Berowra, 22nd June, Ride Report

Sunday morning, 6.30, rolled out of bed and thought I’d steal a glimpse out the bedroom window where I expected to see it bloody raining again spoiling yet another weekend ride but to my shock, the sun was cracking over the roof tops and the sky was a fantastic blue. 
Bloody amazing.

Rolled into Hexham Macca’s at around 7.30 for brekkie and coffee and waited for the others to arrive.

Today’s ride was arranged for us to take a trip down to Berowra. Great haven’t been there before. Somewhere different, beauty. 

Graham agreed to be ride leader after Bill piked out the last moment and handed the reins of leader to him. Our fearless leader, Mick, agreed to be tail end Charlie.

We had a rollup of 14 bikes with 5 passengers; this included Dave Wheeler a “virgin club rider”.

The group left at 8.45 and headed off via the Charlestown by-pass through to Belmont. 
At Pelican, Wally tried to catch a young filly jogging along side the road but she was too quick for him and got away, even with his NEW bike. He’s so proud of his new acquisition and if you failed to notice it or ask about it when you walked by he SOON told you ALL about it.

Then through to Swansea and onto the old Pacific Highway taking us down to Doyalson. 
Graham turned us off at the Doylo lights to head over to Wyee and then turned off onto the Hue Hue Rd towards Yarramalong.

We joined back onto the freeway near Tuggerah for a smoother ride until we turned off in the Somersby/Mt. White area for a bit of the ol’ Pacific H/way through Peat’s Ridge. 

Stan tried to take Karen for a bit of bush exploring just before the road closure where we had to rejoin the freeway. He jumped the centre medium strip and headed for bush….he almost made it…well almost…luckily for Karen. 

Graham took us over the old Hawkesbury bridge and along the ol’ highway before finally stopping at the Pie in the Sky at Cowan for a ‘P’ break, drink and nibbles at around 10.45….. Most welcome by then. 

Some of the guys gathered out the back behind the building grumbling and complaining as it was such a shock to have to line up for the one and only loo when the ladies didn’t have much of a wait line at all. Sometimes strange things do occur when you least expect them.

Mike and Wally approached Graham to ask if he had any problems with his bike because he kept pulling over to give it a rest. Graham reckoned it was “to let everyone catch up”………yeh right.

Killer Koala gathered us all together and asked for everyone’s attention whereby he wanted to, officially, thank all those who had assisted him in getting to Townsville and also to those who had donated funds enabling him to bid at the auction held at the formal AGM dinner. Killer then went on to pledge his allegiance to our branch and donated the Ulysses butterfly flag that he successfully won at the auction to us. Mick accepted the flag on behalf of the club members. Cheers all around.

On arrival at Berowra Waters we all ordered our lunches and had a lovely meal. It was great hearing some of the stories from Townsville.

Les tried to teach the ladies about the biological genetic differences between the male/female genders by using the local ducks as examples showing that males are better looking than females. Now we know why he was riding alone. He was lucky he didn’t have a partner with him or he might’ve ended up in the drink……. 

At around 2.15 we headed back over the ferry and up the narrow hill for a bit of fuel at the top before the looming grey skies opened up and soaked us all. 

Quick reflexes by Mick, when leaving the petrol station, saved his beloved Val from getting it’s rear end remodelled by a woman in a 4x4 tank. She thought reverse meant full speed aft without looking then simply take off. 

After his little shock, Mike suggested we drop into the Catho pub on the way back for a quick nerve tonic. While we were there, Mick did his thing and worked his butt off and he soon had 8 new recruits for our club before we knew it.

A great day was had by all, I hope. As reasonably new club members ourselves, it was great to spend time doing something we like with like-minded new friends.

Report by Greg & Debra Ford