BMBEN
Registered user
Wednesday 28th Sep 2011
Cliftonville
The weather forecast for the day was pretty gloomy but looking out the window in the morning it didn’t seem too bad. Anyway, as you know, I’m never one to be deterred by bad weather, so off I rode to Maccas. I was surprised by the number of bikes that turned up. By 9.00am we had twelve riders present. We figured that with rain forecast we wouldn’t go too far. Noel suggested we just go to Cliftonville. This was agreed upon, especially as Noel also offered his services as ride leader.
We set off up the Great Western Highway to Springwood and turned off onto Hawkesbury Road. Yippee! I thought. It was holiday time and we didn’t have to worry about school zones. What happens? We all get stuck behind a truck which refused to go over 50kmh. We finally got rid of him at Winmalee and cruised down through the bends and along to Agnes Banks. Then along Castlereagh Road to Richmond where we turned and headed to Windsor. From Windsor it was up the Putty Road to Wilberforce where we turned and rode through Ebenezer to Sackville where we stopped for smoko at the little servo. No, we didn’t actually buy anything but we used their picnic facilities anyway.
After smoko we lost two riders. Alan M was heading elsewhere and John McC was going to visit his “daughter”. Ho hum. The rest of us headed off along the West Portland Road (at least I think that’s what it’s called) to Lower Portland where the ferry was obligingly waiting for us. As the ferry moved off with us on board, the rain started. It wasn’t heavy yet but it was there. Disembarking, we rode cautiously along the River Road as the rain got steadier until we reached Cliftonville where we took shelter on the verandah of the kiosk. Well most of us did. Eric decided that he didn’t want to get any wetter so left us and headed home. He got wetter. Attrition was really setting in! The rest of us sat around munching our sandwiches (not telling you what mine were), slurping our tea and coffee and convincing each other that the rain was going to stop at any minute. It didn’t.
Time to leave. We donned our wet-weather gear and set off up the hill to the Wisemans Ferry Road. Noel had decided we would have afternoon tea at Macquarie Park by the river at Windsor. Arriving at McGraths Hill I think one or two riders left us and headed home. The rest of us were separated by traffic. I was the tail-ender and as I turned into Macquarie Park I was puzzled to see Noel coming out with the rest behind him. (I found out later that when we all got separated, he thought we had all headed off home.) Any way, from Windsor we re-traced our route from the morning. I pulled up for a pit-stop (careful with the spelling there) at Hawkesbury Lookout and after re-fuelling at Valley Heights, arrived home damply at about 2.30pm. I was surprised to see that I had ridden 258kms for the day.
I won’t claim it was one of our best rides but we still had fun; and that’s what it’s all about.
Peter M
Cliftonville on a sunny day
Cliftonville
The weather forecast for the day was pretty gloomy but looking out the window in the morning it didn’t seem too bad. Anyway, as you know, I’m never one to be deterred by bad weather, so off I rode to Maccas. I was surprised by the number of bikes that turned up. By 9.00am we had twelve riders present. We figured that with rain forecast we wouldn’t go too far. Noel suggested we just go to Cliftonville. This was agreed upon, especially as Noel also offered his services as ride leader.
We set off up the Great Western Highway to Springwood and turned off onto Hawkesbury Road. Yippee! I thought. It was holiday time and we didn’t have to worry about school zones. What happens? We all get stuck behind a truck which refused to go over 50kmh. We finally got rid of him at Winmalee and cruised down through the bends and along to Agnes Banks. Then along Castlereagh Road to Richmond where we turned and headed to Windsor. From Windsor it was up the Putty Road to Wilberforce where we turned and rode through Ebenezer to Sackville where we stopped for smoko at the little servo. No, we didn’t actually buy anything but we used their picnic facilities anyway.
After smoko we lost two riders. Alan M was heading elsewhere and John McC was going to visit his “daughter”. Ho hum. The rest of us headed off along the West Portland Road (at least I think that’s what it’s called) to Lower Portland where the ferry was obligingly waiting for us. As the ferry moved off with us on board, the rain started. It wasn’t heavy yet but it was there. Disembarking, we rode cautiously along the River Road as the rain got steadier until we reached Cliftonville where we took shelter on the verandah of the kiosk. Well most of us did. Eric decided that he didn’t want to get any wetter so left us and headed home. He got wetter. Attrition was really setting in! The rest of us sat around munching our sandwiches (not telling you what mine were), slurping our tea and coffee and convincing each other that the rain was going to stop at any minute. It didn’t.
Time to leave. We donned our wet-weather gear and set off up the hill to the Wisemans Ferry Road. Noel had decided we would have afternoon tea at Macquarie Park by the river at Windsor. Arriving at McGraths Hill I think one or two riders left us and headed home. The rest of us were separated by traffic. I was the tail-ender and as I turned into Macquarie Park I was puzzled to see Noel coming out with the rest behind him. (I found out later that when we all got separated, he thought we had all headed off home.) Any way, from Windsor we re-traced our route from the morning. I pulled up for a pit-stop (careful with the spelling there) at Hawkesbury Lookout and after re-fuelling at Valley Heights, arrived home damply at about 2.30pm. I was surprised to see that I had ridden 258kms for the day.
I won’t claim it was one of our best rides but we still had fun; and that’s what it’s all about.
Peter M
Cliftonville on a sunny day
