Le tour de Tweed

It's about time someone slaughtered some dial-up Internet connections. That someone is me. Yesterday's ride turned on yet another beautiful day for what is probably the 20th century I've ridden this year. I'll have to confirm that later. This is always a good way to start a ride.



There was too much haze around in the early stages for the mountain scenery at Tomewin to live up to it's usual standard. Now it was time to pay attention to the rockpools, waterfalls, wildflowers and forests.











On the way home I took a detour along a dirt road called Richards Deviation. I think the name of that road is as much a part of the attraction as the scenery it passes through. It also added a couple of kilometres of distance, and a few more hills -- including the return to Murwillumbah over the old Pacific Highway. I may have paid for that a little as I tired a bit on the final climb at Bilambil, but it was worth the effort. In fact, it makes me wonder why I don't always return that way.

The final tally of the day was 171km, with about 1,870 metres of climbing. Not the hardest ride of the year, but a very rewarding way to spend a Sunday nonetheless. The only real downside was coming home to the sounds of another domestic dispute among one of my neighbours. That doesn't provide a lot of incentive to remain in my garage and do my post ride stretches. Maybe I should have just stayed out and kept riding.

Cool Blue Borage

A drop of water on a borage flower.

Behind in my "work"

Whew, I have gotten a bit behind in posting my photos. I think I have a good reason - been spending a LOT of time creating and updating the new T.H.O.R. (Trails Have Our Respect) web site. www.trailshaveourrespect.org Still lots to do on it, but I think we are getting what want -- and lots more information on the web site.
I have been getting out to ride - keeps my sanity and keeps the weight down. Not lots of miles - a lot of mountain biking. Rode 53 miles on pavement and 28 in singletrack - guess that really isn't too bad for 1 week.
Missed our Sunday Morning Tour de Bluffs - was riding at Swanson before the race. Took another 200 photos at the race. Demo'd a Trek FuelX8 mountain bike. That is a ride I could get used to!
Started processing the Ponca pics. Will get to the others one of these days. I had to do something different on the computer - played some of my "Railroads!" game.
Oh, yeh - the picture was on our Friday Night Mountain Bike ride at Lake Manawa.

Mana-Swamp

Brought the hardtail to ride yesterday. Plan was to ride the Wabash Trace. Stopped at the bike shop and the word was the Trace was soft/muddy. On to "Plan B".
Over the weekend, heard the Missouri River was flooding around Omaha. Headed over to Lake Manawa on the bike. Rough riding into the wind on the Mosquito Creek levee. When I got over to the river access road, I found it was barricaded. When I rode over to the river levee, I saw why. The road and trails are flooded.

Deep water at the entrance from the road to the west side.

Rode on the levee to the east side. Here's the view of No Second Cnance junction with East Sidewinder.

Most of East Sidewinder is under water.

Riding over the the West side, Woodchopper is under water.

Walked down to the Woodchopper turn area. Here's a trail view.

The trails are going to need to work once the water recedes. More photos on Facebook and will be posted on the THOR web site.

Prayer's Power Unleashed

If we read this every day before praying, I believe our prayers would be different.

Winter Morning

Winter Morning, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Dew in the winter morning sun in Alamo, California. There are certain mornings that just seem to be prone to this kind of photography, and this time of the year is filled with those mornings.

Back in business

Sunday's ride was memorable for several reasons. The flood conditions, the stunning scenery, the downpour that cooled me as I was riding over the last climb of the day, the fact that it was the first 200km day I've managed since October (a statistic I wasn't proud of), but most of all, it was just good to be back on the bike riding long distances again. I've missed it, the physical challenge, the psychological battle of both planning the ride and staying motivated to complete it, and the treat to the senses that comes from the changes in scenery over the course of 207km.

I stared by heading south along the now customary route via Urliup to Murwillumbah. That dirt road is one of the great survivors at a time when every other road in the vicinity has been sealed, yet it was almost washed away by the previous day's downpour, although the flood waters had receded considerably since the rain ceased -- this time the road was only submerged in two places. South of Murwillumbah I headed over the relentless hills toward Burringbar, where the wisdom of my route choice became apparent.

I was headed for Mullumbimby to ride a loop of the Coolomon Scenic Drive, terrain I hadn't covered in almost nine months. I passed more floodwaters along the way, before the long climb out of Mullum, which was greeted with sweeping views over Cape Byron and surrounds. There was a sadder aspect of the ride. True Wheel Cycles, the iconic little bike shop in Mullumbimby appears to have closed it's doors and cleared it's shelves. It was here that last year I found a touring bike that I wanted to buy, it was also here that I obtained some valuable information about rides in the Byron Hinterland. I'd like to think they've merely relocated, but I'm not sure.


I really started to hit the wall at the top of the Coolomon ridge, probably a result of going too fast early in the ride. Either way, I had to seriously ease back the pace for the return to Mullumbimby and the ride home, including the climb over Mt Jerusalem National Park on dirt roads. I actually started to recover a little, but the main obstacle here was the fact that the road between Mullumbimby and Uki was flooded in EIGHT places.

I negotiated the flooding, and continued on my way. Actually, the climb into the National Park once I hit the dirt wasn't terribly cut up. However, the ride across the ridge and the descent on the other side more than made up for that. I was actually here a couple of weeks ago for a weekend "tour" in the rain, but this downpour appears to have absolutely overpowered what happened that weekend. On the other hand, the fact that the sun was actually shining on this day gave it a much different perspective.


