Dungog Loop Ride 17th November 2022

 

It was a beautiful sunny if cool day for a ride to Dungog.

I picked up my trusty GS from Procycles, Hornsby after they had replaced my front and rear wheels following an incident with a giant pothole on the Hume Highway south of Seymour on 13th October. I haven’t ridden since then so I was itching to go. The only problem with the bike was the left turn indicator didn’t work so I would have to revert to the old hand signals.

There were sixteen other riders at the Seven-Eleven Berowra also itching to go including a virgin, Jeremy, on a hotted up Royal Enfield. He proudly told us that he drags it and did the quarter mile in 13.7 seconds hitting a speed of 101 mph. So I told him he might JUST be able to keep up with us.

The route I planned was Old road to Calga then continue on same road to Somersby where we would take the M1 to the Wyong exit. After that it was The Triangle, Hue Hue road, Wyee road, Freemans Drive to Freemans Water Hole for morning tea.

We set off on time with Peter W as TEC. I was keeping to the speed limit as I have 11 points and didn’t fancy Shank’s Pony for three months. At the briefing I told the assembled throng that I was going to use the official Thursday Riders corner marking with the ride leader (me!!) indicating the corners I wanted marked and the rider immediately behind me stopping and indicating to all the following riders the direction to go. This worked brilliantly all the way to Dungog. I was amazed and I think a big cheer should go up for all the riders making it work.
There was one small problem at the start of the ride. I was told that as we rolled out of the Berowra Service station a certain person of Gallic descent turned up and was told that morning tea was at Freemans Water Hole to which this laggard said where’s that??? So the kind TEC waited until this “gentleman” had refuelled before leaving with him in tow. Unfortunately this made the TEC 10 minutes behind the leader and tested the patience of all the corner markers. So a decision was made at morning tea that the rule should be, we leave together and don’t wait for any latecomers. The TEC can inform the latecomer where the morning tea stop is but that’s all.

Back to the actual ride.

After morning tea three riders left us. They either had a better offer or realised that this was going to be a long day (420kms). We continued along Freemans Drive to Pelaw, Kurri Kurri, Maitland, Paterson, Vacy to East Gresford where I took a slight detour (wrong turn) but corrected myself quickly with help from the group. It was then I discovered that the instrument console on my GS was floating around. The two bolts fixing it to the frame had disappeared. They must have been shaken loose by the rough road surface from Maitland. Nevertheless the cavalry were there to help with TEC Peter supplying cable ties and Danny my check mate supplying some shock cord. I told the rest of the group to continue on to Dungog as they were looking starved and it was 1.00pm …. way past their lunchtime. We had the bike sorted in double quick time and were on our way. The scenery on the road from East Gresford to Dungog is quite spectacular, especially on a sunny day. Lunch was taken in the park on the Stroud road out of Dungog. Allan Scott said he was heading for a “dirty” week-end in Walcha so we were down to thirteen except there were only twelve at the park!!! A phone call from our Gallic friend solved that problem, he was at the IGA in Dungog (god knows why). Eventually he made it to the park and my reputation for not having lost someone on the ride was saved.
Most of us returned by Clarence Town, Seaham, Raymond Terrace and the M1. Some made it to the PITS for a late coffee, tea or Bonox.

A great days riding with great company. Thanks to Peter for being TEC.

Alan of the left “hand” turn.