Gardens of Stone Ride 20th Feb 2025

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On a dubiously promising day for sunshine, 15ish riders gathered at McGraths Hill Maccas to solve world problems and hopefully see 'The Gardens of Stone'. In an effort to make the ride 'interesting' a trip the previous week, by 4WD, had shown that the scenery was spectacular when using the unpaved tracks into the area but if tried by bike several riders may have found themselves as involuntary short term residents of the area. consequently we stayed on the tar. The weather was good up to Kurrajong and then deteriorated to Mt. Tomah, with visibility above 20 metres a luxury! After morning tea 3 guys 'piked out' as they 'seemed to prefer to see where they were going' so we lost Rob, our TEC. Erica volunteered to replace him and we headed off to Lithgow. I never knew who was following as when on a 'good bit, I could see one bike in the rear view mirror. Visibility returned slowly after Bell and on descending into Lithgow returned to normal. Andy left around Maccas, I am not sure if it was the enticement of the delicious food or the allure of a possible 'cloud free' run home via the Great Western Highway?!! After a right turn at Capertee we descended into the Capertee Valley, via a reasonable road into Glen Alice and Glen Davis, where shale was once mined to extract kerosene or as one reference said, 'petrol'?? The return journey was somewhat improved for visibility but a considerate bus driver had left us the opportunity to see the 'slip characteristics' of diesel on a wet road. For at least 10 kilometres a diesel trail at least 1 metre wide was left on the side of the road. The culprit was later seen, stopped on a hill. Maybe he ran out of diesel?! A considerate Ian saw a guy in a mobile speed camera and tried to alert him to the problem so he could call for assistance. The public service style response was 'not my job mate'. Why am I not surprised? Cheers Paul

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