The sun broke through the clouds to mark the beginning of a magic sunny Sunday for the start of the Jugiong Juggernaut Run.

13 vivacious participants arrived at the Hall village lay-by start, with Jill and Dennis also to join us at Murrumbateman (no less vivacious, they just don't live in Canberra).

It should be noted at this point that a certain un-named member was noticeably absent from our happy throng.

He'd come up with the flimsiest of excuses for his absence - he'd previously gone to Adelaide to get married!

Well we wont stand for this kind of nonsense, so his name has been passed on to the executive to send him an official 'Please explain'. Members will all agree that this miscreant needs to get his priorities right.

As it turned out, his daughters nicked his NC and joined us on the run anyway.

Well, it's likely he'll never see his car again.

Serves him right.

Your writer was early (as usual) in his timing calculations for the run and on this occasion Murphy's Law chose to lend a hand.

So that the expected traffic delay for the roadwork's at Jeirs Creek on the Barton Highway never eventuated.

Also, I had allowed a 10 minute traffic stop to cater for the Murrumbatemen Field Day (cast of thousands were there on the Saturday). But what happened? - there was hardly a bloody car on the road, well maybe one or two, but anyway we sailed straight through.

The result was we were 15 minutes early at said municipality and caught Dennis napping (i.e. still in bed).

In the event, the run duly proceeded on to the coffee stop at Binalong village with no further incidents, apart from some recalcitrant members opting to divert via Bowning.

From Binalong and full of resuscitating liquids we proceeded north-west, deep into the hayseed country of Harden-Murrumburrah.

Here, spring was displaying its full blossom of rich colours with the lustrous emerald green hues of St Johns Wart and thistles competing against the vitriolic amethyst colour of the Patterson's Curse.

The road wound its way through the rolling hillsides of this stuff. (Oh, all right, there was a bit of soy and lucerne there too). As well, magnificent age-old gum trees peppered each side of the road, seemingly thrusting out their large trunks as a challenge to one's bumper bar.

But, no one had a bumper bar so we proceeded without incident through to "The Dipper" for an amusing photo-run courtesy of John B before turning south to Jugiong.

Dennis, as passenger, later conversationally commented on this part the drive. So the photo of a certain NC going through the Dipper is ahhhhh, ........interesting.

The Jugiong Long Track Pantry Cafe, our lunch venue, had an interesting spread of meals on its menu. Sufficient to say there are no hamburgers or fish and chips on offer but this did not seem to deter customers as the place was pretty much packed out.

Our group enjoyed a long table set up on the side verandah enjoying the food, watching the looks of envious passers-by, before finishing off with good tea/coffee.

John B, ever a storehouse of useful information, mentioned to some members that one would need to walk back to Canberra to work off all the calories contained in a large blueberry muffin. Your writer observed that this worthy info appeared to matter not a jot to the listeners in question. Dunno if they did any walking either.

The run concluded with the lunch. Some members (of an unspecified sex) then proceeded to buy out all the giftware on sale, while a few others went for a photo shoot across the Murrumbidgee river before turning back east to return to Mother Earth.

Malcolm

(and congratulations on your nuptials Roger, great stuff.)