The Clyde Ride got drowned...

When the alarm did not go off I woke up in a panic, although my timing was perfect. Still an hour before meeting time. On the forum most 'inners' had made their excuses to turn 'outers' and in the end it seemed as if there were just the three of us committed to take on the Clyde.

The weather report was less than rosy. The BOM site showed clearly that I was about to be heading straight towards a wet front down south. "A shower or two... an afternoon thunderstorm"

Think positively!

There were quite a lot of people at Albion Park Maccas, meeting for an 8am take off. Some P platers were amongst them and they decided to take off just before Fezz and me. By the time we made our departure a few minutes later, we had arranged to meet them at Berry. The only other stop was at Gerringong, allowing Beemer Michael to catch up with us along the road. I led the two riders through Berry, but even at a speed of up to 40km/hour, none of the others were to be seen.

Later, after a little chitchat on the forum we found out what had happened and how we clearly managed to miss each other. The first group took off via Jamberoo, whilst we went straight down the Hwy towards Ulladulla and probably making good time trying to catch up with them. Jamberoo was supposed to be a stop over on our return route. However, we learned from the experience. Next time we'll make sure to get one of their mobile phone numbers to stay in contact.

We carried on, stopping for fuel at Bewong and around Conjola we were hit with torrential rain and a thunderstorm that made my blood curl. As soon as I wore my wet weather gear, Fezz pulled the plug and decided to go home (...my bum does look big in it...) Michael and I turned back a little further down the road just a few minutes later. The hydrophile in me enjoyed the big wet until I got caught in a channel of water and the aqua planing gave me momentarily some heart pulpatations. No tyre would have coped with that!

Someone on the forum mentioned later that we were lucky not to have gone the Clyde way, as the road was closed in both directions for most of the day, due to an accident. We would have been stuck for hours.

On our return trip Michael and I encountered fine weather from Nowra and decided to take the coast road back to Gerringong, where he made it home in one piece and I hope semi dry. My trip home was fine. I hooked up with a BMW rider on the Northern Distributor, who set a fine pace and made good choices in the increasing traffic (since Bulli Pass is closed). Upon arrival I was told that the Northern Suburbs had not seen any rain all morning. Ahh well...my thumb and all fingernails are still stained black from a soaked glove and those boots ain't made for riding in ankle deep water either... it's all in the adventure! (and good to know that a hot shower is never that far away)

...the Ninjalista needs another clean!

No pictures. But we may do it all again next weekend.