The first Club ride on a new road: Boorowa to Crookwell.

Most of the keen riders in the Club have ridden all the tarmac roads around Canberra to a radius of 150 Km, so the arrival of a newly sealed road which none of us had ridden before is a cause for enthusiasm & excitement. So it was, at the March Club meeting, when Peter Wilson told me that the road from Boorowa to Crookwell, via Rugby, had been tarred the whole way!

I put the word around those keen riders I met at the meeting that an impromptu ride was to take place on Canberra Day, to try out this new road. Good news travels fast, it appears, & no less that 13 bikes arrived for the 'off' at the Hall lay-by on a grey morning. Everyone seemed to be amazed at the number who had come out to try the new road, I was too. So if you want to see who are the keenest riders in the Club, just look at the list below.

We decided to ride to Boorowa first before attacking the new road. This would get the boring bit over with. The ride to Boorowa is well known to everyone but in reality it is an enjoyable ride & not boring, just familiar. The sun came out before we arrived at our 1st stop, where we all took morning tea & cake at the excellent Boorowa cafe/bakery. Then it was off again with the Sever's leading. The new road was indeed a delight with lovely countryside, both hilly & bendy & with the added benefit of really good tarmac. The road builders have done a first rate job.

We stopped at Rugby, as planned, only to find that we had lost half the group. Waiting for them was the only option, which would have been fine except that Rugby has nothing to offer the traveler, as its village shop & petrol station is long since closed. We knew this as the rusty petrol bowser was set to 86 cents/litre!

The others arrived after 30 minutes or so led by Peter Wilson on his newly acquired BMW GS (where he finds these immaculate low mileage bikes is a mystery). It appeared that Steve Keough was the 'breakdown-ee' with the failure of a temporary repair to his BMW, done at Mystery Bay a week earlier. With a better repair done in Boorowa he was mobile again.

This 'new-to-us' countryside was a delight. It had evidently been more populated in earlier times, witnessed by the large St. Barnabas Church standing alone beside the road between Rugby & Crookwell. Perhaps this new road may generate more traffic , especially of the two wheel type, which might even prompt a reopening of the Rugby shop. An opportunity for an entrepreneur perhaps?

Arriving in Crookwell we stopped at a 'sock factory' known to Peter Wilson. We all bought locally made socks, great with Winter approaching. Then fueling bikes & riders took place, with the latter at the 'top-pub'. With refreshments completed we were away on the very enjoyable road to Gunning, perhaps not so familiar to all VVC members.

- Lorraine Litster

PHOTOS HERE
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