Got to Watson a little early, Rob was already there... filled up and we settled in to wait for the others... we waited... and waited... a little while later Rob spoke with Carl and it turned out he was at Gateway... oops! Eventually we were all at the right place and ready to roll...
Up the Federal to the Sutton turn off, through Sutton, Gundaroo, Gunning, Breadalbane and onto the Hume for the brief stint into Goulburn. Topped up the fuel at Goulburn... the day wasn't so bright anymore!
Headed off through town with Yeti in the lead and took the Taralga turn off... there wasn't much traffic out... lots of fog though!
The road was nice though damp - can't wait to go back and do it in the dry! Nice sweepers through god only knows what kind of countryside...
Stopped at Black Springs for a wee/smoke/leg stretch break
Then it was into Oberon for an early lunch before heading towards Lithgow. Now that is a road I definitely want to go back and visit in the dry! The roads were very wet by this stage and the fog was very thick. Fuelled up again in Lithgow before heading off to Bell's Line hoping/praying/begging for it to be dry on the other side!
Headed up the hill and it was still wet as. Had a pretty good run anyway, just cruising. Rob got ahead of us all, at the Windsor end he stopped at a look out and waved to us as we went past. I managed to pull up and just park on the side of the road, Carl and Yeti went further down and stopped (or so I thought) had a smoke, then Rob and I got back on, rolled down to where the others were, a foot slip had seen the firestorm on it's side
but not much damage. We were all pretty cold and wet by this stage so we decided to head straight to the pub... rolling down the hill towards Richmond the weather started to clear up and the roads started to dry up - I think we all had the same thought "screw the pub - Putty here we come" but soon enough we were heading towards blackness - rolled into Richmond just as it hit, so found the pub in the rain. Parked the bikes, got rooms sorted, dry clothes and we were set - 3:00pm we got there.Grabbed a 6 pack from the bottle shop and we sat around to start the evenings festivities... though Yeti seemed to think that coffee was a good idea
As for the rest of the night... well what goes on tour stays on tour right?
(I will however let you all know that I totally kicked arse at the shooting game...
)Sunday morning and we were up before the sun... hot showers all round then back into the gear for a run up the Putty. After some discussions about whether it was actually even "day" yet (they were trying to convince me it was so... but no it was still dark, I swear!)
It was still very grey and miserable looking - hurrah for packing spare gloves!
We set off through Windsor and up the Putty Road - and it was actually a lot of fun! Heavy fog in places and wet roads but we just cruised - there was hardly any traffic so had the road to ourselves for the most part. Got flashed by a red falcodore at one point so the pace was slowed down a tad before stopping at the Halfway House... and of course the obligatory Halfway House photo:
The weather seemed to clear the further north we headed... had a good run through the top part of the Putty with a couple of slippery moments! then up to Broke - even saw the sun in places!
Fuelled up in Broke, was just paying for the fuel when my phone rang - Leen to tell us that the trackday had been called! spewin! So now we had the entire day free... what were we to do? Ride of course!
Carl at Broke:
We headed across to Cessnock while playing Dodge the Pothole - I don't think I have ever seen that many potholes in one road!! Was good but. Stopped in Cessnock at the Bakery - pies and drinks while sitting in the sun... what were the poor people doing? Rob enquires... why driving back to Canberra of course!
Bikes enjoying a brief moment of sunshine:
From Cessnock I'm not entirely sure where we went - Dora Creek and Morrisset are the only names that I can remember now - eventually we ended up on the freeway for a short stint to dodge Gosford - then... wait for it... onto the old pacific highway *drools*. Jealous much? :P It was wet but it was still fantastic. Hardly any cars, not one single copper (well not that I saw anyway) didn't even stop at Road Warriors so the photo is taken just out of Berowra:
From here we decided to head across to Campbelltown, then down Appin Road to the coast. We got a bit separated going through Sydney - Rob and Carl occasionally visible in the distance but after getting caught by a few sets of lights Yeti and I were left behind (thanks for waiting for me Yeti!). Regrouped at Uncle Leo's where we had a quick bite to eat before heading off again - the black clouds were gathering though it looked fairly clear in the direction we were heading.
We headed down Appin Road and then down through Wollongong. Glad we weren't heading back towards Sydney - the traffic was terrible! We provided something for the crawling drivers to look at while we pulled up on the side of the road for a quick regroup/smoke break - looking ahead it was bucketing down with rain so finally I gave in and wriggled into the plastic pants - of course this ensured that the rain had passed by the time we got going again
Had a good run through the Kiama Bends, even though there was a lot of water on the road. Rob and I soon left the others behind, and just cruised down the Princes Highway... I had thought we would stop in Nowra for fuel but nope, passed a few servos on the highway, of course about two seconds after passing the last one the fuel light came on... but that was ok - 35km to Milton. Carl soon joined us and we wound our way into Ulladulla.
Stopped for fuel in Ulladulla - bit close really, I only had one litre left - oops! By now we had run out of daylight... oops again! Yeti and Nicola had stopped in Berry for hot donuts (a good idea I think) and were going to make their own way back.
Carl took over leading duties from here as Rob only had the dark visor on - we cruised through to the Bay, then up the Clyde - we had a fantastic run up the Clyde - hardly any cars and it was dry! Nevermind the dark bit
Stopped in Braidwood for a quick smoke before heading off for home - waved goodbye to the boys in Queanbeyan and got home at 8:30pm.Was a great weekends riding in spite of the weather - thanks heaps to Rob, Carl, Yeti and Nicola for coming along!
When's the next one?
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