Snapshot:
Separate starts from Nth Turra' shops or Hornsby to 1st Nosh Stop at Pie in the Sky.  Thence 8km Sth, then West to Berowra Waters and Nth Galston for lunch at Grumpy's Andy's cafe.  Return via Galston Gorge and Bobbin Head.
SagStops:
1st      Kalkari Reserve                        8 min

2nd     Berowra Waters punt              10 min

3rd      Hornsby Heights' bus shelter    5 min

NoshStops:

1st      Pie in the Sky                       -   10:05am   30 min

2nd    Grumpy's Andy's Cafe, Nth Galston   -  11:55am   30 min

KOM climbs:
1st climb:      50m past Bobbin Head bridge, "60km Max Speed" sign, to Kalkari Reserve sign - 3.25km

2nd climb:     Brooklyn Rd large aluminium light poll to 20m before Pie in the Sky entrance - 3.85km

3rd climb:      150m West of Berowra Waters punt to Koppers Log Berrilee - 3.40km

4th climb:      cement Bridge at Galston Gorge to 50m before Bus Shelter -  3.4km

5th climb:      "60km Max Speed" sign 15m after Old Stone Toilet Block SE side of Bobbin Head bridge to "60km Max Speed" sign 50m before Toll Booth at Nth Turra entrance -  3.95km

Yamaha again did a sterling job fast-tracking Sean aka Smurf's  tandem cycling learning-curve.  In the 4 weeks since Sean asked Scribe if he could join Muggaccinos rides, one day of each of Sean's four subsequent w'ends have gone like this:
 

1st w'end - Sat:    Riding with Bank Teller in Sean's neighbourhood on an old borrowed tandem which would double as a ship's anchor.  Lucky Sean didn't know that Scribe knew nothing about tandem cycling when Sean trustingly rode with Scribe around the backblocks of Mt Colah.

2nd w'end - Sat:   Two doyens of tandem cycling, Mathew and Linda, met Sean and Scribe at Lane Cove Park where Sean rode 36km on their "Christie" tandem.

3rd w'end - Sun:    Yamaha was his Captain for 65km to Warriewood Beach, where Smurf was stoked that they clocked 62km p/h in the short downhill coming out of West Head. 

4th w'end - Sun (today) Sean was Yamaha's "Stoker" for 77km finishing at Galston Park and easily beating-off a charge from Scribe up Mid-Dural Rd.

Last Wed, Scribe presented a 9 page two-pronged business strategy to Royal Blind Society to enable lots of blind adults to ride tandems with the 100+ recreational cycling groups across Australia.  Tandem cycling offers unique opportunities for adults with vision impairment to not only enjoy an aerobic workout, but also soak-up the "therapeutic" benefits which most of us take for granted. 
QUESTION:  What therapeutic benefits you might ponder?
ANSWER:    Allowing all the bar-humbug stuff that some of us experience M-F to slip to the back-burner, whilst you concentrate on beating your mates up the forthcoming hill, whereupon you enjoy wallowing in the grandeur of having done so at the cafe at the top of the climb or took solace in the realisation that there will always be another time.

Phil's strategy entails -
(i)    one of the three importers of tandem bikes (Trek, Apollo, Cannondale) to materially discount tandem bikes for purchases for blind adults, and 
(ii)   Royal Blind Society provides a tax deductible receipt for donations by other cyclists twds the cost of a tandem bike purchased by a blind adult.  This entails 100 cents in each donation dollar going to the disabled person.

Sean is over the moon to progress from riding at a snail's pace with Scribe 4 weeks ago to peeling-off 77km today with Yamaha, where Pete extolled Sean to burn his quads in a successful counter-attach against Bank Teller's spirited, yet forlorn, "charge" up Mid Dural Rd.  Sean wants to buy his own bike pronto.   7 regular crew, incl Samurai, Scribe, Yamaha, Heineken, Bazza, LongHaul, have agreed to share the Captain duties on a rotational basis. 

Scribe wants to fully integrate Sean into Muggs 100km Sunday rides pronto, and chronicle the timeline in a journal article, thereby establishing a template for other recreational bicycle groups to similarly "Adopt a blind person".

So Scribe will be seeking Royal Blind Society to opine on the robustness of Scribe's above-mentioned business strategy this week, because "time is of the essence". 

Twas a corker of a late autumn day.  Numbers
are down with Samurai inter-state, Heineken in
Europe, Frank aka ExPat "bikeless" having his
two bikes stolen from a padlocked cage in his
garage, Publican trying orthotics to overcome
a niggling back twinge and Kaza working and
training for endurance rides.
 

Grant aka BeanCounter, joined us today
just after the climb from Cattai Creek.