ANZAC PADPAL Ride 25th Apr 2024

 Wouldn’t ya just know it, we get beautiful riding weather and it’s ANZAC Day Double Demerits. Still 7 riders turned up to make the best of a bad job. 5 were well known to the group, one (Elliot) was newish and the last (Bonny) had been itching to get on a Thursday Ride for over 2 years and a public holiday on a Thursday was the perfect opportunity.

 

The route for today’s PADPAL was driven by the need to get off the main roads as soon as possible and to avoid any back roads that actually led anywhere the hordes of “long weekenders” might want to go. Judging by the constant stream of biker groups heading north through Berowra we weren’t going to be alone on these roads either.

The other comments worth repeating was made by everyone upon arriving at the 7-11 being firstly “ I wish the traffic was like this every day” and secondly “good luck with getting anyone to lead today”!

So the group decision was taken to share the lead and to largely retrace the steps of last weeks PADPAL with 2 variations. The trip to Kulnura was via Somersby and the return trip included the Deeves/Mandelong/Dicksons roads as well as the Yarramalong valley.

Attempts to call the café at Millfield went unanswered so the more pragmatic amongst the group prepared by buying sandwiches at the 7-11 if they weren’t already equipped.

 

The trip up to Kulnura, led by Brian was great, no bluebottles were spotted and a good pace maintained throughout. Suitcase was TEC and no-one got lost so thanks Rob. However on the last leg from Mangrove Mt there was a group of Harleys at the side of the road. Subsequently we heard that a cage driver, pulling out of the Fruit & Veg stall, had collected one of their number who was duly carted off to hospital which certainly took the gloss of that groups day. We wish him a speedy recovery. Jerrys was heaving with bikes, riders and a smattering of pillions. So we grabbed a table and tucked into our own fare on the basis the wait time for anything might be protracted. Suitcase challenged this assumption and was proved right by getting his food and drink AND a coffin nail in with time to be consumed before we left.

 

After smoko (thanks Rob) one of the 7 baled out citing more important things to do, what could be more important than riding a motorbike on a great riding day we wondered but held our counsel. So the remaining 6, led by yours truly, set off for Millfield. Again, no bluebottles were sighted, a good pace maintained throughout. Wollombi was also heaving as we passed through so avoiding the park turned out to be a good decision. Suitcase was again TEC and again we arrived at Millfield café still 6 strong. Unfortunately the café was closed but the chairs under the vines were there and the fishpond was running so we gritted our teeth, overlooked the fact the toilets were locked, and settled in for lunch.

 

Over lunch we solved some of the world’s most persistent problems which included pairing Bonny’s new phone with his Sena headset. Why everything has to be so particular is anyone’s guess but early attempts failed because we didn’t wait exactly 12 secs before releasing the button 🙄 Thanks goes to Elliot for his persistence in getting this over the line.

 

After lunch Tracer Pete led the ride home via Sandy Creek and Freemans Waterhole for a much needed toilet break. Continuing on through Cooranbong, Mandelong, Yarramalong, Bumble hill and thence back to the Pie for a chinwag and coffee. The pace was “fearless” as Bonny put it but the only Bluebottle spotted was at the Waterhole. He was tucking into his lunch parked at the side of the road and even the sight of 10 or 15 teenage hoons on little dirt bikes with missing silencers emerging from the woods and doing wheelies up the road in front of him didn’t distract him from his task🐷

The roads were pretty clear right back to the old road where we caught up with a bunch of biker wannabes, P platers all, whom we left behind on the trip up to the Pie whilst they worked out that cranking open the throttle to show us how fast they could go was incompatible with actually going around the corners in the road🤣

 

What a great day for a ride, weather was perfect, great company, route was on the money and (tempting fate here I know) I think we managed to avoid the attention of the “authorities” and hopefully also avoided giving them any “donations”😇

Until the next time 👍🏻

Andy