The Blue Mountains

Tuesday 19^th of October 2010

Forgot to add that Alan nearly dropped his bike yesterday!!!

When we were leaving MCAS Alan forgot to take his disc lock off and began to ride off, as you can imagine this did not end well!!! The disc lock worked in that the bike comes to a screaming halt and with the forward momentum tends to tip over, and this is what happened to Alan. He was fortunately able to keep the bike from completely falling over by holding onto the handlebars and stand on his right leg until the cavalry arrived. Once we got the bike upright and on the stand we had to remove the disc lock as it had become embedded in the disk brake, the force behind it caused it to shear a piece of metal from the disk itself. To remove it we had to use my disc lock as a hammer and then remove the barb from the disc.

It’s raining again…and as per usual we waited until 12 before we decided it was time to leave, the weather was cloudy but fine and cold (and I do mean cold). But alas my new gear sack needed repacking it was top heavy. Repacked it and left around 1:30pm headed to Parramatta to drop the old bag of so George could take it back to Melbourne for us… WE love you George…

Then hit the road in earnest once again

We headed down the Great Western freeway into the Blue Mountains. The scenery is truly spectacular and the roads would appear to have been specifically designed for bikes. As we got further into the mountains the weather changed, it didn’t rain but was a foggy / misty type of thing and still biting cold. At about this point I get concerned, picture this, where heading into the country and it gets all foggy / misty (you know what’s coming) in the movies this is where the brother always gets it. And yes I may be a little paranoid but that doesn’t mean that they are not out to get me… interesting thing about NSW is that It appears everywhere in NSW there is road works going on, not new roads but resurfacing or upgrades. One of the shops that I assume has been affected by the road works had a sign out the front “it’s the end of the world”. I was thinking the same but for very different reasons, my bike was getting dirty again…

We pulled over to get the wet weather gear on and no sooner had we rounded the very next corner we were in bright sunshine. Isn’t that just typical, 10 minutes to put the gear on and then no rain in sight.  

We ended up staying at the Court House Hotel in Lithgow, a room for two single beds was $50 a night with bike parking in their garage. Nice place as it has great views but, everywhere does in the Blue Mountains. The showers are either boiling hot or freezing cold which is always good for a laugh, but for $50 it’s a bargain. Some of the most interesting things about Lithgow are the murals on the wall of the pub depicting the town back in the early 1900’s, one included the first Automobile being driven on the streets of Lithgow. Lots of old buildings with the turn of the century architecture.  The population is about 10,000 and the main industry is coal mining.

Lastly we had dinner at the Workmans club, Alan was intrigued by a very large gentleman wearing a no gut’s no glory T-shirt, puzzling to say the least.

Cheers

a