O'Connell Pub Run

Holy shiz balls, 2 rides in 2 weekends. Must be some kind of record. Might have to quit my job and go professional blogging like that Bandit rider guy, he's always riding and posting and I'm starting to think he doesn't actually work, hmmmm.........er maybe not. Perhaps my wife's getting ready to divorce me and needs time to fill out the paper work....

Our neighbours from Nowra organised a ride out to O'Connell pub for lunch on Sunday and asked around anyone else wanted to go. I think just about everyone went on this trip. Normally its 40 odd degrees and not bike friendly weather here but this summer has been quite mild, only in the mid to high 20's. Perfect riding weather.

So the Sydney covid infested crew headed on out over the Blue Mountains via the Bell's line of road. We were very lucky not to get done by the rozzers in one of the overtaking lanes on Bells, the bastard was hiding in the bushes with his laser. Fucker, just as we overtook 2 slow ass Cam Am Spyder  drivers.

Crossing over Darling Causeway we descended down Victoria pass and gave Geoff's speed camera the finger as we went. Fcukers. We turned off on Jenolan Caves road and headed out to Oberon to meet up with the rest of the crew. Geoff dropped back so I used that opportunity to stop for a quick pick.

What is it with Sunday drivers, we came upon a line of traffic doing 60 in the 100kmh zone. It was difficult to over take due to the undulating terrain and winding road. Only to finally get past some completely oblivious moron with a train of vehicles in their wake and with everyone wanting to road rage him off the road and burn them to death. I hope I scared the bejesus out of them when I went past. Seriously is it that hard to use your mirrors, or accelerator or even pull over to the side of the road and let other pass? So fucking clueless.....

A short break was had in Oberon where a few of the lads inhaled some pies from the bakery while we waited for the Nowra crew to arrive. We received a message saying they'd be 30 min late. It gave us time to catch up and talk bikes of all things.

Soon after the Nowra crew arrived we were off to O'Connell and the pub for lunch. Stu booked ahead when we were waiting in Oberon and it was a good thing he did. They were extremely busy today so we ordered straight away. Still it took about an hour or more for us to get our burgers.......Dave then ate some else's burger, hahahha.

Lunch was ok, the burger wasn't anything special but filled a hole I guess. The short or long lunch stop however you want to look at it was over too soon and we said our goodbyes and headed in separate directions. Our's took us back through Oberon and back up Mt Victoria.

There were plenty of slow Sunday drivers along Jenolan caves road to the point were Stu pulled over so we could let a big long chain of cars go, so we could have an enjoyable run down the hill to the highway. After the 5 minute wait we eventually caught up to them at the highway intersection and had a great run through the twisty bits.

Waiting, waiting.......couldn't have asked for a better day for it.

Bruce made the suggestion to stop at the Lapstone hotel to rehydrate for the last leg home. Not a bad idea and I needed a drink by the time we got there. I've been past here plenty of times before but never ever stopped in. Not a bad little pub.

Thanks for the ride fella's it was a top day out, only a short 350kms but great all the same to be out riding. The alternate is pretty bleak, lets hope we don't go back there anytime soon.

Jenolan Caves Road

I'd woken up early this morning hoping to start out scooterbobs Sydney adventures but when I looked out the window I was very disappointed. Rain, rain and more rain and it doesn't look like it's clearing anytime soon looking at the weather radar.

So until it clears up a bit here's a little video I made up from the ride down into Jenolan caves last week.

Is it spring yet or still winter? I can't tell!

With our on going warm winter weather Bushpig and I decided to go for a ride today out to Oberon up in the NSW Central Tablelands. I was a bit hesitant at first picking this location for lunch as it snowed up here 2 weeks ago and riding up through the Blue Mountains in the middle of winter could be freezing cold. I shouldn't have been concerned as it was bright blue sky's and great riding weather, today's max in Oberon was a barmy 10°C it felt more like 15°C. It was a little cool at speed but otherwise a great day.

We headed up bells line of road today, the sun was shining bright which brought out the vibrant colours of the walls of the canyons in the Blue Mountains today, they were quite spectacular. I didn't stop to take photos of them today but I have before and you can find them here.

Bells Line of Road

We cross over from the Bells Line across to Mt Victoria and down through the esses and onto the great western highway. I didn't want to stay on here for long so I decided to turn off at Cox River road and ride the back way out to Oberon. Its a pretty good little back road, but has about 5 kms of dirt, but very good dirt with a great surface. Don't agree that there is such a thing as good dirt, then why would I be doing 100kmh on a dirt road on a sports bike? It soon turned back to tar and we blasted our way to the top of the valley and onto Jenolan Caves road. This little back road put you out right near Hampton. 

Blue Mountains in the distance

It wasn't long before we turned off Jenolan Caves road and then onto Duckmaloi rd for the short 24km blast into Oberon. A brief stop by the road and we could see first hand the amount of logging that goes on around here. The hills were bare for miles, but I guess we need to make guitars out of something. Both myself and Bushpig were famished by now so I suggested we hit the pub for a counter lunch. I had a steak sandwich with bacon and egg which hit the spot.

Duckmaloi Rd 

It wasn't long before we had arrived in Oberon at around 12:30 we refueled. Anyone notice that this must be one of the most expensive places in NSW for premium petrol? We met a couple of guys riding a Blackbird and another bike at the pub,they'd ridden up from Crookwell. They were just leaving as we got there. I think the food at the Royal Hotel is better than at the Tourist Hotel. We left Oberon at about 2pm and it was starting to get noticeably cool, especially in the shade. We pretty much back tracked our route the way we had come with a couple of quick breaks along the way.

Cox River Road

Coming back on the bells line on the way home, I came upon a line of 3 cars in the twisties, it was an 80 zone. There was an overtaking lane coming up and I thought it would be a good spot to get around them. The car in front of me pulled out to overtake the other two cars, I followed him out and as I got to the back of the lead car I noticed it was an unmarked highway patrol, I sat out in the breeze for a bit just behind him I was doing an indicated 85. He waited and watched me. No I'm not going to go past you, look at the other car that is leaving you for dead, do something about that mate. After about another minute he took off like a scalded cat and 2 bends later he had the other car pulled over. Ha I chuckled in my helmet for awhile about that.

Bellbird Hill Lookout

Here's the map of todays ride. Not a big ride at 320kms but a nice winters day riding.