Monday, February 27, 2017

Grenfell Ride - 26th February

During the ride briefing Andrew explained the ride route, which was changed after a number of riders explained they were aware of lengthy muddy road works. While refueling and corner marking arrangements were also discussed at the ride briefing, the agreed plans did not totally eventuate and resulted in confusion and the disappearance of about 50% of the group after lunch.

After the route was finalized we headed off to Boorowa for morning tea.

However, going through Binalong was not a smooth run as the main part of the group turned before a corner marker, leaving Andrew the ride leader and Garry who was marking the corner now separated from the rest of the group. Luckily Andrew and Garry could see the rest of the group up ahead and then could catch up.

Morning tea at
Boorowa was enjoyable.

After morning tea, Andrew lead us on an enjoyable ride to Grenfell for lunch. The ride went through a variety of roads and interesting lane ways.

While the ride to Grenfell was a good ride, the country side was very dry and lots of animal were seeking shade under trees.

We came across one closed road and two very small sections of gravel road works. Luckly for the group the gravel sections had not been watered on the day and were dry. The closed road cause a slight problem as the group lost two members who left the group and found their own way to Grenfell.

After lunch the group headed to Young for fuel as agreed at the ride briefing. The only problems were somehow one of the group got left behind in Grenfell and when Andrew pulled into the BP at Young most of the group kept going as they had fueled up before we left Grenfell. Luckily the group did stop not to far down the road from the BP and those of us who followed Andrew into the BP could now rejoin the group after getting petrol,

It can't be satisfactorily explained what happened next, as while we then headed off as a group towards Harden, 50% of the group just disappeared, never to be seen again. Hopefully they all made it home safely. Four of us followed Andrew to the Terracotta at Harden Murrumburrah for afternoon tea.





Afternoon tea was very enjoyable and we relaxed over cakes, milkshakes and coffees. While enjoying the air conditioning, drinks and fine cakes we laughed about and discussed everything from the joys and pitfalls of having possums in your yard to the guys in America who blew up a dead whale to get rid of it off a local beach, only to result in dead whale raining down on everyone who was there.

The remaining four of the ride, ie, Andrew, Kris, Steve and Garry then left the Terracotta, said their goodbye. Steve rode off followed by Andrew and Kris. After buying a kilo of honey from the Harden Honey House Garry soon followed them back to Canberra.

We all need to thank Andrew for taking on the role as Ride Leader and also thank Mick for undertaking Tail End Charlie duties.

The group was:

ANDREW CAMPBELL - YAMAHA FJR1300,
GARRY MCCURLEY - HONDA VFR1200,
MICK BELTRAME  - VICTORY XC,
DARRYL CULLEN - SUZUKI 1250 BANDIT,
STEVE ALFORD - GUZZI V7,
LES and JULIE ROBINSON - TRIUMPH TROPHY,
TREVOR MCLEOD - YAMAHA FJR1300,
KRIS JIRASEK - BLUE SUZUKI HYABUSHA  GSXR1300,
SANDY FISK  - TRIUMPH SPEED MASTER.