Binalong week-end ride - 18th - 19th March 2023

 Eight brave souls congregated at St. Ives on a warm Saturday morning. Our fearless leader Geoff "Staysharp" Wiltshire was laid low by the dreaded lurgy so I became the default leader. Luckily Geoff had provided me with all the info I needed for the ride so it was just a matter of following his instructions.

We were to meet Russ Pennell at the BP in Kurmond on Bells Line of Road. John Warner offered to be TEC on his Can-Am although he warned me he was having a slight problem with it where it restricted him to 100 kph. That was no problem as I didn't intend to go faster than that with my eleven points.

We headed off slightly late along Mona Vale road to the M2, then on to the Abbott Road exit and  Old Windsor Road to Windsor, Turf Farms and Kurmond. Russ wasn't there at the BP so I wondered if he'd given up on us as we were a bit late. No problems as he turned up a couple of minutes later. We headed off straight away via Bell, Darling Causeway and right on to Hartley Vale Road. I had checked the previous night to make sure the road was sealed and found the Lithgow Council website celebrating the sealing of the road in 2020? Unfortunately the first kilometre or so is in the Blue Mountains council area and it was rough with wash aways and potholes. Not to everyone's liking especially the Can-Am with its three wheels!! Eventually we made it to the great Western Highway and on to the servo at South Bowenfels. I had been to the cafe there on 8th March on the way to Orange and the service was very slow as there was only one girl making coffee, taking the cash etc. This time there were two girls on and it was still as slow!!! So I think we can cross that venue off our list of coffee stops. After "morning tea" we headed off past Lake Lyell to Sodwalls, Tarana, Kelso and stopped for lunch at the Tourist Information centre Cafe in the park on the left on the way into Bathurst. Young Kevin was in a dream and rode right past us as we refuelled at the Amplify servo. He called later and said he would catch us as we rode through Blayney The weather was heating  up in Bathurst so we ate lunch in the aircon comfort. The service was also pretty slow but we all managed to get what we ordered. After lunch with the temps into the 30Cs we headed for Blayney. On the way out of Bathurst there was a huge road sign saying the Mid-western Highway was closed and indicating we should head in the direction of Orange. I took an executive decision and ignored the sign which turned out to be the right decision??? We picked up Kevin in Blayney and headed down the Mid-Western Highway to Woodstock where we turned left and headed for Wyangala Dam. You can't ride across the dam wall as we used to do many years ago. You can walk across but we decided to park the bikes with a view over the lake.

Chris taking a selfie with the group.

It was really heating up now so we headed off to Boorowa via Frogmore.

The road surface was a bit average with lots of potholes and one rather large one which I managed hit. The impact dislodged my Topbox which fell into the path of Russ riding  behind me. Unfortunately he couldn't avoid it, but luckily he didn't come off when he hit it. After lots of assistance picking up the bits I managed to remount it on the bike held down with a couple of straps I carry. After that I slowed down a bit so I could have better warning of any more "Grand Canyons". The rest of the ride was uneventful to Binalong where we arrived at approx 5pm. The allocation of the rooms was pretty chaotic but eventually we all found a bed. The dining room opened at 6pm so we all trooped in and ordered our meals. There was a table set up in the dining room which we assumed was for us. All the meals were of generous proportions and everyone was satisfied. All manner of problems were solved in the after dinner chat which lasted until 9pm when the last man standing retired.

Sunday morning dawned bright and dare I say it cool. As there was no breakfast at the pub we headed to Boorowa for our breakfast at The Superb Bakery. Russ Pennell and John Warner left us at Binalong  to head straight home so we were down to seven. We refuelled in Boorowa before heading off to Crookwell and Taralga in increasing heat. The road surface was a bit rough but luckily potholes were at a minimum. At Crookwell Andy left us to head up the Freeway. He had had enough of the rough road surface. Surprisingly the road from Crookwell to Taralga was quite smooth. It looked as though it had been resurfaced recently. My GPS still thinks its unsealed!!! 

We had morning tea at Taralga and tried to determine from the RFS whether the road to Oberon was open. There were lots of RFS firefighters and water bombing helicopters there but no one could tell us whether the road was open or not so we decided to take a chance and head to Oberon. Luckily the grass fire at Curraweela had travelled east and the Tablelands Way was open. The road to Wombeyan Caves was closed when we passed it. 

This is a VERY short video taken by Bonny of a helicopter sucking up water from a local dam.

We rode past Curraweela where the grass fire had been and it was all black and still smouldering in some parts. Soon we were out of the grass fire affected area and enjoy the scenery of the Tablelands Way. Lunch was taken at Oberon ... in increasing heat. After lunch we headed for Hampton and on to Mount Victoria where we refuelled. At this point I relinquished my duties as ride leader and headed off post haste along Darling Causeway, Bells Line of Road, Turf Farms and Windsor road. The temperature on Windsor bridge was 40.5C at 3pm, Old Windsor road at Bella Vista 43.5C at 3.30pm and a cool 31C at Elanora Heights at 4pm. I was perspiring from every orifice by the time I rolled into my garage.

This is the temperature reading from Chris Bennett's bike 40C. 

It was a great week-end and we managed to take the route that Geoff had planned so that was all good.

Thanks for the good company gentlemen. 

Cheers

Alan