| BATEMANS BAY 2 UP RIDE 27/11/2004~28/11/2004 |
| It was Steve1's turn to organise the bike ride this time and he decided to go south as the weather was warming up (understatement - read on!)
At the last moment Tracey, his wife, got sick and had to stay home, so Steve1 came along Solo. We left from McDonald�s Penrith a little late (too much chatting going on) at about 8:50am. There were 8 bikes in total and there wasn�t a cloud in the sky. This was a relief as for the previous 7 days the sky had nothing but clouds in it, and I�d been taking my jacket to work as it was a bit chilly in the evenings. We headed off down Mulgoa road at a nice pace and there were very few cars on the road at that time. Steve1 and I, had driven the full 2 day route by car a few weeks earlier. He had given himself a refresher course of the first part a week or so before. Everything went to plan and we travelled through some lesser known tree covered back roads taking in the early morning scenery. After going through �The Oaks�, and �Thirlmere� we stopped for what was intended to be a short break in a garage at �Tahmoore�. The day was warming up pretty quick and we all set about carrying on the conversations from McDonald�s earlier. We are a great group for having a chin wag, and I�ve no doubt that if Steve1 hadn�t rounded us up, to get moving again, we would still be there. It was only a short hop from there to McDonald�s in Mittagong. Here we had more of a proper break, and it was definitely time to slap on the sun screen. We had already started to seek shade, and the day was still early. Another short hop from here took us through a housing estate and up a mountain for the �Gibralter Lookout� which was where?? ...... on top of Mt Gibralter of course!! It was interesting that the further up the mountain we went the bigger and more grandiose the houses got. You know they are expensive houses when all you can see are the gardens, but the house is hidden behind the long driveway and tall foliage. The road where you actually look out from, is only wide enough for one car so the last time we went, we couldn�t stop and take photo�s. I was determined to stop this time though, where on the bike, I wouldn�t be blocking the road. The road down the other side was nice and bendy until we hit the housing estate at the bottom. We took a turn through the housing estate and onto another back country road,towards �Kangaroo Valley�. Even the drive through the housing estate was interesting at this time of the day, and we got a few looks as 8 bikes cruised past on a road that wouldn�t normally see much traffic. The country roads before the turn off to the Kangaroo Valley proper, were in excellent condition with long sweeping bends. We got a fine lick of speed up here and settled in to really enjoy the ride. After the turn off we travelled down the side of a mountain into the Kangaroo Valley itself. There are breathtaking views that defy taking a picture of, because it's far to dangerous to stop on the side of the narrow road, or hairpin bends. It always annoys me when there are views like that and I can�t stop. I always think that the council should put in a small turnoff so that people can stop and take a photo. Guess it would be too dangerous or cost too much though. We stopped at the pub in Kangaroo Valley for lunch, and tried as much as possible to keep our bikes in the shade. The pub was busy, but fortunately Caroline spotted a room with dining tables off to the side, that no one was sitting in. We asked if we could use it, and was given the go ahead. We had the whole room to ourselves. Cool. Once we finally moved on from there, we stopped at a small lookout, up the other side of the valley, and then moved further up again to the �Cambewarra Lookout�. You may remember this lookout from my Kangaroo Valley web page. If you don�t.... shame on you, go back 2 places and do not pass 'GO' !! Back on the road again, and the post midday sun was really starting to boil. It was O.K. whilst we were going along, but any stop with the engine running raised the temperature another several degrees. We decided to have plenty of little stops off the bikes, to cool down. The next major stop was at Mollymook right on the beach. This was only 50kls from our destination, but was a welcome break at this time of the day. We were all a bit envious at the people swimming in the sea, nice and cool. The 50kls to Batemans flew past. And we were soon booking into our rooms with the promise of a nice cool shower. We arranged (vaguely), to meet outside on the deck for drinks later, and then head to the club for dinner. We met on the end of the pier (Why?? Because it was there!!!), and then decided to go back to the Motel and have a drink until the rest arrived. One drink turned to three, before we finally dragged ourselves up, for the long walk (all of about 180 metres) across the road, to the Batemans Bay Soldiers club for dinner. Rather than the Bistro where seating was few and far between, we headed for the restaurant with the hope of getting a table together. We ended