Today, the weather forecast was for showers, so I got up early to check the radar. It showed most of the rain out to sea, with a small patch over Wollongong. I sent out a Facebook message telling everyone the ride was still on, so when I arrived at the servo, it wasn’t long before there were seven riders and myself: Smoko, Rob, Keith, Les, Greg, Big Al, Tim, and Shane, all raring to go.
The plan was to ride the figure eight, down Mt. Kembla, up Mt. Kirra onto Clive Bissel Drive, back to the OPH, and into the RNP to Bundeena for mornos.
However, the weather gods were not kind. As we headed south, I had to stop just before Boomerang Golf Course to check that the boys were happy to continue, as it was now raining, and it looked like we were heading into much more. We did lose Big Al, who went back, but everyone else was begrudgingly happy to continue. We rode on into more wet weather and fog at the top of Mt. Kembla, so on the way down, I made a captain’s call to dry out at Cordeaux Caffeine and hope the weather would clear up just a little. After about half an hour, no such luck—still raining—so I decided to continue the ride up Mt. Kirra and head home without stopping at Heathcote. We all said our goodbyes there at the café, and headed home together. Mostly light rain, drizzle, and more fog until we arrived at Heathcote where the roads were quite dry. Home about 11:45 am, so not a big ride, and I hope those that went did enjoy themselves and refreshed their wet weather riding skills.
Also, a big thank you to Rob for doing a fantastic job of TEC. The reason it was fantastic was because he told me so. Well done, Rob—until next time.
Phil “Smoko” Morris
