BMU WEDNESDAY RIDE 5/5/2010 Wisemans Ferry, NSW

[BMBEN]

BMU WEDNESDAY RIDE
All welcome to join in

Meet :- Blaxland McDonalds, GWH, BLAXLAND, NSW for a 9.00am Start
Ride Leader/Photos :- Franz (BMBEN) Garde 0427 830 712
Ride Reports/Videos :- Eric (I will film it) Baldwin
Destination :-
Wisemans Ferry, NSW - 5th May 2010
33°24'31.96"S 150°58'48.17"E

The weather forecast for today was 22° in the city 23° in the west with the chance of possible shower or thunderstorm late in the afternoon, but when I arose it was sprinkling with rain at my house, I received a phone call from Les Welch and he wanted to know if I was going to ride. I informed him that it had been sprinkling but it stopped and the weather conditions looked like it was going to clear in the west and I informed him that I would ride.

I left home at approximately 8:10 and headed up the freeway to Blaxland, the sky was clearing in the west but there were some dark clouds as I rode along the freeway, the road was dry. When I arrived at Blaxland maccas there were four riders there already, and my question was where are we going for today's ride. Franz Garde had already mapped it out and I did not take the time to read the chart, I do not care where we go as long as I'm going but I believe it was somewhere up near Lithgow, but that changed.

We ended up with eight riders Franz Garde would lead a ride followed by David Campbell, Les Welch, myself, Alan Sanderson, Allen Rochester, John McCrae, and Noel Harris would be tail end Charlie. We left at 9:00 AM and headed up the highway to Springwood where we would turn right and head down Hawkesbury Road to Agnes Banks where we turned left and then into North Richmond were we turned right and headed around through Glossodia onto the service station at Sackville where we stopped for morning tea. On the ride down to Sackville we experienced some short showers of rain but it was not heavy enough for us to stop and put wet weather gear on, just as well because I did not have any. Looking to the west I could see the cloud building and I thought we would really get dumped on.

After morning tea we continued on across the Sackville Ferry and then down to Cliftonville where we intended to catch the ferry back across the river and head up to Colo for lunch. The sign read that the ferry would be closed on the first Wednesday of every month for maintenance that would open again at 11:00 AM but unfortunately it did not happen. We had a quick discussion and it was decided that we would go to Wiseman's Ferry along the river road. It is a great ride along the river road to Wiseman's ferry and when I look to the west the clouds were still building so I thought to myself you are definitely going to get the wet bum Eric. Arriving at Wiseman's Ferry at approximately eleven forty five we were sitting at the table in the one of the shelters when we had a thunderstorm and the rain was quite heavy we could not sit on the seats and had to stand in the centre so we would not get wet, the rain only lasted for about half an hour and the bikes got really wet but we were nice and dry when it cleared and we had blue sky again.



Eric doing his bike cleaning after the rain

We headed back up to Wiseman's and up the hill where we turned right into Wiseman's Ferry road and headed on to Windsor where we would stop in the park on the western side of the bridge for afternoon tea, the ride back from Wiseman's was quite pleasant the road was dry and the sun was out and the sky was blue, clouds had disappeared but it was still a little bit on the chilly side. We said our goodbyes there and Les, David and Alan headed back through Windsor and we turned left and headed back around through North Richmond I think. Franz is contemplating buying some turf and he likes to check the turf farms out.



I continued on back along Castlereagh Road where I followed Alan Sanderson and then I turned off and headed back to saint Mary's along Andrews Road. I arrived home at approximately four forty five after having done 210 kilometres for the day's ride. It was only a short ride but the company was great and I look forward to next week where we will be going to Lucas Heights for a tour of the nuclear reactor.

Well that was this week's ride and I look forward to next week and the weather conditions forecast are fine conditions for the week temperatures are approximately 22° maximum see you next week rides safe.

Regards Eric Baldwin.