RIDE REPORT – WOLLOMBI – 26/08/2023   Ride Leader : John Osborne An almost perfect day for riding if just a little chilly. At the starting time we had six motorcycles and a Spyder so we headed off on the usual back route through Hornsby, onto the Old Road and stopped at The Pie to pick up any stragglers. Despite an over-abundance of boys in blue w e made good progress from The Pie up to Calga thence Spring Road, Bumble Hill, Yarramalong to a seldom visited smoko stop at the Wyong Dairy. This was an interesting stop with some confusion on the leader’s part as to where to park. The Dairy is a bit of a higgledy piggily sort of place with several different areas, which appear separate, designated for parking but which all are for the same place. After some shopping in the Cheese Shop an enjoyable coffee was time to head off up Hue Hue Road through Freemans Waterhole to the Sandy Creek Road turnoff to Quorrobolong/Wollombi where I decided to regroup for the run to lunch....

  Lots of riders (21 + actually) assembled at Berowra for a great days outing up into the Hunter Valley. One rider being a newby, was given the traditional welcoming “clap” during the briefing prior to departure, so impressed with his welcome he (and another mate) decided they needed to get back home earlier than originally thought and then decided to go up the road for a quick coffee…anyway…after Peter The Braces volunteered his services (again) as TEC off we went. After a regathering at Calga we charged forward to Wollombi for morning tea. After morning tea a small group of radical “elders” decided to take the conservative and less stressful route eastwards towards the vineyards whilst the majority trekked towards Broke where our first corner marking for the day took place as we turned right into Singleton Road. I know Paul was delighted to wait at the intersection for 15 minutes until our TEC trundled along. After a brisk trip and by passing the Hunter Valley Gardens we all arri...

  And then there were two. 20 registered to go, 16 started, and two ended up together at the finish. That looks like a bit of a disaster, but in fact it worked out pretty much as originally planned. We started at Berowra  at 9:30 AM for a day with about 7 hours of riding ahead of us. The Old Road to Peats Ridge, the freeway to the Hue Hue Road, through Cooranbong and Mulbring  to Hexham and on to morning tea at the Heatherbrae Pie shop at Raymond Terrace. It took us a bit longer than I had thought to get here, so this became brunch. We then headed north again and used Buckets Way up to Booral, across to Bulahdelah (great winding road), through Wootton Way and back on the highway to Nabiac, then inland to Krambach, and across to South Taree for fuelling. A couple of people supplemented their brunch with some added refreshment here. After that we headed up the freeway past Port Macquarie towards Kempsey, then diverted across to South West Rocks via Crescent Head – a very pl...

  Ride Report – Bulli AMCA Event – Saturday 12 th August Once again it seems we chose the better day of the weekend for our ride to the AMCA Bulli Antique Motorcycle Event at Bulli Showgrounds. Saturday 12 th was sunny and mild, we had seven bikes at ST Ives for a 9.05am departure. We travelled down the A3 to Top Ryde then west along Victoria Road to Ermington, then followed the A6 south all the way to Heathcote Road. This avoided the Olympic Park precinct. At Heathcote Road we turned east, crossed the Woronora River to the Princes Highway and south into Heathcote arriving at 10.30am for a leg stretch at the Ampol servo, where we met Vaughn. He’d had a slow trip from the City, just beating us to the servo. From Heathcote we travelled via Waterfall and Royal National Park to another short stop at Bald Hill where we again remarked on the excellent day, then up Lawrence Hargrave Drive to the Old Highway and south to Bulli Tops, then down the Bulli Pass and to the Showgrounds...

They DO listen occasionally, when I suggest that Riders come along to the Meeting Point at St Ives, practise riding in the rain, and all will be good. And LO – it worked! Six riders, including Newbie Andy, left St Ives, took the usual route (picking up Suitcase at Berowra) to BEROWRA WATERS FERRY, then the usual turns up to the right onto Northern Road, where (we had agreed, due to impending rain) that we wouldn’t indulge in Glenorie Bakery’s DELIGHTS, simply kept ahead of clouds all the way to left at Wiseman’s Ferry Road and a welcome w-e-e stop at Maroota Shell – (should I mention the state of the loo? Naaah!) Past Stone Cottage and Cliftonville Road, then right onto the Sackville Ferry Road and right again at the Lower Portland road-sign, onto the itsy-bitsy LOWER PORTLAND FERRY, and all along the ups and downs, bumps and grinds and rural delights (pot-holes, dung-smells, etc.) and finally reaching Sackville and (on our right) the welcoming Tractor 828, not too busy yet (before noo...

  The Road to Kitchener...and Beyond The standard bunch of bedraggled riders turned out. About 20 of them, including some more people called Peter who only turn up occasionally. It was a beautiful day and even Dascolopoulos, a guest who’d been away lighting fires in Greece, was there. The birds chirped and the landscape was bathed in glorious sunshine. We had a virgin (I think that’s the way you put it?) whose name, like yours, I immediately forgot. We gave him the clap. Peter, you know the one, following the Kitchener theme of the ride (“Your Country Needs You”) kindly volunteered, again, as TEC.   Off we went, finding as many twists and turns as we could, ever obedient to the rules of the road. It was very pleasant, if nothing else because the light, dappling brilliantly through the trees was so good and the spirits so lifted. There wasn’t a nuclear war, or hell, or damnation, in sight. We stopped at Jerry’s Café at Kulnara, for morning coffee which we had with some Portugue...