Thursday promised rain, skies were sodden 3 hardy souls turned up at Berowra, in drizzle. Raining on the beaches 10:00am  nobody else. I foolishly parked at the front. Leader Andy TEC, Richo was the group! Wets were put on. Destination Ebenezer church or Tractor 828 for morning tea depending on the weather/road conditions and then Grey Gums for lunch. Berowra Waters ferry first, missed it by one minute, when eventually it arrived back, cars disembarked, but the ferry master stopped us getting on, gates closed. He went for a dump, shower, put on his makeup and then his morning tea, in the meantime  the ferry was being sprayed by another gentleman in the drizzle. Weed killer/pest control? never found out, after 25 minutes another Ferry master let us on. Finally we were under way, the clouds parted and a good run to Sackville Ferry, as we arrived the gates closed, would he let us on? No! Watched as he slipped away. another delay. Stopped at Tractor 828 as it was  11:3...

  The weather gods were kind today . . . for a while, but then decided to sabotage our planned ride to Thirlmere.   The few showers this morning were not enough to discourage the seven intrepid riders who made their way to Heathcote McDonalds from near and far. 'Near' being an hour away from the Eastern Suburbs and 'Far' being nearly two hours from the Northern Beaches and The Hills district.   Because of the wet weather, we agreed to abandon the planned RNP leg and proceed down the Old Princess Hwy and the M1, exiting at Picton Road so that we could take the less-travelled Mt Kiera Rd down the hill to the Coast   After a further diversion back onto the M1, we rejoined the Princess Hwy at Dapto so that we could take some back roads towards Illawarra Hwy and then up to the Robertson Pie Shop.   It was at that juncture, exiting the M1 at Dapto, that we lost three of our group, the first four riders being too covert in their egress from the Motorway.  Thankful...

  Tony and I arrived at Berowra to be greeted by 4 enthusiastic riders ready to go, all suggesting that we get going early because Dungog is a long ride. Over the next short while we were joined by another 3. A detailed briefing was given describing the route to our morning tea stop at Dooralong Hall. Mark was appointed Tail End Charlie and he and some others advised that they would leave at Sandy Creek Rd after morning tea as they had commitments in the afternoon.   We were all ready and anxious to get going when a colourful rider turned up and asked for some extra time to top up the gallant steed. Job completed and off we rode. One of our number reported that he had seen a gaggle of motor bike mounted constabulary pass by as we were waiting to leave. This was noted and a careful pace was set as we headed off. I also allowed a couple of other bikes to act as rabbits in case one of the blueys happened to be hiding in the bushes somewhere. True to form we found one hiding in th...

  It  It was an an enticing morning to gather at McGraths Hill Maccas, the weather was good but a sceptical majority must have been reading the forecast from the BOM and decided to stay at home. Nevertheless 7 riders gathered and then learned that one rider had a 'brain snap' and was waiting for us at Berowra!  The route was through Wilberforce, up the Putty and then left at Blaxland Ridge Rd. to Bells Line. As we passed Bilpin one rider was seduced by The Grumpy Baker, now 6 riders.  The forgetful one joined us at  Mount Tomah for smoko, back to 7 riders. Phones showing weather radar are wonderful things, promising a downpour, back to 5 riders.  Due to the sky indicating  fulfilment of the radar projection  and the probability of a rather wet, potholed run down to the end of the Megalong Valley, with no shelter at the end. The destination was changed to Mt.York, which has shelter.  The race was now on the finish lunch and beat the rain,...

There is NO escape! I arrived at Berowra 7-11 to find a gaggle of bikes so slotted neatly in front of them. Turns out it was ladies day so a number of the bikes disappeared early on in the piece as the rest in of the parking filled with bikes and the time was fast approaching  10am . Problem - the allocated ride leader was no where to be seen and no-one had heard from him in any attempt to arrange an alternate leader. At 9:58  Peter of the committee stood up and said “right we need a replacement ride leader”, I kept my counsel and buttoned my lip. He roamed through the crowd of 20 eager riders making pronouncements like “morning tea is at Spencer” so I foolishly assumed (and we all know what that does) it was sorted. He headed back in my direction so I was expecting a “so and so has volunteered so all is good” but instead I got “morning tea is at Spencer and since your bike is parked in front of all the others you are ride leader for today”.   Not happy Jan! So much so th...