August 05 Ride

WIMA South Australia: News

WIMA RIDE – 28 AUGUST 2005

What a beautiful day for a ride!! Thirteen riders and two pillions met with me (and Denzel – who’s Denzel? – He’s my new Fireblade) at the Shell service station at Blackwood to go for a leisurely ride. Martin was on his new Fireblade, Chris was on his new Aprilia, along with Claire, Vicki, Ruth, Mirielle, Nigel, Kaye, Dave & Miriam, Liv, Vince & Cara, Jock and Sue. We waited for Bryan and Joyce for a while, but after a quick phone call to Bryan, it was established that he and Joyce were unable to make the ride as he had hurt his back and they had both been up most of the night. Hopefully Joyce will be able to show us her new riding skills (and her new bike) on the next WIMA ride.

Jock volunteered to be tail-end-Charlie (thanks for that) and after receiving numerous jibes about the speed I would be travelling on the ride and assuring all that I would be travelling at, or below, the speed limit (yeah, yeah, for a change…) we set off from Blackwood at around 10.15am. The ride took us up Ackland Hill Rd, through Cherry Gardens, Clarendon, along the Kangarilla and the McLaren Vale roads until we got to McLaren Flat. We then went up Oakley Rd and Penny’s Hill Rd until we got to Range Rd – which, incidentally, I passed, so I had to turn around and go back (oops). We followed Range Rd through to Meadows Rd and then turned down the Old Willunga Hill Rd and stopped at Willunga bakery for morning tea.

There were numerous discussions taking place outside the bakery and I heard an interesting story about things that fly up off the road and almost hit you in the face. After we had all had our fill of drinks/food/cigarettes/comfort stops etc, we travelled to Mt Compass, turned left onto Nangkita Rd, left onto Bull Creek Rd and then right onto the Ashbourne Rd. I had advised the more experienced riders amongst us that they could go for a fang along Bull Creek Rd and/or Ashbourne Rd and wait at the end of the Ashbourne Rd in Strathalbyn, while I stuck to the speed limit (sigh) and came along with the remaining members of the group. From Strath we took the Paris Creek Road, turned right towards Meadows and right again onto the Macclesfield Rd. We then went through Greenhills and Echunga and made our way to Mt Barker.

Not all of the riders undertook the full ride; Martin left us at Willunga and Nigel, Vince & Cara left the group at Strath. Liv also left the group as we headed into Mt Barker. I’m not sure what happened to Kaye, as I didn’t see her at the end of the ride and the tail-end-Charlie assured me that he’d successfully rounded up all the remaining riders. The rest of us had lunch and chats at Mt Barker, before splitting up and heading our separate ways.

Thanks to all of you who came along on the ride, the company was great!! I hope you all enjoyed the ride and I was pretty amazed that I managed to find a road that Chris hadn’t been down before. Hope to see you all on the poker run on the 24^th of September. Tape the footy final, if you’re that way inclined; don’t miss out on a good ride!!.

Jen

SA WIMA Rides Captain