With CanberraRIDERS getting a good collection of cruiser riders these days (including yours truly), it was time for our first ‘cruiser only’ ride. We set the destination as Nowra so we could go play in the hills around Kangaroo Valley. The place was also chosen so we could sus it out as a possible location for this years birthday ride.

So on Friday, 22nd Jan, Riicho and myself met up for lunch at eCibo. We were originally going to head down to Batemans Bay, then up the coast. But seeing as we were leaving later than planned, we set sail for Goulburn, via Tarago.

Once we hit Goulburn, we quickly refuelled and jumped on the Hume to just north of Marulan and took the Highland Way road through to Tallong, Wingello, and Penrose. We got hit with a few sun showers, but we really werent complaining as the day was an absolute stinker and the rain did wonders to cool us down.

Once we got to Bundanoon, it was a simple route through a couple of back roads that bypass Exeter, then on to Nowra Road, through Fitzroy Falls, Kanagroo Valley and into Nowra. We took a quick detour via Cambewarra so I could drop in at a mates place, but then we got to cross the little causeway on Hockeys Lane which was a little bit of fun.

Once we got to the Motel, Riicho and I had our plan set. Check In. Empty bags, Straight to the bottle-o, and then back to the motel and straight into the pool. And it was a sensational plan! We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing by the pool. Eventually those who couldnt get Friday off work arrived (Bec, Stu, and Taco (Glen)), more drinks were poured and Pizza was ordered (which wasnt quite enough, so Riicho took off to Maccas for a round of Big Macs).

The night was… average. We all discovered pretty quickly that the shitty air conditioners in the rooms were too freaking loud to sleep with. But to turn them off left the rooms *so* hot you couldnt sleep either. Yay.

So come morning, we were all fairly bleary-eyed, we grabbed a quick breakfast at the motel (International Roast – *yuck*) and headed out for fuel etc.

From Nowra, we headed through the very cute little town of Berry and through the shitty weekend traffic to Kiama. I managed to get really lucky and had a clear run through the Kiama Bends. I haven’t had a chance to really carve it up along there in years, and the road didnt disappoint (and the 109 loved it). We re-grouped at the turn-off to Jamberoo and once we were past a few annoying caravans etc we had a great run to Jamberoo. We stopped for a quick break (we were really starting to feel the lack of sleep from the night before, and the day was shaping up to be another stinker). Much water was drunk and we made way along the back road to Albion Park.

At Albion Park we turned onto the freeway and headed north, turning off at Fairy Meadow. From Fairy Meadow, we made slow progress through the weekend traffic. This section of the Princes Hwy and Lawrence Hargrave Drive takes you through all the very picturesque northern suburbs of Wollongong. It follows the coast very closely, but on weekends it gets very busy.

Eventually we got to what we came for; the Sea Cliff Bridge. Follow the link to get more details, but its a very impressive structure that takes you right out over the water and back again. Very impressive.

We would have liked to stay longer, but due to the hold up getting there, we had to get going as we were meeting some mates of mine back at Fairy Meadow.

At Fairy Meadow Pom, HCPunk, and Dellard found us and we stopped and had a feed at Red Rooster. It was very good to stop and enjoy some air conditioning (it was 36 degrees by this stage).

However you can only kick around Red Rooster for so long and it was time to get moving again. We headed back down the Freeway to Albion Park. But this time we were heading to one of God’s Gifts of Roadworks. Macquarie Pass! Ive done it before (many times) But for Riicho, Taco, and Stu they got to Robertson Pie Shop, did a U-Turn, and headed back down again, just to come back up! I guess the liked it

After a breather at Robertson, we took the back road of Pearson Lane through to Fitzroy Falls and then made out way back down into Kangaroo Valley. We stopped for a Pie (which are much better that Robertson) and Riicho got an ice-cream. By this sage though we were getting pretty worn out, and the night before’s lack of sleep had well and truely caught up with us. We headed off to take on our last little bit of fun – Canbewarra Mountain! I’m not sure what happened to the others, but Riicho, Stu, and myself managed to get a clear run the whole way up, and it was sensational! I personally reckon that Camby Mnt is as good as Mac Pass!

We all made it back to the Motel in one piece. I completely crashed out on the bed, so I’m not sure what the others got up to.

At about 6:30 or so, we caught a cab into town and had dinner at the Postmans Tavern. The food as very good, and is highly recommended! I couldnt even finish my Fishermansd Basket, it was HUGE!

After dinner and a couple of drinks we headed down to a new Bar that has opened up in Nowra, called BottleRocket. Its a very modern, over 21’s bar with a wonderful atmosphere. Big leather couches and good music playing. So we spent the rest of the night talking shit (or at least listening to Stu talk shit for the majority ) and knocking down cocktails! Such a hard life.

Sunday morning didnt start well. We came out to find that it had rained over night, and was still very overcast and threatening to rain.

We packed, dried off our bikes and headed to Maccas for breakfast. After breakfast we got about 10 mins out of Nowra and it started raining. And didnt really stop until just before Braidwood. You couldnt seem 20 meters in front of you on the Clyde. We got to Braidwood and we were all cold and damp. Poor Bec was soaked right through. So the hot Chocolates from the Bakery went down very well.

The rest of the run home was pretty uneventful, other than having to stop a few times because of tiredness. Spending the better half of two hours navigating through cold rain just knocked the hell out of me, so by the time we were getting to Bungendore I could barely keep my eyes open

All in all – we had an awesome trip! It was great to get away in just a small group. The roads we covered were some of the best on the south coast. We managed to tick off the Kiama Bends, Sea Cliff Bridge, and Macquarie Pass (twice for some!). We got to carve up Kangeroo Valley a couple of times and really had a top time.

Thanks heaps to the guys that came along, and I hope you had as much fun as I did.

Lurch