BMU WEDNESDAY RIDE 30/6/2010 Pearl Beach

[BMBEN]

A WEDNESDAY RIDE
with Blue Mountains Ulysses
Everyone is welcome to join us for the ride

Meet: Blaxland McDonalds, GWH, BLAXLAND, NSW for a 9.00am Start
Ride Leader: Noel H
Ride Report/Videos: Eric B

30th June, 2010

Destination:
PEARL BEACH (on the Central Coast)
33°32'30.52"S 151°18'25.15"E

Map Link
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=d&s...,1.234589&z=10
Approx. 280km round trip

I had arrived home on a Saturday, the 26 June to a much colder Sydney than we expected but I was glad to get back, any of you Ulyssians that were over in Perth for the meeting and rode from Margret River to Albany would have experienced, in my personal opinion one of the best rides that you could possibly have, through the Karri forests, It was absolutely breathtaking, the size and the age of these trees, to my wife they were just tall and straight.

I awoke at 6:00am and looked out the windows to nothing but sheets of ice all over the grass and on the roofs of houses and cars. I said to my wife, I don't know whether I will go for a ride today, would you like me to come back to bed, the reply was, I really think you need to go for a ride darn it, so I made lunch got dressed and walked out into the freezing cold. I believe the temperature here was -4C so I started up the Harley and headed up the freeway to Blaxland, where I arrived at approximately 8.30am. There were six riders there and I made seven, about 5 minutes later Peter M arrived to make eight,

So it was already decided that they would ride to Pearl Beach on the Central Coast. So we left at 9:00am and headed up the Great Western Hwy to Springwood. Noel H would lead the ride followed by Les W, Tom L, David C, Peter M, myself, Paul S, and John McC would be tail end Charlie. We headed down the Hawkesbury Valley road to Agnes banks where Paul S left us as he had other commitments. Riding down through Hawkesbury Heights, if you took a sneaky look as you were going around the S bends, the road below had the morning sun on it and it was shiny and looked like someone had coated it with fresh hot tar. Having ridden down through there many times I have never noticed it before, you could also feel the really cold patches as you rode down through Yarramundi, but it was no were near as cold as I thought it would be, maybe it was due to the thermal underwear, but hate wearing that stuff cause I just can't find anything.

Through Windsor around through Pitt Town, out through Glenorie down to Berowra Waters where we would stop for morning tea. They have really done some alterations to the parking area although we have never had problems with parking on a weekday, but I could imagine what it would be like on a weekend as it is very popular spot.

We left the parking area and rode right onto the ferry, could not have timed it any better if we had tried. Across the river and up to Hornsby where we made our way onto the freeway as it was a lot quicker to go this way due to the fact that the old Pacific highway is now 60 to 70 ks all the way. I am led to believe that so many people drop their bikes on these bends its just not funny.

Arriving at Pearl Beach at about midday we stopped for lunch, what a great spot this is, we sat on the fence and had our lunch as the tables were in the shade of the trees, temperature now had risen to about 16C and it was very pleasant in the sun as we had lunch and the usual jokes (but they were bloody good ones). A holiday house that was built back in the early days had a sold sign on it, we all wondered how much it would have been sold for, my suggestion probably over 1.2 million but it could have gone for more, but would have been built for a few hundred pounds.

After lunch we would head back down along the Pacific Highway where we would stop for afternoon tea at the Road Warrior Café, saying goodbye to Les W as he had evening commitments. There were quite a few bikes there when we arrived, we had afternoon tea then one of the other bike riders asked Noel if he had some tape so he could tape up his indicator, Noel did oblige. We then said our goodbyes and continued back onto the Freeway down across Berowra Waters ferry and drove straight onto it again, then back around the back roads through Glenorie around through Pitt Town and then on to McGraths Hill were I waved goodbye and continued around the back way where I would go along Blacktown Road through Llandilo to my home at St Marys. I arrived home at approximately 4.45pm after having just done 300km for the day's ride we had a great day and even though it was cold it really wasn't that bad.

I look forward to next week again but the weather conditions are not looking real great so in the meantime if you're a riding stay warm and ride safe.

Regards Eric Baldwin.