up with two tables which wasn�t too bad. The food wasn�t too bad either, I had Calamari (Squid) for starters. This was a bit disappointing as there was no salad to go with it or even Tartare sauce to dip it in. Then I had a Filet Mignon steak with a pepper sauce and salad, which was yummy. The lobster was a good price, and 4 people on our table had that. I finished Steve1's steak as he wasn�t hungry and only ate a quarter of it. Then someone else�s chips, a bit of someone�s salad and still managed to have Apple Strudel with cream and ice cream for a dessert. God knows how I fitted it all in, but the diet was definitely well and truly blown big time. We all then waddled into the bar/music area, to have a few drinks and a chat. Steve3 won $150.00 on the slot machines, so that paid for their meal and they bought everyone a round of drinks. People started to filter away as the night went on, and as usual there were only three of us left at the death. Jimmy, Stella, and myself!! I dunno.... these young people just can�t seem to keep up the pace can they?? We left there at about 12 midnight (we think!!) And I was still up and out for my usual walk at 5:30am. Another brilliant day, a little cloud but not rain ones. I decided to follow the beach towards the point, and see where it took me. Plus, I saw a couple of cars pulling boats heading that way so figured there must be a boat ramp somewhere. I was walking along quite merrily at a reasonable (must get this alcohol out of my system) pace, when I started to slow down. I looked down to see if I was going up a slope or something, which I wasn�t, and couldn�t figure why it was so hard going. The flies were annoying, buzzing around my face, and I was doing the Australian salute all the way along. I happened to look over my shoulder and found the problem, I saw at least a zillion flies sitting on my back (which for some reason is their want to do). No wonder I was finding it hard going carrying this lot around, I decided to cut myself a branch to keep them away. I saw a nice one and broke it off and carried on, staggering under the weight, while I trimmed it. Branch at the ready, I went mad with it, and swooshed it about all over the place behind me. As soon as I did, I went flying forward and nearly fell on my face!!! 6 zillion little feet belonging to the 1 zillion flies, all push off my back at once to escape this hairy mitt holding a branch coming towards them!!! No wonder they say fly�s are a health hazard, I nearly did myself and injury. Just saving myself from falling over, I instantly became 2 inches taller with the loss of the weight, and felt like I had been reborn again!! "Hallelujah" I cried, skipping along sprightly. After that, I certainly got my exercise trying to keep them off me. I did my walk, took some pics, and returned for a shower and breakfast. We had arranged breakfast (buffet) for 8am, and everyone was there on time. It wasn�t bad, but they definitely weren�t geared up to cater for the 15 of us, and the other guests at the same time. They kept running out of stuff (which I hate), and had to rush to the kitchen to cook more. We all got fed sufficiently in the end though (stage 2 of a blown diet!) When putting the saddle bags on the bike, I noticed that the bolt holding the pillion seat on, had rattled lose and fallen out. Fortunately Dennis had a spare bolt that we made fit, to get us home. We headed off and things got a bit mixed up from Batemans to the first stop. It was planned that the first stop be Braidwood. The previous night though, I had been reading the brochures in the room (more on that later), and noticed that there was a lookout on the road out of town that we were taking. I asked, and Steve1 agreed, that we could stop at this lookout and take some photo�s, go �Ooooo... Ahhh....�, etc. We were supposed to refuel at Batemans before we left, and I knew we were only going round the corner to the garage for fuel, so didn�t bother to put my gloves on, or do my jacket up. When we left town I was last in line assuming (never assume) that someone knew where the garage was for fuel. Before long though we were at the roundabout to turn inland, and the others had turned left zooming out of town, leaving me in their dust. I followed, and Steve2 was in front of me, when the turnoff for the lookout came up. I decided to turn off as I particularly wanted a pic of Batemans, and I needed to stop anyway to put my gloves on, and prepare for a proper ride. I didn�t think that Steve2 knew I was behind him anyway, and thought I would catch them up very soon, as I knew where the next stop would be. We quickly stopped at the lookout, took a rapid picture, put our gloves on, and prepared to chase after the others. Unbeknown to us, Steve2 HAD noticed we were missing, and slowed down. When we didn�t catch up, he turned around to go back and look for us. He drove past the turnoff and went back to the roundabout. Not finding us, he headed back up the road again, to catch up with the group. In the mean time, while he was down at the roundabout, we had come out