This ride is the tale of two towns. That being the case the duality of our ride means that my opening paragraph is essential:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, ……, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
And so – this tale of two towns was because we were first expecting to have Thirlmere as our destination – but this instead became a lay stop and Luddenham became the ultimate objective.
Eight riders left Heathcote (NSW, not Warwick, UK) on a beautiful winter’s morning. It was, today, the winter of wonder rather than the winter of despair. Cold – yes – but that’s what our winter riding wardrobe is for. Thank heavens for jacket liners and merino base-layers.
We knew this would be a tale in two parts because several of the riders were joining us only as far as Thirlmere while the rest of the party would ride on to Luddenham. Notice the theme here – where all these places (Heathcote, Thirlmere and Luddenham) are named after their UK counterparts. Thirlmere is actually a water reservoir in Cumbria in the Lakes District and the Thirlmere aqueduct is the longest aqueduct in Britain. It transports water 153km from Thirlmere reservoir in the Cumbrian hills to Manchester.
To reach our first terminus we do the usual OPH via Boomerang Golf Course (where I hear Bald Eagle is trying out a new set of clubs today) – then on to Appin and down to Broughton Pass.
An interesting aside – Broughton Pass was named after the Deputy Commissary in the early 1800s – General William Broughton who was a “First Fleeter”. Of more interest is that fact that a massacre occurred at Broughton Pass in April 1814 after Gov Macquarie tried to “round up” the local indigenous people.here we travel through Wilton and then down the motorway to the Avon Dam exit. Our usual route takes us through the Y towns. So, just to be different, we turn northward on Remembrance Drive and head through Bargo and Tahmoor and then west on Thirlmere Way to Thirlmere for a quick break.
Here our comrades end their journey with the Ulysses ride while the remaining six riders head west on Oaks Rd and ride through Oakdale, down to the Oaks and then left on Silverdale Road. The 30km ride from the Oaks to Wallacia is unexciting (80km/h the whole way) but the country is beautiful, the day is dazzling and “the spring of hope” is but weeks away.
For lunch we go to Lunden Café at Luddenham where the coffee is excellent and the food is good. Parking for the bikes is a breeze – and I recommend this venue to you all.
After lunch we have the option of doubling back and doing Greendale Rd – but the consensus is “nah – go the quick way”… So – Northern Road to Bringelly Road. Did you know there are now 3000 sets of traffic lights on the 9.6km stretch of Bringelly Rd from Northern Rd to Cowpasture Rd! THREE THOUSAND. No, seriously! And they were ALL red. All 3000!
OK – then on to the M5 and I skedaddled for home and left the others at Heathcote Rd at about 1.30pm.
Seriously “nice” day for a ride. Thanks, Jim Allison, for being my radio-enabled TEC – and to Wills for having a UHF radio too. It makes leading a ride so much better, folks. Invest in UHF!!!!
Man – where would you be without the trivia that presents in these ride reports!
So – let’s get back to the Tale of Two Cities.
This theme of duality that you catch in that famous opening paragraph sums up riding motorcycles. It can be the best and the worst of times. It can mirror hope and despair (when your bloody keyless ride fails before a trip away), good vs evil (us versus 3000 red traffic lights) – and the wisdom versus folly that we covered in our discussions over lunch were absolutely Dickensian. We even lunched at the Lunden café – one of the two Dickensian cities. So – now I have to think about a club ride to Paris……
The final lines of “A Tale of Two Cities” cites “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done ….”. Well – this ride may not have been THAT good – but at least the bloody key worked!
Pirate
