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Bathurst - Sofala - Rylestone- Home

Date:
By Wom Battle

After a light breakfast at the Park Hotel, Bathurst it was time to line the bikes up outside to take a formal group photo, a copy of which was to be provided to our host.  I'm sure a few of the locals raised their brows at the site of one of our number squatting in the bushes on a nearby roundabout.  It wasn't immediately obvious that the camera was being set up on a tripod.

Photo done, and after some minor assistance picking up a Triumph that decided to take a short rest on the footpath, it was time to start the first leg of the trip home, another photo "op" at a lovely old village called Sofala.  Once again the route didn't disappoint.  I'm not sure what the locals at Sofala though about being invaded by a bunch of bikes early on a Sunday morning, certainly none of them were prepared to come out and look.  After a couple of snaps, and a chuckle at one of our number and his companion decided to try out a nearby swing set, we left for our next stop, Rylestone via Kandos.

Heading towards Kandos I recognised the bend that caused some grief for a couple of the local HOG Chapter earlier in the year (both of who are fine incidentally). This time however no problems were encountered and we arrived safely in Rylestone.  The first thing I noticed there was a proliferation of bras attached to and hanging from trees in the main street. The staff at the Bizzy Birds cafe told us that the visible supports were a demonstration of support for Breast Cancer Research.

For those of you in the Ulysses club, the Bizzy Birds coffee and food is great and they offer a discount to you.  Apparently I don't look old enough to join yet :-).  Coffee and whizzing over it was time for the longest leg of the day to Denman for lunch.  I've been along this road before and was really looking forward to it.  The surface is good enough, but not great, but the scenery is great, in particular around Bylong where you get to ride alongside the river and rail line.  There's also a stretch of tricky 25k bends coming down the side of a mountain that are quite fun.  They certainly caused the Triumph Rocket rider in the group some metal grinding moments.

Lunch was taken at the bottom pub at Denman, I'd not been there before and was very impressed with the food and service.  After lunch and a fuel topup ($17.20) it was time to leave for Branxton with the end of the ride in sight.  As can happen when you can smell home, the pace picked up a bit as we headed past Jerry's Plains.  There was a truck in the way as we approached the left turn at the Putty Road, and comically one of our number thought there might be time to get around it and found himself heading over the bridge to Mt Thorley instead of turning left with the rest of us.

As we passed through the Singleton Army Base areas and came upon the dreadfully boring New England Highway and weekend southbound traffic it was time to take a breath and just follow the speed zones to Branxton.  Heffy and I had decided to keep going rather than join the final stop for the debrief so we wished the other riders well and wandered home.

Another great day's ride and a fantastic week overall.  Many thanks go to the guys at Thomas & Coffey for organising the ride and I hope we raised plenty for the Children's Medical Research Institute.

Total K's for the day: (soon)
Total K's for the Weekend: 851.5

 

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March 2024
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