of the turn off, and were also chasing the group; only this time, ignorant to the fact that Steve2 was behind us!! I thought I saw Lyndon going the other way at one stage but couldn�t be sure as he was on the bike on his own. It occurred to me that maybe he was going back to look for his wife who had fallen off!! I hadn�t seen her sitting in the middle of the road though. I soon dismissed it as being him, reasoning that if it had been, he would have turned around again, and caught up with me. I wasn�t going that fast and he has a faster bike. After all I was still thinking I was last in line. He didn�t catch up with me though, and we came to the town of Nelligen. I had a look for the group as I crossed the bridge, in case they had missed us and stopped. Not seeing anyone I drove straight through. What I didn�t know was, that they had missed both Steve2 and myself, Lyndon had gone back to look for us, while the rest (his wife included) waited under a tree in the shade. They saw me driving through and waved like crazy, but I didn�t see them. Steve1 was then despatched to chase after me, while the others waited there for Lyndon to return, hopefully with Steve2. Steve1 finally caught up with me, and we drove into Braidwood which was the official stop. We fuelled up, and then waited for the rest to catch up. After drinks and chats, we left there to head for Goulburn, with a quick stop planned at Tarago. We drove straight through Tarago though (for some reason), and went straight on to Goulburn. We regrouped at McDonald�s there for a drink, and a walk about to get the bum muscles working again. We changed the plan here again, and decided to not stop at Moss Vale for lunch, but to go straight on to Robertson and stop at the pie shop. At Robertson some of us looked around the cheese factory, some went to the pub and bought drinks, and others went directly to the pie shop. The temperature by now was soaring and was much hotter than the day before. In hindsight I believe we should have stopped as planned at Moss Vale, where we could have had a good rest rather than at the side of the road in the sun. It was certainly a roaster. The ride down the mountain through the Macquarie pass national park was really nice, once we hit the bottom though, the temperature really went sky high. All the heat from the sea and coast was trapped there by the mountains. This was really hot, it was fry your eyeballs stuff ! It felt like I had a hair dryer, on high, on each eyeball, whilst riding through a dry sauna. It was the same all the way up to the city, and we were seriously drying out. At this stage Steve1 had zoomed off home, Noelle and grant had done the same, and Caroline and Steve3 got left behind. I was falsely under the impression that they had gone home as well. Sooooooooo.......... the brochures!!! After arriving at the Motel, there I am sitting on the toilet as one must do, and all these rooms have in them to read is, the book that�s in the room for guests information. I�ll read anything on the loo, so was looking at that, when I saw that you can ring any room by putting the number �2' in front of the room number. I remember Caroline and Steve3 saying that they were in room 13. So rang 213 and it gets answered. �Come on pull ya bloody finger out� I say into the phone� She laughs and says �who�s this?� I say �Stop fooling about, and get your ass downstairs� and hang up. I leave the room pretty much straight away, go downstairs and see Jimmy on the end of the pier. As I get there I see Caroline and Steve3 as well. �Gee.... you got here bloody quick� I say. We�ve been here for ages we�ve even had a bourbon and coke already� she replies. �Oh shit that means I just abused someone in room 13 then" �Not us... we�re in 14" she says Oops.... Oh well......... The other thing in these brochures (and I read itcover to cover several times), was a description of a walking trail. It said :- �The trail is about 500 metres long, winding through a Sclerophyll forest environment� Now who in their right mind uses the word Sclerophyll as an every day use???? I can just imagine the average man reading this on his three day, once a year holiday from Sydney. Sitting there with his handkerchief on his head, with knots in the corner.... �Ere doll, they 'av a Sclerophyll forest just darn the road, wanna go looksee??� �Oh beaut Darl, just wot I�ve always wan'ed to see, they are luvley aint they.� (Kids) �awwwww dad we wanna see the Sclerophyll forest too� �Well, course ya can go too babes. Not evr'y day ya see one of thems is it?� (Kids, jumping up and down) �Yayyyy we�re gonna see the Sclerophyll forest..... We�re gonna see the Sclerophyll forest.....