Canbewarra Lookout Ride 27th October 2022

 

It was the perfect day for a ride, not a cloud to be seen as the bikes rolled into McDonalds car park at McGraths Hill and by 10.00am we had 21 riders.

It was great to see a large number of regular Thursday Riders and eight riders including myself from the Hills Branch and one or two from the Sydney Branch. We welcomed two new riders to the group and after the formalities we headed off.

It was a very pleasant ride along Bells Line of Road until about 15 kms from Lithgow near the Zig Zag railway the temperature dropped dramatically and you could see rain up ahead.

The rain was bad timing with only a short distance to go but to avoid being saturated it was time to put on our wet weather gear so we found a safe place to stop outside the Kia Dealership in Lithgow.

The rain came down as we rode to Oliver’s Restaurant at the Shell Service Centre for morning tea. One rider had planned to turn off before Lithgow so we had 20 bikes.

During morning tea, one by one 10 riders decided to go back or head for home.

After morning tea, the rain had eased to a sprinkle and 10 determined riders rode off to continue the ride to Mount Panorama.

Well, what the heck with all our good riding gear on we were prepared for more bad weather if it came our way and besides the forecast looked good from early afternoon.

The best part of the ride is from Bowenfels at Lithgow through to O’Connell and The Lagoon, bypassing Perthville through to Mount Panorama.

That was the fun part, lots of potholes and then some unexpected long sections of roadworks where we actually rode on wet dirt, not gravel that looked more like a skidpan but my Chook

Chaser or Bush Pig as most DR nuts like to refer to them as love these roads but having said that it seemed the other bikes did too, such as Rod FJR, Wayne GS, Glenn GS, Steve GS,

Richo GS, John Yamaha XJ, Peter KTM, Trevor Honda CTX 1300 Cruiser and Jeremy on his more than slightly tweaked Royal Enfield all seemed to embrace the adventure.

As we rode the weather just became cloudy and we arrived at the top of the mountain where we had a number of large shelters to choose from. During lunch we discussed alternative ways to return home but decided due to flooded creeks and rivers in the area we wouldn’t push our luck and just stick to the highway.

So, it was back down the mountain as we waved to 3 Police bike riders, one unmarked Police bike chatting amongst themselves as we left.

It was good fun riding around the track sticking to the 60 kph limit of course and making our way into Bathurst we refuelled at the 7Eleven at Kelso and stopped for a milkshake at the Bilpin

Fruit Bowl.

We could have been outnumbered by the presence of Police bikes on Bells Line of Road in Bathurst and Lithgow and a number of HWP cars as well, presumably a special operation going on in the area which gave you the feeling of being safe from bad people.

The guys who stuck it out to the end had a great day and I trust the guys who left after morning tea did as well. It was a shame it rained when it did but that’s motorcycling.

The last ten years drought spoilt us a bit but appears we are now getting use to riding in the rain.

My hat goes off to everyone who came on the ride, well done. Thanks to everyone who corner marked and Garry Herring and John Hislop for sharing the Tail End Charlie tasks. It

helps a large group ride go smoothly with no hiccups.

I am looking forward to the next 10- year drought when you can confidently plan a ride and potholes become extinct.

Home at 5.25pm - 360kms.

Dave Sipple