BMU WEDNESDAY RIDE 19/5/2010 Rylstone

[BMBEN]

BMU WEDNESDAY RIDE
All welcome to join in

Meet: Blaxland McDonalds, GWH, BLAXLAND, NSW for a 9.00am Start
Ride Leader: Noel H
Ride Report/Videos: Eric (I will film it)

19th May, 2010

Destination:
Rylstone
32°47'57.73"S 149°58'13.59"E

The weather forecast for to-day was 12-21° C with showers forecast for the city metropolitan area. I awoke to find clouded skies that looked like they had a heap of h2o in them. We had a shower in the early hours. I left home at approximately 8:00am and headed up the F4 to McDonald's at Blaxland where I was met by a approximately five or six riders Peter S was there, he does not come for rides with us at the moment as he is having some arthritis problems that he hopes to have solved in the next few months, but I think we all know about arthritis and he is not a very friendly person.

By about 8.30 we had a contingent of 10 riders and it was discussed that we would go to Rylstone. Rylstone is about 360 kilometres from Blaxland return and when I googled Rylstone up on the internet it tells me that the main industries there are Vineyards, Olives, not Popeye's Olive either, sheep and cattle with a sleepy town that has a hotel and accommodation for people travelling through. It is also in close proximity to lake Windamere, Wollemi National Park with some aboriginal paintings and some historic buildings.

We left Maccas at 9:00 AM and headed up the great western highway. The ride was led by Noel H, followed by Allen R, Miss Kerri W, Tom L, Malcolm K, myself, David C, Peter M, John McC, and Richard M was tail end charlie. Traffic conditions heading up the highway were really good but there is a lot of congestion with the amount of work that is going on and it really is slow going. On the way up the hill you could feel the drop in the temperature and when we got to Katoomba I reckon it was only about 6°C. I was glad I had put on my thermal underwear, but as you know these things have a few problems with them when you are in a hurry to go to the men's, it is really difficult to find things sometimes as I am sure you are well aware of this. At the traffic lights at Katoomba our group was separated and as the tail enders were waiting for the lights to change. Just as Malcolm K was taking off a vehicle coming east made a right hand turn against a red light in front of him, if he would have been a little bit quicker it would have spoilt things for the day. " you wonder why we learn to swear."

Heading down Mt Victoria Pass the traffic was very slow as there were a few trucks in front of us and then a little bit further on their was roadwork and the group got separated again we probably had to wait about 5 to 8 minutes to get through the hold up and when we got to the morning tea stop at Lithgow Shell Service Station, where you turn left to go to lake Lyell the front riders had nearly finished their morning tea.

After morning tea we headed off along the highway and the weather was starting to warm up a little bit I asked Peter M what the temperature was and he informed me that it was showing 14°C at the service station on his gauge. We turned left onto the Mudgee road. John and myself were a fair way back as I had problems doing my helmet up I won't tell you what brand it is but it is the worst helmet that I have ever owned in my whole life. It is hard to do up especially when your hands are cold and the wind noise is just unbelievable. I have spoken to the manufacturer and they virtually told me to wear earplugs, you would think that with all the modern technology they could put these in a wind tunnel and solve the problem within hours. We caught up to the other riders by the time we got to Cullen Bullen. Riding along here was really excellent and we continued along till the Rylstone turnoff where we turned right and headed into Rylstone where we pulled into the cricket oval for lunch. If I would have known I would have brought my bigger Bat and Balls, who cares about stumps. Amenities here are very good. We had lunch and then I walked up the hill to have a look at the township, It is only a small town, it has a hotel that was deserted and boasted of a pool comp on Wednesday nights, some small coffee and food shops and service station and some other small shops, after lunch some of the riders fuelled at Rylstone before we started to head for home.





On the way back the ride was really wonderful it was quite exhilarating riding through the hills with that bit of chill in the air. Looking at the various colours of the trees that had not shed all their leaves, yet every now and then you would see a handful of leaves fall, as we are still have a couple of weeks away from winter. I stopped with john McC on the way back at the top of Gertlab Mountain where I took some photos of what I have been told is the world's widest canyon. The other riders had gone on so we did not catch them until we got back to Lithgow again where they had stopped on the left hand side at a small park just before the turn off to the main shopping centre. We had our afternoon tea and said our goodbyes and we came back along the bells line of road back down through Kurrajong we said goodbye to David C at the bottom of the hill. I waved goodbye to John McC as he left me at Agnus Banks where I continued along Castlereagh Rd back to St Mary's, It is a nice ride along here and there are huge stables being built. I think Bart Cummings or Kay Waterhouse, as I believe Cummings owns Princess farm it is at the bottom of the hill at Castlereagh. I arrived home at approximately 5.20pm after having done 410 kilometres for the day's ride. We had a great day and great company as usual and I'm sure everybody enjoyed themselves.

Regards Eric B

[BMBEN]

A link to the map
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=d&s...9,1.766052&z=9