Today three of us went on a ride to explore some roads to maybe include in future rides. The target was to check out the gravel road between Webbs Creek Ferry and Lower Portland on the northern side of the river, through the Leets Vale region. We met at Road Warriors for a morning coffee, and then set off up the Old Road, Peats Ridge Road (Gee there are a lot of sand trucks on Peats Ridge Road and the bottom end of Wollombi Road) and turned left onto Wiseman's Ferry Road. We stopped at Spencer and humoured the store owner there by buying coffees, and then headed on to Wiseman's Ferry. We crossed on that ferry, and then Peter and I went across on the Webbs Creek Ferry while Kim stayed on the south side, with a plan that we would meet on the western side of the Lower Portland Ferry to find somewhere to go for lunch.
The road to Lower Portland from Webbs Creek is a left turn just after you leave the Ferry, which in couple of kilometres reaches a Y junction, with a sealed road to the left fork (which we took but it was the wrong one) and a gravel road as the right fork. The road takes us through the very large rural suburb of Leets Vale, on a well-made gravel road which winds up and down into valleys and through very attractive properties along the riverside. It was a little bit corrugated in places, so would be bone-jarring on a road bike, but for those on chook-chasers, it is a good trip. It takes about the same time to go from Webbs Creek to Lower Portland on either road, as the southern side is longer but all sealed, whereas the northern side is unsealed with some quite technical hairpin bends in and out of a couple of the ravines.
Given that the Sackville Ferry was out of service for the afternoon, we went down to Sackville Road and turned right towards Wilberforce. We stopped at the Tractor 828 Cafe on the left to see what their lunch was like, and we are happy to report that at least be steak wrap and the BLT's were excellent. Worth considering for those wanting to have a lunch out on the road once the restrictions lift fully. It looks like a very attractive cafe, and it was buzzing this morning.
We then set off down to Windsor, then turned left towards Wiseman's Ferry, then turned right onto Saunders Road, Left onto Old Stock Route Road then right onto Scheyville Road past National Park and up to Cattai Ridge Road. Very little traffic and a good fast spin along there. We then went through Arcadia to the Berowra Ferry, and stopped for (another) coffee at the cafe just on the eastern side of the Ferry ramp. Again, a very pleasant coffee to say goodbye, and then two went south and one went north.
The riding was great, because while it was a little fresh in the first half of the day, it warmed up a very comfortable temperature for us to ride, stop, chat. A great day out.
- Frosty
