The weather forecast for today was, in a word, lousy. But as the leader there is no choice but to turn up and see what happens. The original plan was to head off down the Bells Line of Road towards Lithgow and Bathurst for a special run around Mt Panorama but unfortunately a few cracks in a convict bridge would thwart our good intentions. An alternate plan was required, one that would not put us in danger negotiating the Scenic Hill into Lithgow with the complete west bound convoy of large and larger trucks to fill the Western Plains with their daily supplies. As we hadn’t been to Mangrove Mountain Dam Rec area for some time while it was closed for renovations, I thought that this would be a suitable destination for the days ride. Now how to approach this from the ride start point of Maccas Windsor? There are a few roads in the area that, to my knowledge, we hadn’t done before or hadn’t used for some time. So, following the briefing we set off at the modified start time of  10:00 ....

  7 riders gathered at Berowra for the   9:30am  start of the trip to the airfield which was 6 more than I expected. There was wide agreement that this destination was very much weather dependent given the frequent showers already experienced on the way to the gather. As part of the ride briefing it was agreed that we would review the destination on approach to Kulnura and if that was good we would review again at morning tea in Wollombi. The weather apps gave differing views on the rain risk, some showing a dry trip and others not so much. Turns out these latter fortune tellers were on the money as it rained steadily but not heavily all the way to Central Mangrove. Just as I was set on calling a halt at Jerry’s the rain stopped and the roads became dry so we pushed on to Wollombi for smoko. Another look at the weather apps at Slacks Park showed lots of rain activity over Cessnock and Luskintyre so the group unanimously decided to give the airfield a miss and head back to...

  Departing Heathcote Macca’s   at 10:00am   6 riders (Peter #1, Peter #2, Peter #3 and Peter #4) along with one Dave and one Kieth tracked southward and through the Royal National Park and onto to Stanwell Tops. The road now is in very good shape after the completion of recent roadworks which hindered our last attempted ride through the National Park. Maintaining a steady pace down the Princes Highway to the Kiama Blowhole for morning tea where we were faced with blustery and windy conditions on arrival so diverted to the more sheltered and infamous Fish and Chip Cafe located next to the boat ramp. The weather was being kind to us as we prepared to tackled Jamberoo Road which took us up to the recently renovated Robertson Pie Shop for lunch. Whilst enjoying tradition Robertson delicacies (Potatoes Pies, Potatoes Milk Shakes, Potatoes Finger Buns) there was no need to discuss any worldly affairs as things appear quite normal when you are out and about riding motorbikes. A...

  On this misty  Thursday morning  ten brave riders gathered at McGraths Hill to test may famous navigation skills again. In my haste not to be late I  forgot  my manual navigation aid , but found Windsor without it. The destination was Bulga. The research on the internet revealed , that Bulga, in Aboriginal language, means  mountain or hill , ( Ayers Rock obviously got a wrong name ) and is on Putty road , not Bulga-ria next to Turkyia Sebia and Greece . After this geographic lesson  I have decided to take a chance on the Putty Road way. Peter W. volunteered for the tail end Charlie duties. After successfully navigating out of the car park we where  on the way. There was very little traffic and Peter kept everybody close together so. we arrived in Grey Gum at the same time. I think he had been practising on sheep in his home country. After usual solving world problems , particularly AUS economy ( Mr Chalmers should learn from these sessions ) we ...