With a classic ride on the famous and infamous (3 fatalities in the last fortnight) Putty Road planned for the day, I was keen to get moving early. The pea soup fog of the previous morning was a watery dew compared to the milky mire that hung over the car park at 8:30am.
I decided to leave and hope that the fog would lift. It didn’t.
For 30 kms, I braille biked from guide post to guide post, the speedo reached 80 km per hour. With helmet visor down I created a cloudy microclimate of zero visibility; with visor up a mini raincloud formed and proceeded to rain inside the helmet leaving me to blink away the watery distortion. I was not happy.
in places the fog thinned but the sun had no hope of breaking through. But after 50 km the fog occupied only the deeper valleys and higherpeaks and my speed lifted to the 100 km per hour limit. A glimmer of optimism was trapped in plummeting temperatures….no way out except to crank up the voltage on the jacket.
Ironically this miserable start set me up for a perfect run on the Putty Road. As I turned south off B84 the tabletop of fog was whisked away from the sandstone bluffs of the Blue Mountains. Dark clouds were shuffling in as replacements but at a glance I knew ….I had a window of two hours and it was time to hustle.
any description I can conjour up for this ride will pale in the perspective of the Sydney riders, some of whom have lapped the circuit for over 30 years. For the newby like me the helicopter view is; it’s a two part ride with a twisty southern section punctuated by Grey Gums coffee shop from the faster ( but windy) northern section. It can be ridden in both directions as it is not really a mountain ascent but more lots of ups and downs ….unless you like downs and ups. Fuel and mobile phone coverage is pretty much absent so fuel up before you start. And stop at the coffee shop….expect 10-20 bikes and some fast riders to be mooching around.
As I pulled off the northern end of the road I felt like a pilgrimage was complete. Not much time for rejoicing though as Windsor welcomed me on to six lane highways and signage pointing the way to Sydney town. I baled north on the motorway and let the GPS guide me to Tuggerah Lakes. Finally I was on the eastern seaboard again.