After Uki it was a simple 55km ride home -- simple if I could negotiate the final climb of Tomewin. It was actually made slightly more complicated in another respect. The wind, which had been from the South all day, decided to blow from the North for the next 20km, meaning I would be against it for the balance of the ride home. This could have been a problem, but on this occasion, it had a reason. Just as I started to climb the 11% section of Tomewin, the heavens opened up and provided a stunning downpour. All of a sudden my concerns about the heat were washed away as clouds and rainbows came out to play.

One particular rainbow came out on the mountain and stayed with me all the way back to the suburb of Palm Beach in the urban area. By the time I was back in suburbia, the wind was blowing from the South again, so I managed to mop up the last few kilometres relatively quickly. This had been a long day by the time I got home, but it was worth it. After the last couple of weeks, it was a fitting day to return to form, and the downpour at the end capped off a remarkable day. The hardest part now is going to be trying to pick from the many places I have to ride.

Dismantled & Ready to be Shipped to America..

This was the first fireplace to be dismantled and removed from the castle.

Just click on a photograph if you'd like to enlarge it, you'll see much more detail.

Way back in 1911 Tattershall Castle had fallen into disrepair, and was unloved and unwanted.... few people had heard of Lincolnshire, never mind Tattershall.

The owner had no interest in it, the buildings and land were to be sold.

This beautiful room is the Audience Chamber, on the second floor

A meeting of the Council of the National Trust was convened, but decided against purchasing the castle, despite being offered an interest free loan to do so!

Instead it was purchased by anAmerican millionaire, who planned to have the wholecastle dismantledand shipped, brick by brick, to the U.S.

When news of this was made public there was a huge outcry, especially when it became known that the huge and handsome stone fireplaces were being dismantled and taken away from the castle, in pieces. Bricks were smashed, chimneys dismantled, rubble lay all around.

Luckily Lord Curzon (Viceroy of India) was able to purchase the building and he set about trying to track down the missing fireplaces.

He had all the ports watched so that they could not be taken out of the country. Eventually he was contacted by a dealer, acting as the middleman for the people who now owned the fireplaces.

Image borrowed from tattershallwiththorpe, many thanks

Image borrowed from tattershallwiththorpe, many thanks

To cut a long story short, a deal was struck and they were returned at a cost of £5,155.00. This was in May 1912. The two black and white photographs show the triumphant return of the fireplaces.



The dismantled fireplaces would have been taken down this beautiful staircase.

Going up the spiral staircase doesn't seem so bad, coming down is a little trickier - especially given that it is two-way traffic...

There are approximately 150 steps from the basement to the battlements.



This photograph may give you some idea of the scale of the fireplaces and the vastness of the 'chambers'. Each floor has one large chamber with a few very small ante-rooms leading off.





It is a very simple building with lots of beautiful detailing, both inside and out. The walls have never been plastered or painted. The principle rooms were hung with huge tapestries like this one. Everything was on a grand scale.



Even corridors had beautiful ceilings.

Here we are at the top of the building, a beautiful open air space. Climb another few stairs and you are rewarded with amazing views of the countryside - see my previous post.

On a clear day you can see all the way to Boston - in Lincolnshire, of course!

Experimentation

Last Saturday I made a spur-of-the moment decision to string a couple of "normal" rides together in northern NSW, culminating in a reverse ride around the old Tweed Valley Circuit. I was hoping this would give me a 200km day. Before I had finished 5, I had realised my camera was still sitting at home. Oh well, it was too late to go and get it now.
The route I had decided on encompassed the climb over Reserve Creek road, followed by Cudgera Creek into Burringbar, before doubling back to Burringbar and Stokers Siding to link up with the old Tweed Valley circuit in reverse. It's nice to note that March is upon us, meaning that the heat waits a little longer to become unbearable each day, and I was able to mop up the first 80km to Burringbar without sweating to death. It was after climbing over the Burringbar range, and cutting through Stokers Siding toward Uki that the ride would get interesting.
First of all, the climb up that side of the valley was actually more difficult than I had anticipated. Not mind-buggeringly difficult in the Porters Pass vein, but just quite a bit longer than I'd thought. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, however, as it involves passing through the prettiest section of the route at a slightly slower pace. There was also a decent volume of shade around, which is crucial in this climate. I crested the summit somewhere near Mebbin National Park, and commenced the long, gradual descent toward Tyalgum. It was here I realised that I had been doing this ride in the wrong direction all along, the views on the way back were stunning.
Tyalgum seemed to be quite a bit warmer than everywhere else in the Tweed Valley, and one of the locals confirmed that this seems to be the norm out here. Just when I was beginning to like the place! As it was, I was glad to get out of there today, and commence the two climbs before the descent all the way back to Chillingham. All that was left now as a climb over Tomewin and to coast home. Unfortunately, a few wind gusts in the canefields around Murwillumbah wanted to delay things a little, I had to push through at a measly 21km/h, and had no momentum for the climb.
Yet once I started the climb, everything seemed to feel good again. I guess there's nothing like winching up a long climb to recharge one's energy. The final ride home through suburbia was then mopped up without anything remarkable happening. In the end I was extremely satisfied with the day's ride, even if the final tally of 195km fell a little short of the distance goal. There will be plenty more riding where that came from in coming weekends.