BMU Wednesday Ride 1/9/2010 Mangrove Creek Dam NSW

[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: Eric B
Ride Report/Videos: Eric B

Wednesday, 1st September 2010

Destination:
Mangrove Creek Dam NSW

The weather forecast for today was 10°C to 25°C with the possible late shower and high cloud cover. I had spoken to Noel H earlier in the week, he informed me that he would not be riding on Wednesday so I rang around to a few of the usual riders to get some ideas of where we would ride, it was suggested that a good place would be Mangrove Creek Dam, so it was decided that we would go there, stop at Wisemans Ferry for morning tea, cross the ferry and go up to the dam for lunch and back to Wisemans for afternoon tea. I had also suggested that this is a national park and it has barbecues that are free. It would be a really good idea to get some sausages and some rissoles to have a barbecue for lunch, everyone I spoke to thought that would be a good idea, so I purchased two kilos of sausages a kilo of mince of which I made 14 rissoles, they really looked delicious after I had put my culinary skills into them. I also purchased two loaves of bread from Franklins, not buying expensive good stuff for you guys, 500g off butter, froze a couple of ice packs, grabbed a couple of knives and plates unbeknown to my wife, had to be real sneaky with these, packed them into my panniers with my trusty thermos flask then left for Blaxland at 7.50am in the morning. I arrived at about 8.20am and there were already seven riders there, Paul S was there as he was only going for a short ride due to his bad back.

We left at 9.00am. We would head down the great western highway to Emu Plains then through Penrith to Castlereagh Road where we would take the second turnoff to Cranebrook, along Cranebrook Rd to Taylors Road, turn left making our way to Londonderry through Richmond, Windsor and turning left at McGraths Hill making our way down to Wisemans Ferry for morning tea, we had 14 riders I would lead the ride. I thought to myself I really hope I do not lose anybody today. Followed by Les W, Allen R, David E, David C, Allen S, Peter M, Guy D, Otto B, Tom L, Malcolm K, Robb P, John McC, Ross P would be tail end charlie. I made three stops to regroup as we were separated by traffic lights at a few intersections. It was really good having Ross as tail end charlie he would flash his lights when he pulled in behind the second last rider so it made it really easy. We arrived at Wisemans Ferry at about 10.40am as we were held up along the Wisemans Ferry/Pitt Town Road by a gravel truck, it would have been silly to try to overtake it, so I just sat back a little. Sitting under the speed limit of about 76km/p, we sat behind him all the way from Pitt Town until he turned left into the quarry just before old northern road, turning left onto old northern road we had a free run down to Wisemans Ferry where we stopped for morning tea.



We crossed the ferry after morning tea then headed along Wisemans Ferry road through Spencer making our way up to the top of Mangrove Mountain turning left on George Downs Drive then left again in through the McPherson State Forest to make our way to the National Park overlooking the Dam.



As soon as I arrived I lit both barbecues that were almost alongside one another, they were really clean, I grabbed the tongs and spatula, but before I knew it Alan, Tom and David had taken over the cooking duties, then the next thing I know Les had organized a run around so I ended up with a pocketful of $2.00 coins, I said to Les I did not really want this as it was something I just wanted to do, he informed me that everybody was really appreciative so I took the money and said thank you.



We had a great barbecue, everything went well, there was enough for everybody to eat, I said I would take the scraps home for my dog but I don't have one so you have to work that out, but there were no scraps anyhow. Ross P met his brother from Newcastle there who is also a Ulyssians, as Ross had a problem with his intercom system, his brother could and did sort the problem, we left about 1.00pm, leaving John McC, Ross and his brother behind as it would take a bit longer to sort. Having to make a stop at the Tin Man Service Station



for fuel as this is the only fuel stop between here and Wisemans, arriving back at Wisemans at about 2.30pm, we pulled into the park too have afternoon tea, Alan MM was there, he was going to join us for the ride at morning but could not get there in time as he had some other obligations to fulfill, so he had come down to ride with us in the afternoon. We had a fantastic day, the weather conditions were perfect. Wisemans Ferry Road from Wisemans to the top of Mangrove Mountain through Spencer is a little bit bumpy. Peter lost a bolt out of his seat, also his registration label, Rob P had one of his mirrors fall off at Wisemans so he retrieved that and put that back but Peter’s lost his bolt and nut, I am not been rude either.

I arrived home at approximately 4.45pm after having done 330km for the day's ride. We did get separated a little bit in traffic around the Windsor area as some of the riders went for there different ways home, so after I had put my bike away made myself a cup of coffee, I phoned everybody who's telephone number I had to make sure that they had got home safely, everybody did, so once again we had a really fantastic day, the camaraderie was magnificent as we all enjoyed a really good yarn.

Well that was this week's ride if you missed it you missed out on a good ride. In the meantime stay well and ride safe.
Regards Eric Baldwin.

Map Link
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=d&s...3,2.469177&z=9