BMU WEDNESDAY RIDE 21/7/2010 Sublime Point

[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

21st July, 2010

Destination:
SUBLIME POINT (South Coast of Sydney)

Map link
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=d&s...94&ie=UTF8&z=9


I left home at 8:00am. The weather forecast for to-day was 7 – 16C with a chance of a possible coastal shower, on the way up to Blaxland the skies were black in the east but I could see clearing blue skies in the west, thinking to myself well if it's going to rain I'm going to get wet.

Arriving at Blaxland after topping up with fuel I was met by quite a few riders that were already there, they treated me with cheers as they did not think I would be riding due to my stupid clothesline accident, the weather was clearing in the west and we ended up with an assembly of 12 riders and I had passed John McC on the way up Lapstone Hill, thinking to myself that he would be going north to see his daughter, speaking to Noel Harris he informed me that we would be going too Sublime Point.

We left at 9:00am. Noel H would lead the ride followed by myself, Tom L, David C, Malcolm K, Guy D, Alan S, Bill L, John E, John A, Peter M, and Richard M would be tail end charlie. We headed down Lapstone Hill to Mulgoa road around the back roads climbing up to the top of Razorback Mountain than heading back towards Picton where we would turn right and have morning tea at Menangle general store, we lost Peter M on the way as he was having some problems with his bike by the time we had got down Lapstone Hill to Mulgoa road so Peter turned off and took his bike to the bike shop, arriving at Menangle I had not even noticed that Peter was not with us so I rang his mobile phone number and he had just arrived home on a train after dropping his bike off at the bike shop, at this moment we do not know what the problem was, we think it might have been dirty fuel.

The riding conditions were very pleasant, although you could feel the cold in some areas more than others, it is quite surprising how far you can see the phone towers at the top of razorback mountain when you are riding through the back roads, as we rode across the top of razorback and you looked to the south east the skies were clear as a bell when looking to the north or northeast you could see heaps of rain and I thought to myself I am glad we're heading southeast.

With morning tea over with and we headed off to Sublime Point,



arriving there at approximately mid day with the conditions on that section of the ride warming up a little bit more, we had lunch at the top of the lookout underneath a big pine tree where it was a little bit chilly so we decided that we would walk around in the sun while eating our sandwiches. You could see the rain when you looked to the east and more to the northeast so we were lucky that there was none heading our way. Leaving Sublime Point we headed south on the freeway. We would turn off onto the Picton road where we would stop at Cordeaux Dam to just have an inspection of the water level in the dam, it had dropped quite a considerable amount to the last time we were there, that did not seem that long ago. After walking across the wall and back to our bikes a few of the riders said goodbye as they would be going home a slightly different way to what we were, we were leaving here and then heading to Burragorang lookout, arriving there at about 3:00pm where we are now down to six riders Noel H, Guy D, Bill L, David C, and Alan S was tail end charlie. Looking down into the valley the water had dropped quite a considerable amount here as well so we do need some rain,

After saying our goodbyes we headed for home and I needed to get fuel. We would stop at the shell service station at The Oaks, on arriving there the petrol browsers were no longer there so I said to Noel I should have enough fuel to get me to Wallacia. Coming down the hill and across the bridge at Wallacia my bike ran out of fuel so my computer told me a lie Noel, David and Guy helped me push the bike up to the top of the hill where I rolled down into the service station and filled with fuel it only holds 13.1 liters, not 14 like the book tells me, I now know that I can only get 265km to a tank of fuel, and I should get the goose award for running out of fuel. Arriving home at 5:00pm I had done 300km for the day's ride and had just caught my breath back after pushing the bike up the hill.

Noel Harris rang me when I arrived home to make sure I had got there. I appreciate that, thank you very much Noel,

I have to tell you another little story, which I think is rather humorous. While we were at Cordeaux Dam there was a really nice big Magnolia tree in full bloom. I picked about 9 or 10 flowers from it and put them in my pannier bags, the boys asked me what are you doing, my reply was, my wife has one of these trees at home and it comes out in buds every year but will not flower, she would like it removed, that means I have to dig it out and that is hard work, so my intentions were to stick these flowers in the branches as if the tree was flowering, arriving home at 5:00pm, I snuck out to the yard and planted the flowers, while having my dinner I had great difficulty keeping quiet about what I had done.

I had to go to Penrith on Thursday morning, so on arriving home my wife grabbed me by my hand with a great big smile on her face, down to the backyard to look at her beautiful Magnolia tree that had flowered after all these years, I could not contain myself and started to laugh really loudly, she looked at me and said you Bastard. I could not stop laughing. But the moral of this story is, I still have to dig the tree out and plant it somewhere else.

We had a great day, the weather conditions were the most perfect but could have been a little bit warmer, but as I keep saying we're so lucky to be able to do this when I look around and see so many other people that have never even thought of riding a bike, or do not have the physical abilities that we have.

Well that's all the news for this week watch out for the mobile speed cameras ride safe and stay well.

Regards Eric Baldwin.