Twenty-five
riders turned up at the meeting point for the ride to the Porongurups.
It
was a very male-dominated crew for the ride, but Erin managed well as
the only lady.
It was good to see the weather in our favour as there had been some doubt about it with the sizzling Saturday the day before.
It was near-perfect conditions for riding. With a temp of 22C and very little wind we were set for a good ride.
We travelled along Millbrook Road and then Albany Highway, stopping at a tree nursery owned by Bill Hollingworth.
The Nursery is just opposite Mt Romance, the sandalwood factory. Our stop included a morning tea with biscuits, cookies and fruit accompanied by a presentation by Bill.
He gave a very interesting and informative talk about his enterprise and tree farming in general.
Bill is mainly growing blue gum seedlings. He currently has over a million seedlings in various stages of development.
We were all enthused by a demonstration of the automatic sophisticated
seeding machine. Quite a few questions were fired at Bill and it seemed
from the feedback that everyone enjoyed the visit.
We then headed north on Albany Highway turning right at Narrikup onto Yellanup Road then to Woodlands Road. The first few kilometres were unsealed but the surface was very hard.
The only complaints were by some of the mob who were concerned that
they would have to clean their bikes after the run.
John Mac and one or two others tackled the Millinup-Bolganup Rd to get
to Nancy’s Peak where we had our barbecue lunch.
The
rest of us went over the spectacular western escarpment to Porongurup
Road. We seemed to have lost a couple on the way but gained two when
John and Kerry from Gnowangerup joined us. They had driven down with
four wheels to catch up to us.
The barbecue at the park was fired up and soon cooking got underway. We took over the gazebo.
There was just about enough seating for everyone. There were no flies and no bins. No bins are probably the reason there were no flies – you have to take your rubbish with you when you leave.
Everyone seemed to be content with socializing and it was some time before a few of us made a move to head home.
All in all it was a most enjoyable day riding through the country that was fresh and crisp from the last big rain event.
Thank you to the blokes who stopped off at the corners for guidance and to Arthur for going backup.
Arthur towed the trailer with his camper-van and this got a lot of attention.
Kim seemed overly keen and I thought he was going to fake a breakdown just so he could have a ride in it.