Tallowa Dam Ride 27th June 2024

 It was a sunny (18 degrees) and funny ride today, the designated ride leader Max was nowhere to be seen, its alleged that he is somewhere in the UK. I decided to lead at the last minute to Tallowa Dam, its near Kangaroo Valley, simple!

We were joined by 3 riders from St George club, we had maybe 15 riders in total.

It was all going well as we descended down Mt Kembla, only problem was I had described the route as per descending down Mt Kiera in my ride briefing, I think that’s the way it went, anyhow we lost a few riders en route to Robbo pie shop for morning tea. We all arrived, and the temperature was good for Robbo, pies and coffee…….. excellent. There was a rumour that Tallowa Dam was closed as well as a contradicting rumour that it was now open, so off we went, it was closed. Jerry from St George suggested the pub at Kangaroo Valley, this seemed like a good idea, until we discovered that we weren’t welcome as we had picnic lunches. I sent Wayne off to look for a nearby alternative, I trusted Wayne but never saw him again, what else can you expect from a retired banker. After a prolonged period the troops became agitated, a place called Bendeela was suggested, which was about 7k back the way we came, we were about to leave and a better suggestion arose, there is a picnic ground near the old bridge. Back we went, I wheeled into the picnic ground only to be told, “this isn’t it, follow me”, that rider hadn’t heard our Plan B and took off to the Plan A location at Bendeela. Anyhow our TEC ‘Peter of the Yellow Braces’ did a great job in rounding everyone up, including Wayne, remember him.

Bendeela was our location for lunch, it’s a very large grassed picnic area near the Shoalhaven river, not far as the crow flies from the elusive Tallowa Dam. The usual global issues were discussed, Assange, inflation, renewables and nuclear energy.  Before long we were all talking about a lot of shit over lunch as we always do. The local wild life had been feasting on the lush turf, the grass had brown evidence of such. There was much speculation as to the origins of the shit, kangaroo was the obvious one in Kangaroo Valley, some other critters got a mention too.

That was until Kim, who until today had a reputation for not knowing shit, declared it was wombat shit. Kim drew from his past and vast architectural vocabulary to describe wombat shit as “blocky….. cube like… not much rounding on the ends”. He backed his comments up with hand gestures, Jerry from St Geoge is another self-declared shit expert and substantiated Kim’s claims. So convincing they both were that we all conceded to their superior knowledge, contented by their wisdom we decided to mount up and head off. 

I had had enough of my failed leadership, I passed the baton to Jerry St George, he took us along Tourist road to Berry where we waved goodbye. A very nice loop. A few pot holes and smatterings of cow shit near the dairies, other than that all good.

On the way home, a ute towing a trailer with two large cows in the trailer had rolled on the bends near Kiama, more shit (thanks Max),  one cow escaped, ran onto the other side of the road, it ran for maybe 3 kilometres down the centre lane into oncoming traffic on M1. This caused minor car accidents, the highway patrol came from all directions sirens blazing. This was our queue to dial up our cruising speed assuming that all police were attending to the stricken cows.

A quick trip home, ice-creams at airport Maccas, home by 4.30. I have my doubts about the St George boys joining us again, sorry about that.

Cheers

Rod