Kangaroo Valley Ride 16th March 2023

 The forecast for today’s ride was into the high 30’s ‘Out West’ so we always knew that it would be a hot one!  And the forecast proved to be spot on.

 

It was a balmy 25 by the time ‘side stands up’ came around at 10.00am at Heathcote Maccas.  It was a day destined to go smoothly with Laurent S rolling in a full 10 mins before our planned departure, that being 9 mins 50 secs earlier than his usual arrival time.  Laurent joined the already assembled crew of four (Peter W, Jim C, Dave S and myself as Ride Leader).

 

During the ride briefing, I dutifully announced that I was a ‘Virgin’ Ride Leader (this being my first time out front) which led to them all giving me the welcoming ‘virgin clap’, which seems to be a particularly unfortunate thing to give any poor virgin.  They all laughed and promised to treat me gently and with respect, even the day after!  And to their word, they did.  Some even sent flowers!

 

With a group of 5, we decided that we wouldn’t need corner marking – because what could go wrong with only 5 of us?! – with only a TEC (Jim) to keep the group together.

 

We headed off down the Motorway, off at Waterfall, through the RNP and out to Stanwell Park onto the Old Princes Hwy.  So far, so good!  I still had four bikes in my mirrors.

 

My ride route had been planned to mix it up a bit and so, as we headed down the Motorway after re-joining it briefly, I went past the ‘usual’ Kembla Grange turnoff with the intention of going on for a further 8Kms and exiting at the Picton Rd turnoff so that we could then head down Mt. Kiera Rd.

 

Well it seems that Virgins aren’t to be trusted (apparently!) and so our last two bikes ‘decided’ to follow their noses and go the ‘usual’ way down to Kembla Grange and not continue following the rest of the group.  The rest of us (that is, the three of us out front!) headed down Mt Keira Rd enjoying the twisty, tight little bumpy route to the bottom.  Now with only two bikes in my mirrors, I did the ‘ride leader’ thing and pulled over so that the other two could catch up, only to learn of their desertion from our new TEC, Peter, as we sat by the side of the road in the, now 29 degree, heat.

 

Given that we were now on different paths, the three of us headed off towards our first stop which was to be Robertson Pie Shop.

 

Well, this twisted tale gets more twisted!  It seemed that the two bringing up the rear, had some remorse about the way in which they treated this young Virgin and so decided to get themselves back on track, retracing their route. It turns out that they got to within sight of us several times but not knowing that they were again behind us, we left them in our dust as we headed up Macquarie Pass.  And, Macquarie Pass was delightful!  Three cars easily passed at the bottom and not another vehicle in front of us for their entire run up the hill.  Just magic!  We all arrived withing minutes of each other -- even the two wanderers.

 

With temperatures rising (it was now 29 at the top of the hill at Robertson) we decided to ditch the planned route to Thirlmere via Fitzroy Falls and simply get ourselves home as expeditiously as possible.  So, Dave S kindly took up the front position and led us back down the hill a little way so that we could join the ‘Tourist Route’ from Robertson to Mittagong via Range Road and the Old Hume Hwy.  As we ventured through Hill Top and into Thirlmere, the temps hit 37.

 

We said our ‘Goodbyes’ at Thirlmere and whilst four riders then headed off to catch the M1 and M7 home, this poor Virgin, having been deflowered and then cast aside by the pack, headed off solo on the balance of the return trip home via Wilton, Appin, Thirroul, Stanwell Tops and then into the Eastern Suburbs, leaving behind the 40 deg temps of Sutherland and Brighton Le-Sands for a welcome 33 degrees at home.

 

Thank you to my fellow riders today for making my inaugural ride such an easy process.  I couldn’t have lost my virginity to a nicer bunch.

 

Perhaps, when the weather cools later in the year, we can rerun the ride so that we can try the full route including spending an hour at so, perhaps, at the newly revamped Train Museum at Thirlmere.

 

See you all at future Thursday runs.  And thank you, again, for the flowers!  Most appreciated! 😊

 

Steve Sampson