Well, I finally took the
drive out to St Albans today. It turned out to be a very nice day for a drive, with blue sky and some fluffy white clouds, not to hot or cold.
I stopped a couple of time to check out the scenery and had lunch at the St Albans Pub. Steak sandwich and ships with a schooner of Old set me back just over $21 and wasn't a bad nosh.
The round trip from my place back to Gosford was just over 191 km, and roughly 4 hours. The road is good, better than most of Central Coast in places and even sections of the Pacific Highway (though both clames aren't that hard to prove...). There are two section of dirt road, about 10 klm before St Albans and 35 klm after St Albans heading up to Bucketty. Not a very dusty dirt road for most of it, and firmly packed and solid for most of it as well. There's a roughish section between St Albans & Bucketty, but I feel that the 'reeks should cope. Most of the dirt sections I took at 50 - 60 kph in the Camry, even faster in some sections.
Apparently they had quite a large group of bikes up that way in the last week or so, I'm told a couple hundred, and saw a couple at the pub today having lunch, as well as maybe a dozen as I headed into the area from Mangrove Mountain. Always a good sign when looking for a good ride to drive.
I had a few... issues with the GPS. To be expected when going bush, I know, but even allowing for that. Then again, I only plugged in the general area, say, St Albans, rather than giving it a proper address, so that could be part of it. Still, I had to tell it to go via Spencer to avoid going via Blacktown(!!), and Mogo Creek to Bucketty, or it would have then sent me back to Gosford to go to Bucketty only to go back to Gosford for my final destination. :
lol
There are a couple of concrete dips in the first section of the sealed road, but I don't see them being a problem if taken cautiously, at speed some 'reeks may bottom out.
Should mention, this doesn't involve the Wisemans Ferry crossing. I've crossed this only a year or two ago during work, and the long nose on the 'reeks won't handle the ramps on the ferry. So this is totally from the 'Gosford' side of the river.
So there is is. What do you scurvy lot think? Worth a drive? I don't have the 'reek back yet, but I can always ride shotgun if I don't get it back before then.
