and perfectly good to go… he wasn’t so bad either so we headed off… only to stop again very shortly when a heap of our group was pulled over… another dude had left the road and done some hill climbing LOL.  He was OK too so then we continued on our merry way, stopping in Walcha for fuel and a relax before heading off to Gingers Creek. 

After a shower I felt human again, the bourbon was opened though we were a little short on coke… luckily Birdman was itching for a run down the Oxley so he fetched us some coke… good man :)  Much talking and laughing and then a totally awesome dinner and back to the fire for more beer (bourbon) and bullshit :o)  Eventually into bed in the Chamber of Snorers… now usually snoring doesn’t bother me too much but this was even too much for me!  And then the phantom chunderer started up and I eventually went for my MP3 player… I really need some “sleeping” music instead of my usual rocking stuff!

Sunday morning also dawned bright and sunny… hurrah!  A breakfast that was once again superb and then it was off down the Oxley… Robyn had said she’d missed riding with me the day before so we headed off down the hill with her in the lead… and we came back up with me in the lead… love love love that road.  Wish it was a little closer to home!  We chilled at Gingers for a bit more before heading into Walcha for fuel and then back the way we came, down Thunderbolts, into Gloucester for lunch and it was stinking hot by this time! 

There was a bit of a mix up from here - I thought a bunch of us were heading for the Putty Road and so would have turned off to go to Singleton but everybody went straight and we ended up on the Freeway!!! Freeway into Newcastle and then five of us got separated at some lights… the plan had been to go to Cessnock so we headed there… and no crew so we headed to Wollumbi and still no crew, WTF???? The leader of the first pack had thought there was a Cessnock turnoff from the freeway… of course there isn’t!  So we headed down Wollumbi Road and were to meet them at Mt White.  We were all running a little short on fuel so stopped *somewhere* to top up… Pinchy headed off first and then I headed off… got to the corner, Pinchy saw me coming and headed off so I decided to wait for the other two… and waited… and waited… Pinchy came back, where’s the other two?  NFI.  So I stayed put, he went looking, came back, no sign of them.  Meanwhile Dave and Cath were on their way to find us… and then the other two had turned up at the right spot so we waited for Dave and Cath, then headed off to Mt White to see the rest of the group… by this stage it was already getting dark so it was a hurried goodbye before the Canberra crew took back to the freeway and made a mad dash for home, stopping for some dinner at Pheasants Nest, getting in stupid late!!  I was so tired on the way back I had to keep pushing my visor up to help me stay awake… scary.

Another good weekend, though I missed the crew who were all in Bright!!

(I didn’t take a single pic either)

CanberraRiders Birthday Weekend

Canberra Riders turned two in early August… so a birthday weekend was arranged for late August and off we went….

The usual crew of Stevo, Tess, Esther and I with the addition of Fox (hi Todd!) set off from Watson around 10amish and we just slabbed it up to Goulburn (well they slabbed it, I rocked out! LOL) where it was a splash and dash and off to Taralga for lunch.

We pulled up at the first pub and there were two bikes parked out the front… Thrashers Rally (it has more T’s but I can’t remember what they mean now) was on the same weekend so had a bit of a chat to those dudes… think they were from Narooma and had never missed one of Thrashers Rallies (about 23 of them so far!).  Lunch was fantastic.  Really nice burger and I was so full afterwards…

Before long we were underway again, heading for the Abercrombie River and Black Springs.  We cruised along, Stevo in the lead with Tess in hot pursuit (for cruise mode) then Todd and me and Esther behind us… We regrouped at the river then onto Black Springs for a brief rest and another regroup.   We rolled straight through Oberon and then while we were regrouping at the Great Western Highway just out of Lithgow we noticed Tess’s tyre… it’s farked!  So we got fuel in Lithgow and Tess went off in search of a tyre (there are two bike shops in Lithgow).  We couldn’t find her at the first one so went to the second one - then we got a call - she was heading for Bathurst as there were no tyres for her in Lithgow.  Stevo and Todd set off to accompany her to Bathurst and Esther and I headed straight for Wallerawang and our accommodations.

We checked in and did a quick shuffle of the sleeping arrangements so we would end up in the same cabin… I left Esther remaking beds while I ducked up the road for supplies (lots of coke, orange juice, milk and coffeeeeeeeeeee and some munchies).  We got back… and waited… and waited… and then Liane turned up… where are the others?  Oh nooooooo! Riicho (not Ricko) and Mick Patten had come down :o(((((( Not what we wanted to hear!  Eventually everyone else turned up and found their beds (after I ordered them to where they were to go! hehe) and then it was bourbon o’clock.

