Hi guys, sorry I didn't get any pics of this ride. Did a medium length 510km ride out over the Blue Mtns west of Sydney n the 6th Jan.
Route map is here:
Day Ride to Rylstone
6 of us did the ride over some great back roads. Left reasonably early (730am) for an 8am rendezvous point.
Up over Bell we took it easy, not knowing if there'd be cops or not (there wasn't). Then on to the back roads to Hartely (via Darling Causeway and the Comet Inn) and then the good fast section of the Jenolan Caves Rd. After this first bit of twisty (about 5-6km???) we turned right on to McKanes Falls Rd to do some very little used twisty. A little bumpy but overall a great rd as there's nothing else on it. It comes out about 2km from Lithgow, so there's the short highway stint before back onto twisty backroads (Magpie Hollow and Mutton Falls Rds) out to O'Connell. The Oberon/Bathurst Rd is still great with the 100mph open sweepers from all the way to Bathurst. We kept the speed down to a reasonable 140 or so :-)
Coffee/morning tea at Bernards in Bathurst, then out to Sofala (with the obligatory 2km of dirt), Ilford, Cudgegong Dam Rd to Rylstone for lunch @ 1230pm. All very civilised
Well it would have been if we'd listened to Jackie's Tom Tom. We missed the 1st and 2nd turn offs to Peel Rd and then when we decided we *should* listen to the TomTom it tried to get us to turn where a road didn't exist! No real drama, Loz's sense of direction (and more importantly sense of connection) shone through and he picked a lane that led straight back to Peel Rd about 5-6km further on.
We had lunch at Rylstone pub (the globe hotel) - first time I'd stopped there and well worth it. Left Rylstone @ 145pm back home by 430pm. We all just missed getting caught by a h'way patrol just out of Lidsdale on the Castlereagh Hwy (Lithgow-Mudgee Rd), as he was just pulling a driver up as we approached. Jackie was playing catch up here and had just got into the servo when he blasted past. I guess he thought he'd try and catch her close to Lithgow but realised he couldn't ID her in the servo with everyone else there too.
All in all a great day's ride, I can't think of a better way to spend 8-9hrs!
Russ
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