Royal Enfield Club of Australia
Blue Mountains Rally
18th-20th June 2021
The Royal Enfield Club of Australia Blue Mountains Rally was held at the Gardiners Inn Hotel in the town of Blackheath, located near the highest point of the Blue Mountains, between Katoomba and Mount Victoria in New South Wales.
The town’s altitude is about 1,065 metres and it is located about 120 kilometres west north-west of Sydney, 11 kilometres north-west of Katoomba, and about 30 kilometres south-east of Lithgow.
As Blackheath has grown, more and more shops have appeared. Various shops from the late 1800s still stand in Blackheath. The first building in Blackheath, the “Scotch Thistle Inn”, was erected by Andrew Gardner in 1831 and Charles Darwin visited the inn in 1836.[8] The extent of the original grant of land to Gardner can be seen today as the area bound by the Great Western Highway, Govett’s Leap Road and (the misspelt) Gardiners Crescent.
Blackheath’s sporting claim to fame is that Don Bradman hit a century off three overs for the Blackheath team in November 1931 at Blackheath Oval in a social match against Lithgow. He went on to make 256. Source Wikipedia
The Rally was held over 3 days with most of the attendees arriving on Friday night and dinner was held at the Gardiners Inn. Others joined the group on Saturday morning. Jenny and I rode up on Saturday leaving around 7am. The weather was becoming overcast with wind and coastal rain that had not extended west by that time. The expected temperatures was single digits and with windchill closer to zero in the mountains. We donned our wet weather gear as a precaution and also to stop the wind which was fairly cold and gusty as we approached the top of the mountains.
We stopped for a break to warm up and had a pie for breakfast at Mountain High Bakery in Wentworth Falls and then proceeded to Blackheath where we noticed Alastair behind us as we turned into the main street at about 9am.
Since there was plenty of time before our 10am departure we had a coffee at the Victory Café and sat in the sun to thaw out again. Before heading to the Gardiners Inn to meet up with the others Alistair went to get fuel.
When Jenny and I arrived at the Pub carpark there were a number of them congregating around Peter’s Bullet 500 which he recently purchased from Roger and as I got closer, I noticed it was attached to Mark’s Ute by jumper leads. I headed over as they were attempting to jump start it. This is 2 out of 2 for Peter as you may recall on the Carcoar Rally, he apparently left the heated grips on overnight on the Himalayan and I had to push start him at Mark and Jane’s place. Maybe this time it was the cold weather affecting the battery or maybe Peter just has bad luck with electricals! Roger made a comment in jest like “Ha ha, I sold him a lemon” . Anyway the bike sprang to life and Peter proceeded to do laps of the carpark to put some charge in the battery whilst the others geared up. We were about to leave when we noticed that Alistair had not returned from re-fuelling his bike. We think he may have had to go back to Medlow Bath as there were rumours that the BP in Blackheath had closed. Just as we mounted up he turned into the carpark and all we headed out onto the Great Western Highway and west towards Mt Victoria.
The route Mark had chosen took us north along the Darling Causeway from Mt Vic and west down Hartley Vale Rd, through Hartley Vale and the Vale of Clwydd and onto Lithgow where we re-joined the Highway until we turned off north again through Wallerawang towards Portland to the Grove Café, which was our morning tea destination.
A coffee and cake and a pit stop before heading off to look at the painted silos
The silos were painted in April and May 2018 by artist Guido Van Helten. Using the site of the mural as a natural focus, the artist heard from former employees and Portland natives alike to piece together a view of this former industrial community known as ‘the town that built Sydney.’ Source The Foundations Portland
We left Portland and rode thru Sunny Corner on our way to lunch in Bathurst at the Victoria Hotel.
There were only 2 Royal Enfields on this trip, Peter on a 500 Bullet EFi and Mark and Jane on a 500 UCE. Alastair was on a Mutt 250, Roger and Narelle in the Harley “Monster” outfit, Gary and Joy in the Honda outfit, Jenny and I on the Triumph and John and Viv in the Morris.
The route back to the Blue Mountains was on similar roads to our recent Carcoar ride but in reverse. Mark had researched the Old Vale Circuit which was pre-Mount Panorama Bathurst and we rode part of it on our way home.
Here is an excerpt from Australian Motorcycle News
Link here https://amcn.com.au/editorial/the-vale-circuit-pre-panorama-bathurst/
Between them, the New South Wales provincial towns of Goulburn and Bathurst had a firm grip on the major motorcycle race meetings when the sport was in its infancy. But Bathurst managed to get the upper hand when the Auto Cycle Union of NSW gained the use of a series of public roads on which to stage the NSW Grand Prix over Easter in 1931.
After considering three different layouts, the final decision was The Vale Circuit, located between Bathurst and Perthville. The circuit utilised the hilly terrain around Mount Tamar, crossing Vale Creek at two points via timber bridges. The start/finish area was situated on the main Bathurst to Goulburn road, a busy local traffic route and, not surprisingly, Abercrombie Shire Council refused to allow the busy road to be completely closed.
The solution was to rope off one half of the road, with local traffic guided through by a motorcycle-mounted marshal while racing continued on the other side. It was hardly a satisfactory solution, but it was the only arrangement that could be reached to allow the event to proceed. In later years, an earth bank was bulldozed into place to separate the racing from traffic.
The 7.23-mile (11.5km) circuit was entirely gravel, with the exception of a 100-metre strip of bitumen at the starting point, opposite the Bathurst Sale Yards (which were closed in 2006).
After experiencing some of the Vale Circuit we continued along Lagoon Rd to O’Connell Rd then thru O’Connell to Mutton Falls Rd thru Tarana and then onto Sodwalls Rd and Magpie Hollow Rd past Lake Lyle and onto the Great Western Highway to Blackheath.
Once back at the Gardiners Inn we got changed and met for some drinks in the bar by the fire before moving on to the Ivanhoe Hotel just up the street for dinner. We then headed back to the Gardiners Inn for desert and some drinks.
Sunday morning breakfast was at the Victory Café after which we all made our own way home.
Another great weekend organised by Mark and Jane. Thanks for putting in the effort.
Again thanks to our side-car paparazzi Narelle for taking the action shots.