It was the last Sunday in the month yesterday, time for one of our regular end-of-the-month brekkie rides. When I say “regular’, it means that they are SUPPOSED to be regular but, because of the uncooperative weather, we haven’t had one for a couple of months.
BUT, the weather forecast for Sunday was good so I posted it up on our FB page and hoped we’d get a good response.
As I didn’t want to frighten the natives too much, I posted it as a brunch ride and set the starting time a little later than what we normally do.
At the departure time there were 17 people on 15 bikes and the day was looking extremely promising. As with all brekkie rides, the event was as much about the RIDING as it is about the eating so I chose an extremely circuitous route through the backroads to the destination, Angel’s Bayside Café at the lovely Huskisson. I had booked, I knew I had to, the place is packed on nice days in the Summer and, despite making great time, we ended up being there about a half hour late.
The manager was apologetic but explained that they can’t keep bookings open too far past the set time as there were plenty of other people who wanted a table. Perfectly understandable. But she did say that, if we were prepared to wait half an hour or so, a big area would be available that we could have. We agreed but it was only 10 minutes or so when the big group sitting at the tables left and we were in.
Considering that they were short-staffed and that they were really busy, the food came to the tables quite quickly and we were so deeply engrossed in conversation that it wasn’t a problem anyway.
We took our time eating and then we headed off. As with the normal practice, the “formal” part of the group ride is over once we have eaten and people are free to organise their own ways home. I was still a bit weary and sore from my 600km+ effort on Friday so I slabbed it home, cut out at Jamberoo and got home in plenty of time.
I love brekkie rides, they’re fun, you get to meet lotsa new people plus old friends and see some great scenery. The view out over the coastal plain from the top of Saddleback Mountain was stunning yesterday, probably the best I’ve ever seen.
Roll on the last Sunday in November.
