Royal Enfield Club of Australia Inc
Wisemans Ferry Himalayan Ride
24 th July 2022
By Craig Katen
Paul Selwood and I have been trying to get Sydney members who have Himalayans interested in club rides as we both have one and enjoy exploring dirt roads around Sydney’s outskirts.
When the Club Calendar was being created I spoke to Paul and we decided on a introductory off-road day ride for the 24th of July so I put it in the ride calendar and put up a post in the Travel Centre on the Club’s forum.
I didn’t get any responses from the forum post so I created an event on our Facebook page and shared it to the Royal Enfield Himalayan And Scram Australian Facebook Group. A few guys said they were interested and a few said they would like to go but were unavailable that day.
As the date got closer we planned the route taking into account the many road closures in the area after the floods and monitored the weather and it was actually looking good despite all the rain that Sydney had received recently .
It was looking like it would be just a couple of guys and Paul and I. Dave Monaghan saw the FB event and responded asking could he come on his Suzuki and my son Angus said he would come too riding my Himalayan and I would take my KTM 690. It was starting to be a bit of a mix of bikes and riders from other groups.
It seemed there would only be about 5 of us going and since weather was looking good I posted it on both the Dual Sport Motorcycle Riders Association (DSMRA) and the Australian Motorcycle Trail Riders Association (AMTRA) Facebook pages as I am a member of both of those clubs too and knew that many club rides had been cancelled due to poor conditions and the people may be keen for a ride.
A few people from each said they were interested in tagging along and in the end we had 10 riders from 4 different riding groups/clubs
RECOA Members
Paul 2021 RE Himalayan
Craig KTM 690 (DSMRA AMTRA)
Dave Suzuki DR650 (AMTRA)
Royal Enfield Himalayan And Scram Australian Facebook Group
Tom 2017 RE Himalayan
Manuel 2021 RE Himalayan (RECOA)
AMTRA
Erwin CF Moto 800MT
Angus 2021 RE Himalayan
DSMRA
Glen Husqvarna 701
Richard KTM 690
Bryck BMW F850
Dave and Paul met Angus and I at our house and the four of us rode up to Wisemans Ferry leaving at about 8am so we could take a detour down the Old Leetsvale Track to check it out as an option for the group later in the day. The idea was to ride it downhill so if it was too slippery we would not attempt it in the other directions on the way back.
The morning was very foggy after the recent rains and the ride up Old Northern Road through the Hills District was slow, wet and cold with poor visibility. Eventually we made it to our turn off down Wisemans Ferry Rd and onto the Cliftonville Rd.
We turned off Cliftonville Rd down the start of the track and it looked like it had copped some rain. I made sure Angus turned off the rear ABS using the bypass switch I had installed and warned everyone to take it easy. The steep part of the track basically had turned into a creek and had many wash-outs strewn with baby head sized rocks and in other spots deep sand deposits or puddles. We managed to negotiate this section without any real incidents except Angus ran wide and ended up in a ditch on the high side of the trail. As we reached the valley floor we could see the devastation of the recent floods with sand washed wide of the creek bed and saplings and bushes leaning in the direction of water flow. We were soon through the lower section and onto River Rd and headed for Wisemans Ferry. Along the way we could see more evidence of the toll the floods had taken on the residents with piles of garbage and building materials stacked by the side of the road for collection and debris high into the trees and banks.
We got to the café at Wisemans Ferry and could see a few people that I recognised as I knew to expect their bikes even though I had not ever met them, except for Tom who I work as a Lifeguard with . A few more turned up as we made our introductions and had coffees and by 10am we had our full contingent and were ready to leave. I gave a quick ride briefing and we headed to the Webb’s Creek Ferry.
After crossing the Hawkesbury we turned left on Webb’s CK Rd, then onto Chaseling Rd and then right up Bicentenary Rd to the intersection of Greens Rd (which is closed due to flood damage) and Wheel Barrow Ridge Trail. We followed the later for a while stopping at the intersection of Webb’s Creek Trail for a re-group as there were some muddy sections that slowed some people down a bit.
The track got worse a bit further along with longish sections of deep mud that was furrowed by car traffic. Paul was sweeping and Erwin, who was riding a new CF Moto 800MT shod with standard almost road tyres and was having to take his time through the muddy bits. We stopped again to wait for them to catch up and I got a call over the radio from Paul saying they had a problem and asking us to wait.
When they caught up we had to do some track side repairs. Erwin lost the front end and went down and Paul could not stop in time and got into a slide also dropping his bike. Lucky I had a decent sized shifter and we bent back both the bikes rear brake levers.
It wasn’t far to the next turn onto Wheel Barrow Ridge Road which climbs up onto a ridgeline with better drainage and better road surface of blue metal. This continues up to become bitumen closer to Colo Heights. We then road a short section of the Putty Rd and turned down Colo Heights Rd to check out the old bridge at Upper Colo which got washed away during the previous heavy floods in 2021.
Leading the way down I lost concentration on one corner and I cant remember what I did, I either hit the throttle or brakes with too much gusto but the end result was me on the ground pointing in the wrong direction. The group caught up as I was picking the bike up and dusting myself off when someone noticed one of my tool tubes had a broken mount. The guys were quick to pull out some zip-ties and help re-secure it for me and we carried on down to the worksite on the Colo River.
This is what it looked like in February 2021 when Paul and I crossed it before the March 2021 floods
This is what it looked like in May 2022 when we stopped on a ride to check out the damage and progress of rebuild.
Now after the July 2022 floods, this drone shot by Paul shows all traces of the bridge bar the piers have gone.
The worksite was also destroyed along with any work that was completed on the new bridge.
See videos below
Here are some links to the drone videos he took
Upper Colo Bridge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbWSjvIkTJo
Group shot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8sn0wX8SGw
Bikes Shot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rcl96PJrUk
After Paul took some more drone videos of the group and the bikes we rode back up to the Putty Rd and down to Colo and followed Upper Colo Rd to the point on the other side of the river to where we had been. It was then up Comleroy Rd and onto Mountain Lagoon Rd climbing up to the Bells Line of Road at Bilpin where we stopped for a pie at the Grumpy Baker.
After lunch we did a quick detour to see if we could get through to Kurrajong Heights via Burralow Camp Ground however the gate was locked and we headed back to Mountain Lagoon Rd instead. Rather than go back to the Colo River I suggested we instead turn right on Comleroy Rd and go down and check out Wheeny Creek Campground which according to the Hawkesbury Councils website was closed after the recent floods. When we got there we could see why it was probably closed as the creek was flowing fairly fast but was crossable.
Angus and Manuel had no trouble negotiating the deep water on their Himalayans.
On the other side the group discussed options for heading home and with only a short ride back to Blaxland Ridge Rd we stopped and said our goodbyes etc and continued on to Kurrajong and then home.
All up the ride was around 270km with about 100km getting to the start and end points of the dirt sections.
We will organise another ride in a few months and hopefully somewhere different and maybe we can attract some more of the Himalayan riders who are members of the Club to attend next time.
Thanks to all of you who came along and helped make it a great ride.
Thanks to Paul for being the sweep rider and also for the drone and still photography and for doing the Re-Live video Click the link below to watch the video of the ride