EFFiN’ C V

By Duncan Bennett, Member #4171

November’s Effin’ C (Fish & Chips) 2020 was ride No.5 of the series, which puts it past Toy Story, sorry for that Tom Hanks. Look out Fast & Furious, we are coming for you.

Gearing up for the off in Cassimaty Park

As per tradition, the Effin’ C V was an afternoon affair as oysters and potato scallops may be attractive as morning tea for some, but most prefer evening. 2:30 for 3:00pm at Cassimaty Park in Ferny Grove, with the temptation of illegal crossings of the median strip, U-turns, and entry to the car park via the exit withstood by most. As Einstein theorised, time shortens before a BMWMCQ ride and although we arrived at 2:15pm, we were only able to admire everyone’s bikes and farkles for 3½ minutes before it was time to go. The briefing droned on about ride minutia, unfortunately missing the only important thing which was to alert the first corner marker about where to mark the corner into Bygotts Road. The important details neglected, we headed toward Samford and turned right up Bygotts Road, apologies to Rosi who managed the corner marshalling well in spite of the Ride Leader’s inadequacy. If you have never powered up Bygotts Road over your life journey it is highly recommended unless you have a luncheon in Samford as you are going to bypass that. It quickly becomes Mailmans Track, and on our reconnoitre ride this name caused us major concern. It is hard for we young people to realise that there was no

Purple Tree rhymes with Mt Mee

such thing as email in the olden days, and unbelievably mail was actually written or typed on bits of paper and placed inside packaging or other bits of paper (reference; Wikipedia). Postmen and mailmen in the olden days loved the shortest distance between point A (a Post Office) and point B (a different Post Office), so roads like Postman’s Track near Maleny, The Suicide near Witta, and any number of Goat Tracks were the result (mail was often carried in mesh bags slung between trained goats – reference; StuffIMadeUp.com). Luckily Mailmans Track is now a classic in prime bitumen.

Campbells Pocket Road

Onto Bunya Road, we pushed through to Eatons Crossing Road and over the top of Clear Mountain – as always free of traffic so loaded with fun. Right on to Winn Road and around Lake Samsonvale, once again ignoring the GPS’ call to take a short-cut over the dam wall – well most of us did. The slightly tedious Dayboro Road negotiated, we pulled into Dayboro for the well-deserved break. An upgrade to the Effin’ C tradition is the catering, with Cindy baking some custard shortbread biscuits and dishing out bottles of water – not enough time for people to wander off to get coffees with the strict timetable. As French Theologian and Poet Alain de Lille

said in 1175: All roads lead to Mt Mee, so no prizes for guessing where we went next. But, we turned down Campbells Pocket Road just to mix it up a bit. Not sure whether we’ve become better riders or they’ve done Campbells Pocket Road up, but it seems a lot better since our first nervous trundle down many years ago grabbing at the brakes like they were the last pack of toilet paper on the shelf at Coles during COVID. Onto West Lindsay Road and through the winding Caboolture River bits to one of our all-time favourites – Haywood Road which goes smack bang through a cow paddock along Burpengary Creek.

A corner marking master class

The transition then begins – the smell of fish and chips grew ever stronger as we crossed over the mighty river of cars on the M1 onto “D Bay” Road and Anzac Avenue. The corner marking was done to perfection as we motored to the Scarborough esplanade, only running out of markers on the very last corner before journey’s end at Morgan’s Seafood. A reasonable crowd had already gathered and many toasts were made with calamari rings, potato scallops, fizzy drinks and the inevitable Effin’ C. Many thanks to those who joined us, we are already looking forward to Effin’ C VI. Who knows which bayside ‘burb will be blessed by the BMWMCQ next year?