As you know, I’ve been working my way back to ride fitness by doing some short rides around home. Yesterday I decided that I’d test out the leg repair by doing a longer ride.
Now I have never placed too much (any) faith in BOM as a predictor of the weather but I did check just to be sure. It said that there wasn’t going to be any rain, first plus, it wasn’t going to get blustery till later in the afternoon and that it was going to be around 17 degrees, third plus.
So I turned up at the start-off point only to find that my brother was in a flap because he’d forgotten that a tradesman was due at his place and he couldn’t contact his wife to let her know. Eventually, he contacted the business and they were happy to change the work to another date.
That folderol gave me the chance to take off my helmet and my balaclava and fit my earplugs which I had failed to do at home.
So we hit out at around 0730 and, yes, it was cold. TWK doesn’t have an ambient temperature gauge like the VFR did but I was guessing that it was around 10-11 degrees. Up Mt Keira, out onto Ousley and on to Appin and Campbelltown. The sky was clear but the early morning sun strobing through the trees was a bit wearing.
Seniors coffee stop at Maccas at Narellan and onto the long, boring Northern Road. There is no doubt that this road is great for those who need to cover the distance quickly but it’s pretty cluttered at go-to-work time and I thought later that perhaps it might have been better to dodge the potholes on the Oaks Road instead.
Nevertheless, we made reasonable time, slipping into Windsor for our first fuel stop already behind schedule but still with plenty of daylight left.
The Putty Road is a bit patchy at any time but, surprisingly, especially since there has been a lot more rain, it wasn’t in bad shape at all. Noting the potential difficulties on the way up always helps with the return trip and there was a surprising amount of road kill to note. The lack of overtaking opportunities was not a problem on the way up and we got a golden run through the Colo Bends, the best I’ve had for ages.
We pulled in to Grey Gums for a comfort stop but it’s always closed on Mondays so there wasn’t a coffee. What there WAS was a significant drop in ambient temperature. BOM said it was 13 and felt like 7. That I could believe. A quick council of war led to the decision to turn around and head home as the hour was hurrying on and it was going to stat getting colder very shortly. I felt like a bit of a fraud as we often pay out the “hero” riders who ride from Sydney up to Grey Gums and then brag that they have “done the Putty”. Of course, we’ve done the whole road hundreds of times in the last 50 years so we could afford to do a “short” one once in a while.
Noting the potholes and the road kill on the way up was wise and we got another dream run through the Colo, stopping at the great little pie shop at Wilberforce for a late lunch before joining the drones heading south on THR.
As we got closer to the coast the temperature actually rose some so the trip home was quite pleasant. A full tank at Windsor on the way up meant that we didn’t have to stop for fuel again which helped as it was clear it was going to be a cold night. Added to this, the strong winds that were predicted made their presence felt so it was good to get home before it got too cold and too windy.
427kms in around 7 hours so I think we could say that the diem was well and truly carped.
https://www.relive.cc/view/veqzQggjrB6