We all hung around chatting for a while then it was time for dinner, so we trundled off down the street for some chinese… not very impressive but you get that…  they ran out of glasses and then they nearly ran out of bourbon!!!!!!!! but luckily they procured another bottle from somewhere so the riots were avoided…

Then it was time to go to the pub… and it was karaoke night!  Started off with a game of pool (dreadful as usual) and then ChrisMac and I did a perfect rendition of Under the Bridge this time with accompanying music etc.  Had a bit of a dance, bit of a chat, ummmm… I remember lots of people giving me drinks… ermmm then I sat at the bar and drank some water… then Mick C kindly escorted a rather weary me back to the cabins where I seem to recall talking to some people and Esther gave me a scare to get rid of my hiccups then I crawled into my top bunk and tried to sleep (not very successfully).

I awoke far too early on Saturday morning… and fark but my cabin mates were loud!  LOL I eventually crawled out of bed and made my way back to ground level to go out and tell them that.  A shower and I felt a bit better but then bed again seemed like a better option (the weather was absolute shitehouse as well).  A few brave souls set off towards Bathurst and we eventually got sorted to go and meet them at Tarana for lunch.

We were told to meet at the servo so we all rolled up and waited and waited and them I was appointed TEC and we waited some more then we were on our way.  The group quickly split up until it was Liane, Wendy and I riding at the back (we got delayed by traffic getting onto the Great Western Highway).  We trundled along for a bit and then Liane’s indicator came on… but I couldn’t see the corner marker… well I figured they must have seen me and taken off (turns out later that the corner marker gave up on waiting for us and just left!!!!!!!!! Lucky Liane knew where she was going or we would have ended up in Bathurst).  It was a lovely little  road down to Tarana.  We pulled in and for a very fearful minute thought we would have to wait over an hour for lunch (hangover had abated enough to be ready to eat by now though I still had a killer headache - most unusual) but before long they started bringing out our meals (hurrah!).

And the meals were strange.  I have never had watermelon served with my hamburger before!  (Tess got a strawberry with hers as well…)  anyway it was okay, but nothing on the burgers at Taralga!  Was just about finished when the rest of the crew turned up - including Disco on his shiny new Monster Energy ZX6R.  (well it wasn’t so shiny but I went and gave it a little snuggle anyway).  Hot as. 

After lunch we were sitting round talking and Disco held the keys out to me… don’t need to ask me twice!  I geared up and got on this bike that I was willing to sell my soul for (or a kidney or whatever else might be of value)… damn the brakes work good!  Was a bit worried about turning around on a slopey gravelly part of the road but it was all good (I didn’t tell Disco that part) then set off… damn that thing is niiiiiiiice.  Just went up the road we came down on for a bit, it was a bit wetter than when we had come in… and being on someone else shiny pride and joy I took it *very* easy but damn!  I’m in love (sorry Niney)  Took it back a little weak at the knees and gave the keys back (I do know how to give keys back!!). 

Before long some of us started gearing up to head back to the cabins (it was still pretty miserable…) and we set off with I can’t remember who in the lead but I was behind Karl and Kimmie.  Karl stopped to mark the turn back onto the GWH and Kimmie waved us all past… and people started going everywhere LOL I thought about following them but then thought stuff it I’m going back the way I came so I did, with (I think) Dids and Disco behind me). 

Out of the bike gear, back into the ‘comfy’ gear and we settled down to pass a few wet hours… I went out for a smoke at some stage and was hailed by Riicho (not Ricko) so went up to their cabin… and damn they have the comfortable chairs up there!  So I settled in for a bit of a chat and stayed until it was dark LOL.

Then Mamma Leen started rounding up the assistants for dinner and we got the show on the road… food was awesome and then there was speeches - happy birthday canberra riders!  The bourbon once again started to flow (not that I had much) and Dids got a fire going and we all sat around talking shit (as you do…)  Eventually I decided it was time for bed and I slept much better.  Apparently I missed out on quite a bit of excitement… actually I’m glad to have slept through that! LOL

Sunday morning dawned sunny but very, very windy and it was a cold wind.  I made coffee and everyone got up in dribs and drabs… packed up and lined the bikes up for a group photo and then the main group set off - I was just going back to Canberra the way I had come and Mick C wasn’t feeling very good so he came with me. 

Waved goodbye to the main group and pretty much set off straight after them.  Cruised through Lithgow then turned off towards Oberon and goddam it was windy!  Battled the wind into Oberon where we stopped for fuel and then Mick C took the lead and we battled the wind some more through Taralga and onto Goulburn where we topped up and Mick wanted a coffee so we went to the bakery near the big sheep and they had a fire and good pies and good coffee so that was nice :)  I got too hot standing in front of the fire so before long it was time to get back on the road and I managed to stay warm for the trip home (just slabbed it from here) and was home about 1:15pm.

I have some photos but they aren’t on photobucket yet so they are still to come…