� If you don�t know what a Sclerophyll forest is, I�ll leave you to look it up on the internet. Naturally I do... NOW!! Apparently there�s also a mountain come hill nearby called �Pigeon House� The brochure went on to say :- �A remarkable peaked hill, which resembles a square dove house with a dome on top. For that reason I named it �Pigeon House� So said Captain James Cook on the Endeavour, April the 21st 1770, when he came to Australia on his holidays years ago. Not quite sure what drugs he was on at the time, but it must have been the good stuff. It's interesting, that I�ve now looked up this Hill/Mountain on the internet and it says :- �Aboriginal people saw the mountain from a different perspective however, their name, Didhol, being their word for that part of the female anatomy that the mountain resembles.� Bet he didn�t know that when he was off his face wafting on!! Theres a lookout nearby called the 'Big Bit lookout' They could have called this the 'Big Tit Hill' sounds so much more memorable to me. Another part of the brochure talks about an island just off shore that was connected to the mainland. It said :- �Broulee Island in the 1830's was connected to the mainland by a sand spit covered in low scrub and coastal Banksia (isn�t that Sclerophyll??). Due to the substantial connection, the isthmus formed part of the Broulee harbour.� "Wait" I hear you say..... "what the bloody hell is an isthmus??" This must have been written by the same guy that was wandering about in this Sclerophyll forest!! O.K. I admit it, I had to look that one up as well.... apparently an isthmus has nothing to do with Santa and presents! It�s a �land spit�, or as the dictionary says:- �a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas� The text goes on to say :- In 1870 the people removed the vegetation (on the isthmus) to widen the track (Now it�s a track not a sand spit or an isthmus!! Wish they would make up their minds!!). This widening destroyed the root system which bound the soil together, resulting in the sea washing it away.� Big �OOPS� here..... So... after all that, they destroyed the environment and lost their nice natural harbour. Well that�s it...... This will probably be the last page for this year. I�ll leave you, wishing you a �Merry isthmus, and hope all your Sclerophyll and Didhol come to fruition. Regan |
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| Mount Gibralter Lookout. |
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| Lunch At The Friendly Inn. |
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| THIS SPACE FOR RENT |
| The first pic is of Kangaroo Valley. The others at the Cambewarra Lookout. Check the group shot, and find the hidden person, there are 15! |
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| Mollymook Beach. The view from the Motel. |
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| The pier, view from, and yours truly. |
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| Dinner and drinks. (Not quite sure what Caroline is doing with her hands.....I think she might have lost control of them!!) |
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| Charter boats going out fishing (I wanna go!!). |
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| Musca domestica Linnaeus (Insecta: Diptera: Muscidae) Also known as the common house fly to mere mortals like us. Did you know :- There are more than 100 pathogens associated with the house fly, which may cause disease in humans and animals, including typhoid, cholera, bacillary dysentery, tuberculosis, anthrax ophthalmia and infantile diarrhea, galloping gut rot, baldness, ingrown toenails, web toes, excessive nasal hair, as well as falling flat on your face when they take off from your back. (O.K. ... so I made some of them up!!) Warm summer conditions are generally optimum for the development of the house fly (No shit Sherlock!!), and it can complete its life cycle in as little as seven to ten days, and as many as 10 to 12 generations may occur in one summer. The sexes can be readily separated by noting the space between the eyes, which in females is almost twice as broad as in males (Now what's the reason for this do you think??). Adults usually live 15 to 25 days. The potential reproductive capacity of flies is tremendous, but fortunately can never be realized. It has been stated that a pair of flies beginning operations in October may be progenitors, if all were to live, of 191,010,000,000,000,000,000, (191 quintillion 10 quadrillion) flies by February. Thats a lot of flies in anyones language. |
| REGAN'S WIDLIFE SECTION. |
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| Me carrying all the freeloaders about. I had to stop for a sit down, while the rest of the Zillion either went for a swim, or took a ride on the fishing boats. |
| Picture from the lookout. This is picture of Batemans Bay and the Clyde river from the lookout. The bridge you see is a lift bridge. This was built in 1956 and is the oldest of its type in Australia. |
| The Pie Shop for lunch and Caroline doing the right thing and taking her garbage to the bin. Thats a real purposeful step she has there,dont you think?? |
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| Musca domestica Linnaeus (Insecta: Diptera: Muscidae) |
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| THATS ALL FOLKS. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY 2005. |
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