So I had a good idea through the week to go for a Sunday ride. We weren’t too sure how many Swarmers (Swarmisti?) would be around because of the long weekend, but surely someone other than us would be keen… There are five of us who manage to get away on rides most often (I don’t know Italian, but lo sciame cinque??? thanks google translate, I’m sure that makes perfect sense). Anyway, Chris, Nicky, Steve, Morgan and I met up at Dickson Shell to head to Gunning for lunch.
Gunning is a 63km ride from Dickson, through Sutton, Gundaroo and Bellmount Forest. It was a beautiful day, even though it was hot (top temp in Canberra was 30.5 today) and it was pretty good riding weather. The road is pretty good – a fair few spots are covered in patched potholes, which we just rode around. It was a little windy, but nothing that we haven’t experienced before. Also – there was not a lot of other traffic on the road which was great. But there are always a lot of bikes out on this road and today was no exception.
We had great plans for a pub lunch, but when we got to Gunning the pub only has Chinese – Nicky was very quick to say this was not going to happen (v. fair call) so we only used the pub for a refreshing beer. Also, Gunning has markets on the last Sunday of the month, so we had a bit of a browse before heading to the Merino Cafe for lunch. Given the cafe’s name, I guess it makes sense that lamb featured prominently on the menu. Chris had the Merino breakfast (all day breakfast – support) which came with a lamb chop and Steve had lamb chops. Nice. Morgan, Nicky and I had burgers which were great. Although they didn’t leave room for scones, what a shame. Maybe next time we will head out for afternoon tea… We also discussed a monthly Sunday ride – either the first or last Sunday of the month. Not huge undertakings, but just a ride away with the Swarm to find new roads and places and revisit old favourites.
The Swarm traditionally ‘meets’ on the last Tuesday of each month at All Bar Nun at the O’Connor shops. We knew that ABN was closing, but no one was sure of when. So we decided that as well as being good Swarm riders, we would also been good Swarm researchers and go and see what the deal was. We arrived at ABN and it was packed and the band was loud. Yep – today was the last hurrah. So we grabbed drinks and found the only free table in the back corner. We decided that we would need to work out a new monthly meeting place at this week’s meeting, so our interim venue for Tuesday night is PJ O’Reillys in Civic. We talked about the Durham, but its trivia night on Tuesday night. Suggestions? PJs is going to be fine, Chris and I are both already planning to have the Tuesday special – schnittys. So farewell to ABN for the Swarm.
twovespas 