5 Ferries across the Hawkesbury River 13th March 2005
A glorious Sunday morning with Mike Day wondering if he was at the
right Club meeting - 13 Bikes and 15 riders/pillions met at Caltex
Round Corner for the 8.30 departure.

We could not have timed it better as we pulled up at Berowra(ferry
#1) just as the gates opened and on we went. This was the first of
our five ferry crossings on the Hawkesbury.

Up the twisties from Berowra and onto the Old Road. This is rated as
one of the 50 best roads in Australia. It's easy to see why as it
just flows through a seemingly endless series of smooth turns. The
procession of Beemers looked fantastic and must have been creating a
line of about half a k as we headed past the PITS and Road Warriors
at Mt White. A left turn at Calga onto Peat’s Ridge Road and again
you find yourself the only traffic on what used to be a main
highway. Just past Peat’s Ridge we met up with five riders form the
Hunter group - our timing was pretty much spot on but at 9.45 am it
meant that the planned "lunch" at Wiseman’s was going to be at
morning tea break.

The Wiseman’s Ferry road from Mangrove is a wonderful bike road. You
have to watch out for the locals and their dogs and it is very easy
to find yourself looking at the activity on the river to your left
rather than straight in front of you. There are a heap of fantastic
picnic spots along here before you reach Spencer and maybe next time
through we'll make the effort to stop.

Past Spencer and the Marramarra N.P and we arrived at Wiseman’s Ferry
at 10.30

We filled the ferry, and the street outside the pub where we parked.
Here's a tip - don't use your centre stand on the Wiseman’s Ferry
Hill - your bike will fall over!!

A brief stop for a burger, coffee and 'stretch of the legs" and we
were on our way at 11.30.

The majority of riders took the Webb Creek ferry across and onto the
gravel. One or two riders decided to stay on the tar (which has two
dirt sections) and meet up with us at Lower Portland.

Immediately across the ferry we turned left and then right onto
Bicentennial Road - this is a very wide gravel road which is
normally well graded - the recent rains had made it look like an old
piece of roofing iron. Apart form the short series of switch backs
near the end of this section, it is a good road - the RS, RT and R's
all made it just as well as the GS's.

The day had really started to heat up by the time we reached Lower
Portland (only 16 kms from Webb Creek) - the group reassembled and
found two riders had missed the turn off- Trevor took off in pursuit
and herded the others up without incident and caught up shortly
after.

Across Lower Portland and only one ferry to go. - only 12.30 by this
stage. It is extraordinary how much cooler it is under the tree
canopy and the ride to Sackville whilst short allowed the whole
group to get back together.

Being much earlier than we had planned several riders decided to
head home and catch the rest of the weekend - we rode through to the
putty and said goodbye to two of the Hunter guys who wanted to take
the long twisty road back home.

Now if this was a City versus Country footy match you could describe
it as Country being one point down and scrummaging on the half way
line.
Rob and Trevor decided that they needed to do all five ferries and
cross Berowra before heading back to Newcastle, so......we did.

So Greg, Oli and I did six ferries and everyone else did five. We had 18 bikes – two pillions and an Aprillia and a Kwaka. No major incidents and all up an enjoyable ride on a sunny Autumn Sunday.