Steve2 waxed lyrical about how beautiful this spot was, especially the road riding down into it.
He soon had us agreeing with him, for a two day weekend ride.
He organised the accommodation in Queanbeyan for the night and a run into Burrinjuck the following day.
We duly met at the McDonald’s at Narellan in the early hours of the 6th.
The ride to Narellan is easy now from my place, only a short hop down the new motorway the M7.
I was quite happy zooming along this new motorway in the early morning light when I came across a couple of riders on Harleys. They were donning the usual patches of skulls, daggers, blood and gore, sewn to black leather jackets, which signified that they were 'bikies' and not bikers. Ergo, they were from some rebel group of tattoo covered, anti social, generally non law abiding people.
Its a 2 lane highway; one rider was riding in the middle of the outside lane and the other one was riding in the middle of the inside lane. Speed limit is 100 kph and they sat just under it. Everyone fudges the speed limit a little, but on this day not them. This left no room for anyone to safely overtake them.
If they came across a car in the inside lane going slower, the man on the inside came out at the last moment and then moved back again as soon as he passed.
They were effectively saying “you WILL sit behind us, we control the road”.
The Beemer would outstrip them any day on acceleration and I was sorely tempted to zoom up the inside of them and vanish in the distance.
Common sense (and self preservation) prevailed though and I decided there was no point in upsetting our fellow brethren. Besides it would be just my luck that they would be meeting up with several of their heavily tattooed mates at the same bloody McDonald’s that I was going to.
So I duly sat behind them smiling, knowing they couldnt do this for ever.
Soon the M7 met up with the Hume Highway and the road turned into 4 lanes. They were truly stuffed now, so I dropped a cog and twisted the go faster doov-er-lacky.
I kept my eye on the mirror but they were dust. from then on.
So much for their marvelous Harleys with their ape hanger handlebars.
There was a good crowd on the ride, the exact number of bikes of which I cant remember.
We had the obligatory McMuffins and Hash Browns while waiting for everyone to turn up. Soon it was hit the road time with Steve2 in the lead.
We followed the old Hume Highway, forsaking the motorway to the cars, trucks and apehanger Harleys. The first stop was Mittagong where unfortunately there was some mix up as to where we were going to stop. Some stopped in Mittagong proper, others (who had read the instructions) headed for the lookout.
Eventually we all met in the high street for a quick break.
The lookout, though it has been done before, is always nice and the views were stunning.
From there we headed down through Bowral, Moss Vale, and Exeter to Bundanoon where we stopped for another break.
It was then on to Goulburn, where we stopped for lunch in the famous Paragon restaurant.
This is a great stop and was one of the major stopping restaurants before the motorway bypassed Goulburn.
After stuffing our faces, we headed off the back way, on The Kings Highway to Queanbeyan via Tarago, and Bungendore.
The motel (eventually) accommodated us though the guy was a bit of a pig.
We all got settled though, then cleaned up and headed for the local club for a feed, chat and drink.
The next day I was up for my walk, and a picture taking session before we saddled up for the ride to the dam.
At Yass the wind came up and the skies started to look decidedly nasty.
We motored on, but it it was obvious that the day was turning to shit at a great rate of knots.
We eventually got into a petrol station that had a big awning to one side and donned our wet gear. The wind was whipping up leaves and dust a plenty and reports were coming over the radio of a severe storm warning; with cats and dogs falling from the sky.
Under these circumstances it was decided to abandon the ride into the dam which is a very narrow treacherous road at the best of times. Most were talking of hitting the motorway and heading straight back to Sydney at the fastest rate possible, to try and out run the rain. I couldn’t really see the point in this. We were there anyway, had our wet gear on. What was the point of rushing for home now??
I said nothing but then Jimmy suggested that instead of belting down the motorway we head back via Cowra.
I was all for this and in the end there were four bikes heading off into the wind and dust leaving the rest to the motorway.
We didn't really have that much rain anyway, only a few spots but the wind was kicking up a hell of a dust storm that made it slow going for a few kilometers.
Eventually we outran that as well and stopped at Cowra for afternoon tea and nibbles.
From there on, it was Bathurst, Lithgow and finally home.
This is the story of how they got there....
Because of Myee Planta, the trees are there today, for everyone to see and enjoy.
