Tuesday, 29 November 2011

38. To Lunch and Back - Hunter Valley

Route: Sydney - Dural - Glenorie - Wisemans Ferry - Wollombi - Cessnock - Pokolbin - Singleton - Putty Road - Colo Heights - Sydney (480kms)

 

As we were riding through Wisemans Ferry to the Hunter, I noticed that there were more potholes in the road and a series of wet patches from the week of rain. Both Mr P and I decided it to take it slower as it just wasn't worth the risk. Whilst we managed to stay safe, another motorcyclist unfortunately did not. He crashed along Wollombi Road and all we saw was the cowl sitting on the side of the road. There was also a rescue helicopter and two ambulances. It did not look good. I found out later on the news that he broke his arms and legs.

The road on the Hunter wasn't too pleasant either. Along Hermitage road, there were so many potholes that two cars in front of us had to slow down to 30-40km/hr. We also had to ride through gravel and dirt. However this was all worth it for good food and the ride home (the run along putty and colo heights was smooth with not too much traffic).

The plan was to lunch at Restaurant Botanica.
 Restaurant Botanica in the background.
 The road leading to Restaurant Botanica.

Unfortunately, the owner informed us that they were closed for lunch. She did however recommend us to Muse Kitchen located at Keith Tulloch.
 Muse Kitchen from the Carpark.
Outdoor area of Muse Kitchen.

Mr P had the swordfish and I had the yellow fin tuna pot pie. The flavours from both dishes were fantastic! We also strongly recommend the strawberry and cream desert! The chocolate and caramel tart was abit too much on a hot day but would be appreciated by chocolate lovers!

We continued riding around the Hunter for a little while longer after lunch and here's a few more pictures from the region.



Monday, 28 November 2011

Monday, 21 November 2011

36. Blue Mountains and Surrounds

When: Saturday after Ps Practice. 

Route: Sydney - Sydney Olympic Park - Richmond - Lithgow - Oberon - Edith - Jenolan - Katoomba - Penrith - Sydney (430km)

Road: If there is no traffic, Bell's Line Road is good fun. Watch out for the 15km/hr downhill hairpin turns along Jenolan Caves Road if you're coming from Edith. Nothing too sinister but don't ride the back brakes. I did just that and boiled my brake fluid which resulted in air in the system and a rear brake failure. I will be needing to adjust my front brakes to a more comfortable position so I can start to use it more effectively.


Scenery Along The Way:




Just for Fun: 

Mr P trying to clean bugs off his visor...
With short legs and a bag on the pillion seat means having to walk over the bike to get on...


35. Ps BABY!!! YEAHHHHHH!!!

Yesterday, Mr P and I attended our Ps training and testing at Clyde and we both made it!! :) YAY!! (Also Congrats to Sam. We met her during one of our training sessions!!)


We celebrated our new Ps with good food and some fantastic view!!

Monday, 14 November 2011

34. 5 day Snowies Ride


Participants and Bikes
Mr T aka Tweet on his Blackbird
Mr PM aka Paul M on his Blackbird
Mr B aka Browny on his Blackbird
Miss H aka Harmony - Mr B's pillion
Miss M aka Sharon on her Suzuki SV650
Me aka Suzy on my Honda VTR 250

9th November 2011 - Wednesday (460kms from Sydney to Jindabyne)
This trip was my first big ride out of town and my very first visit to the Snowies. I've heard nothing but wonderful things about how excellent the riding and how beautiful the scenery would be so you can imagine how excited I was. I was out of bed by 5.30am - 3 hours before my alarm was set to go off and 6 miserable hours before Mr T would rock up!! Anyway, I started the morning by praying to the rain god to reverse his rain and storm forecast through Sydney, Queanbeyan and Jindabyne and for no rain while we were at Jindabyne. This took all but 2 minutes... I had another excruciating 5 hours and 58 minutes to go. At 11ish am, Mr T finally decided to rock up on his Blackbird and we made our way down to Pheasant's Nest to meet up with Mr PM. We continued on our journey with Mr PM leading the way and Mr T at the tail. About 1 hour ish into the trip, my stomach decided it was time for another stop so I signalled for Mr PM pull into Goulburn for lunch by crazily waving my hand while trying to safely overtake him. We had some MacDonald here before we continued on to Jindabyne. We arrived at the accommodation at 6ish pm and had dinner at the Banjo Patterson Pub. Mr B and Miss H were due to arrive later during the night at 10-11pm so the three of us hung around and chatted. Before we knew it, it was close to 12am and there was still no sign of Mr B and Miss H. Both Mr T and Mr PM agreed that if they did not roll up by 1am, they would be launching a search party in case something terrible happened in that downpour. Luckily for all of us, the couple arrived safe and sound at 12.30am.





