28-29th June - Weekend away to Mudgee

From Soph

Despite gloomy weather forecasts, the only things to hit our visors were bugs and glare from the road!

The trip up was very well organised (thanks Steve!), with the laid-back crew taking it extremely easy all the way up and the alternative speedy route actually making it to Sofala, and on. After a day of beautiful wide corners and a distinct lack of other traffic, we regrouped at the pub (where else?) and stayed there pretty much all night - apart from a brief moment when we checked into our cozy 'villas' - declaring ourselves to be the Vespa Overtakers Owners Club. "Mid-life Crisis" was the name of the band that night, but after checking out the talent on the dance floor we decided to air mail Chinese take-away orders and rude requests in German to the girls on the table next door instead. The local wine wasn't too bad, but we never did make it to a winery :)

Sunday's clouds looked a bit iffy, especially after hearing rain all night, but the only casualty was Liam's Ducati which had had a bit too much to drink and seemed to think SJ's SV was a bar it needed to prop up. The rainclouds ran away while we were having breakfast though, so after finally finding the local Mobil (Steve's Shadow didn't like the Caltex offerings, so no-one else was about to try it) we set off with easily accessible binbags in luggage rather than over leathers.

More lovely wide roads on the way back to Lithgow, but it was BLOODY FREEZING!!!!! I think I'll buy some therml gloves before next winter.. and then off to the Comet Inn at Hartley Vale for lunch and hot chocolate - yum! Our last stop, after losing a few bods off visiting friends, was the pub near the turn off for Freeman's Reach where Chris showed us his snazzy shots for the weekend (Grant, I think you're safe this time!), and finally it was time to hit the traffic on Windsor Rd again. Yay, home sweet home.

But all in all it was a fantastic weekend, even if the police seemed to be unfairly targeting Chris with his bright orange leathers and EPA-compliant exhaust *cough* Huge thanks to Steve and Kath for organising everything, and to everyone else for providing drunken entertainment to the locals on Saturday night :)