WEDNESDAYS RIDE 11/1/2012 Patonga, NSW, Australia

[BMBEN]

Wednesday 11th Jan 2012

Patonga

This Wednesday morning the carpark at Maccas was pretty crowded. Thirteen motorcycles and five police cars. This is great, I thought, they’re giving us an escort. Sadly, this wasn’t to be. I was pleased to see that Noel was here as I figured we would have a ready ride leader with a ready destination. I was a little dismayed when he asked me where we were going. I convinced him that he made a better ride leader and eventually he decided on Pearl Beach. Sounded good to me. John and Ian chickened out by deciding to just do a short ride up the mountains, so that brought our number to a slightly more manageable eleven.

Having given the police force the opportunity to leave before us, we set off up the highway to Springwood and onto the Hawkesbury road. The wind was picking up a bit as we rode out through Winmalee and down Hawkesbury Hill. We skirted around Richmond then across past the air force base to Windsor, then headed south on Windsor Road till we turned off onto a road signposted to Glenorie (I think). I know I had been this way once or twice before, but I can never remember the way or the names of the roads. We were sailing along quite nicely till we came to fairly deep gully. As we climbed up the other side we all came to grinding halt. One of the bikes apparently had a loose chain which had now jumped off the rear sprocket. I seem to recall that the bike was a BMW, but for the life of me I can’t remember the name of the owner/rider. (I happily accept all bribes, if you don’t want your name splashed across the internet). I don’t know why these fellows don’t get a proper bike with belt drive. Anyway the wheel was duly re-adjusted and we all arrived in time at Berowra Waters. This was to be our morning smoko stop and following our usual practice, we rode straight past the NO ENTRY sign and parked in the zone designated CARS WITH BOAT TRAILERS ONLY.

It was totally sheltered from the wind down here and with a cloudless sky, it was becoming very warm indeed. We all shuffled around a bit to find some shade to enjoy our repast and it was very pleasant watching the boats out on the water. Before we left, Richard informed us that he had to return home for some reason. Also, Les and Eric decided to follow us up to Berowra, then to ride the Old Pacific Highway and return via Spencer. That left us with eight riders for Pearl Beach.

We rode onto the ferry and while crossing the river, we were entertained by some of the local kids who were using a rope to swing out and jump in the water. Looked like good fun to me. Disembarking (love that word), we rode up the twisty hill to Berowra and onto the Pacific Highway. Because of the length of time involved, Noel had decided that we’d use the expressway. So it was up the F3, with unusually, no delays on it, till we reached the Woy Woy exit. (The bloody spellchecker wanted me to delete the second Woy there.)While we turned off, Guy gave a cheery wave and kept going north, where to I don’t know. That left us with seven. Then it was along the Central Coast Highway till we reached Woy Woy Road. Climbing down the hill we were held up by roadworks with traffic lights that would only let about two vehicles past at a time, which was pretty painful. We dutifully followed Noel past Ettalong and Umina, then up the hill before turning off and dropping down to Pearl Beach. Could we find anywhere to stop? No bloody way, the place was packed out. So then it was back to the Patonga road, where we experienced a pretty hairy left turn and then made our way down into Patonga which was also pretty crowded, but we did find a few parking spaces.



Patonga - Central Coast

We found an unoccupied table and benches under a nice shady tree and proceeded to chomp on our peanut butter sandwiches (wasn’t just me) while we waited for Rod to return with his fish and chips. Then we all dived in and ate most of his chips. It was quite breezy down here but at least it took the edge off the heat.
Time to leave and Noel decided we’d return via Mangrove Mountain and Spencer. We avoided the roadworks by going through the heart of Woy Woy, then through Point Clare and Tascott and emerged onto the Gosford Road. Along the Central Coast Highway then took the turn to Mangrove Mountain. The wind was really picking up now as we had a brief stop at Mangrove Mountain, and then carried on down to Spencer. By this time we had what felt like a force 10 hurricane; the road was being covered in fallen branches, and I got hit on the arm by a falling branch, which was a little unnerving. Crossing the river was interesting; we were actually getting splashed with spray from the waves hitting the ferry.

We made it more or less unscathed into Wisemans Ferry and stopped there for a much needed break. Although it was still windy, it was nothing like we had experienced through Spencer.

After afternoon tea and recovery time, we all more or less went our own ways home. Bill and I rode together as far as Pitt Town, where I made a fuel stop. For me then it was on to McGraths Hill and then back much the same way as we had come in the morning. Of course I did have my customary pi…pit stop at Hawkesbury Lookout. I arrived home at 6.00pm with 342km on the trip meter. It was an eventful and enjoyable day. Many thanks to Noel for leading the ride.
Peter M


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