10th November 2011 - Thursday
We had some morning rain in Jindabyne which cleared by around 11am. Everyone was quite happy to have abit of a sleep in and honestly, I was just glad the rain stopped. We had a pretty small day today and rode a total of 320kms - Jindabyne to Adaminaby to Cabramurra to Khancoban to Jindabyne. I followed Mr PM for a good portion of the trip and managed to keep up. I particularly enjoyed the road from Cabramurra through Khancoban however, my favourite for the day was the stretch on the Alpine Way through Thredbo. I believe this was also one of Mr PM favourite run!! On this road, there was no one on our side of the road and maybe only 1 or 2 cars from the opposite direction. Here, the 3 Blackbirds decided it was time to have some fun and all zoomed past me like rocket launchers! For the first part, all I smelt was smoke! I did however get to test run the limits of my baby bike!! I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised by what the little VTR 250 can do and she even managed to continue riding the tail of Mr B and kept him in sight! Miss M also arrived today as she was not able to get a day off on Wednesday. 





11th November 2011 - Friday
On Day 3, we clocked a total of 540kms. We rode from Jindabyne to Dalgety to Bombala to Delegate through the Bonang to Orbost to Cann River to Bombala and back to Jindabyne. There was some dirt road on the way to the Bonang but nothing too sinister. We all made it through in one piece. Apparently the road which the logging trucks used were also less corrugated than before making it a much more pleasant ride. In particular, the Bonang was an awesome ride!! Mr PM was up front, with me next than Mr B, Miss M and Mr T. Eventually, Mr B found me too slow and overtook me. I lost him shortly. After some distance, I saw Mr B and Mr PM pulled over on the side of the road presumably waiting for me but they waved me through so I continued my merry way along to Orbost. Mr B eventually caught up with me again and overtook me. I arrived at Orbost after Mr B followed by Mr PM and than Miss M and Mr T. We took a break at Orbost before moving on. Shortly after we left for Cann River, Mr B decided to wave me forward again and for a good portion of the way, I was leading the way and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was travelling at a decent pace too which was a surprising change and very very fun!! On the Friday night, every one decided to take it easy and had quite a few drinks... being the only non drinker, it was quite funny to watch tipsy and drunk people. My favourite part of the night was Mr PM showing Miss M and myself his very awesome and cool dance moves and Mr B with his magic card tricks!









12th November 2011 - Saturday
Mr PM has to depart today to see his family in Oberon. After saying our goodbyes, we started our final riding day with a 320km loop from Jindabyne to Thredbo to Khancoban to Cabramurra to Adamindaby to Berridale and back to Jindabyne. Today, riding the opposite direction on the Thredbo just did not feel the same. For some odd reason, I thought the road looked abit skinner than it was on Friday. I wonder why! We also took today a bit slower given Saturday usually has more traffic on the road. Throughout the trip, I saw a number of cars and motorcyclist driving on the wrong side on the road and it paid to be that little bit more careful. 














13th November 2011 - Sunday
This morning, we all woke up and left around 8am for home. Lucky for us, the weather held out. Miss M left us on the M5 while Mr T and myself continued our way closer towards Sydney.

Conclusion
Overall, it was a fantastic trip. The rides were really fun and the company was great! I collected my biggest bug on this trip and I'm sure there's many more to come. Also adding to the collection is 2 dead bugs in the tummy.

33. Royal National Park and Wiseman's Ferry

Not too long ago, Mr P and I did a couple of rides... one through the Royal National Park (RNP) and the other through Wiseman's Ferry.

As always, the ride through the Royal National Park was quite fun!! I am definitely getting slightly better with those corners. When we arrived at Bald Hill, we were treated to a spectacular sight overlooking the sea cliff bridge and Wollongong.  We also saw a couple of paragliders take off!


The other trip was a ride to Wiseman's. We weren't 100% sure which direction to go and ended up taking the ferry 5 times. While on one of the rides, we met a dude with two Go Pro cameras attached to his motorbike and he also got a video of Mr P on his bike.




When we worked out where to go, we stopped by the local pub for lunch before continuing our journey. As evident below, the ride through Wiseman's was very pretty.


On the way home, we also went though Kurringah Chase National Park where we stopped to do some paddle boating. It looked really fun initially, but it was very very hard work! We were treated to a very nice scenery though! =)