Bald Hill But Not Bombo - Sunday 3rd December 2023

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GONBUG “Not to Bombo Beach” Ride report, Sunday 3 December 2023

Well !!! The best-laid plans can go awry, but don’t quite turn to custard.

After meticulous ride-planning one week early, and with good weather forecast, I thought I would at last lead Northern Beaches group to a virgin destination – we had never ridden to wonderful, tantalising Bombo Beach.

Then it unravelled – with an invitation from no less than the Lord Mayor of Sydney to her fancy-pants Lord Mayor’s Town Hall Christmas Party, 3rd December, starting at 2pm back in centre-city.

Ever the “opportunist”, I reckoned this would be just the event to publicise Ulysses Beginnings, at the Elizabeth Hotel (since demolished) in Elizabeth Street, City, forty years before, on 6th December 1983. We had even (almost) been awarded a bronze plaque in the footpath near the site.

This I explained to the gathering of five riders, that two of us riders would need to get back to centre-city by 2pm for the Town Hall shindig, so we headed off.

It was a non-stop ride to Royal National Park, then  all the way through to Bald Hill Lookout – great day for checking out the scenery, grabbing a bite, and then (with Ulysses Best Treasurer John Osborne as my VIP Guest), I abandoned the remaining riders to whatever jollity they could devise.

John O and I made our way back to Sussex Street, parked our bikes, polished up the boots, brushed off the dust, and wandered into Town Hall looking only slightly out-of-place amongst Clover’s friends and others – it’s always a mixed bag of rich, poor, clever and not-so-clever, multi-national Sydney folk. Great music – the pipe organ, top nosh and top drinks. Just don’t expect to hear anyone’s conversation in the DIN.

(We were greeted by Lord Mayor Clover – handed her a copy of The Ulysses Story, and told her of the upcoming 40th Anniversary – smile, smile, nod, nod).

I have since heard that the other riders, Geoff, FlappnJack Warner, and Terrence, didn’t continue on to Bombo so that will be a treat for another time.

Thanks for coming along.  MTC

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