A small group of four riders who couldn’t stand to be stuck indoors any longer gathered at the Macksville Aquatic Centre for the last Sunday ride of the summer. Mark had had a look at the weather forecast before he decided to drive down from Mylestom and he assured Colleen, Mike and Phil that the weather was clearing. This was just before we all beat a retreat to our cars to wait out a burst of rain!
And the ride from Macksville to Fisherman’s Reach south of Stuarts Point, via Scotts Head and Grassy Head Roads was pretty much like that all the way – dry(ish) one minute and raining the next.
The riders stopped a couple of times on the way to put on rain jackets and then take them off once the rain had stopped and they began heating up, especially when they hit the hills on Grassy Head Road. In the end, they just gave up and left them on.
The showers didn’t last very long, just long enough to soak everything thoroughly and have the water running down into shoes and off the back of helmets.
No hills, no cars, no rain and the prospect of coffee coming up at Stuarts Point made the Fisherman’s Reach and return the nicest part of the day’s ride.
A new coffee spot has popped up, literally, in Stuarts Point, with great coffee served out of a little caravan near the centre of town. They also do lunch and dinner, all of which come highly recommended, as do the brownies that we had with coffee.
The hills on Grassy Head Road are always bigger coming from the south and we were able to break the ride back with a quick stop at the local banana grower’s stall, where Edna and Warwick treated us all to bananas.
Back on our bikes, the return to Macksville was uneventful. And as I sit here writing the ride report, I can see that Mark’s forecast was right – the weather is clearing….we were just a bit too early.
Our next Sunday ride is back to the usual start time of 8am, but it won’t be our usual road bike ride – we will be riding mountain bikes or hybrids instead and go from Urunga BA at 8am to Valery Road to Tower Road via lots of trails then back to Urunga via Bellingen and North Bank Road.
The group will do Wednesday and Friday this week from Urunga BP at the summer start time of 7am. Everyone welcome!