Today Heffy and I were heading to the Central Coast to meet up with a fellow Harley-Davidson® owner at the new Harley-Davidson Dealership run by Chris Watson who has a successful motorcycle store in Cessnock for focused on Japanese two wheelers. Sadly though, it was pissing down to the south so the meeting and viewing of the new dealership was postponed.
Not to worry though, there was a spec of blue to the north so we decided to head out and see if we could find some dry roads. My daughter, Emlem, was keen to come for a ride and Heffy's wife Krittie was as well, so with lunch on the agenda we were off to who knows for lunch. We headed meandered up to Cessnock and took a scenic route through the vineyards and found ourselves on Milbrodale Road inching towards the infamous Putty Road.
I had recently read on some forums, and I believe in an edition of Road Rider Magazine that a cafe had opened up last year to cater for the motorcycle traffic on the road and replace the burnt to the ground Halfway House. My reading suggested that the Halfway House was in some state of openness through the efforts of a local artist who specialises in metallic sculptures. So the question was put to the others immediately prior to turning south on the putty and food hunting we went.
Because of the time of day we'd decided to ride past the halfway house and head straight to lunch. My reading said it was a few k's south and after 10 or so and passing a welcome sign for the Cafe I thought we'd ridden by it so we turned back, didn't see it and stopped at the Halfway House. There was an amazing stainless steel sculpture called Wo-man in front of the destroyed building and a guy standing in front of a BBQ made of a beer keg offering bacon and egg rolls and cool drinks from an esky. On the grounds there were quite a few metal sculptures worthy of some examination so we grabbed a drink, got onto the iPhone and discovered we hadn't gone far enough south (20ks) to reach the cafe. After quenching the thirst we took off south again along familiar road, past the familiar but misleading welcome sign and found the Cafe which was very obvious.
A lunch of various burgers and some very reasonable coffee (unlike the coffee served up the road at Colo Heights) was eaten eagerly and one of the staff served us up a freshly baked muffin to try, purportedly a new recipe. It was great!
Lunch over it was time to head towards home an we took the same route. We stopped for a while at Hunter Valley Gardens for a coffee and snack at Bliss Coffee Roasters and the girls, sorry, I meant ladies, went hurriedly to the British Lolly Shop. Caffeined up we were soon on our way home and grateful we managed to stay dry the whole day despite the ever present clouds above us and showers visible in the distance.
