It's not far

Sometimes I don't have to go far from home to stir things up and discover some worthwhile riding experiences. So it proved on the weekend. Saturday was a short, early ride into Tallebudgera Valley, with the intention of escaping the blistering heat. That failed of course, but it was still a rewarding ride. The recent rain did provide some relief in the form of an overflowing creek that had to be crossed. Hitting some cool water all of a sudden is an extremely refreshing experience.


I did manage one detour for the sake of a little extra climbing. The name "Petsch Creek Road" should inspire visions of a ride through a forest along a creek bed. The reality is an 18% climb to a place where Tallebudgera Falls are probably flowing again behind some newly planted trees. Still, the views over the valley are worth the effort, even if the falls can't be seen anymore.

And so on to Sunday, and this time I joined my old riding partner Martin for a fairly routine ride to the hamlet of Duranbah, on the Condong Range, basically to see what was there. The promised rain never quite eventuated (somehow we missed it for the entire day), but there were other charms, particularly the early morning light on the South Pacific Ocean. The ride opened with the obligatory ride through the forests of Urliup, and some relief from the heat prior to the arrival of the forecast southerly change.


The change in weather arrived as we crested the Condong Range at Farrants Hill, before a delightful ride across to Duranbah. In the nature reserve there are some old fire roads which, while rough, may provide some interesting riding experiences in the future. Even though I was riding The Black Magic on it's biggest outing in over two years, time constraints prevented a full exploration of the area. The most likely destination of these tracks is Cabarita Beach or the area immediately north of it. We ended up catching a ride home on a southerly wind, with time to speculate on just where they might lead. One day...

Didn't feel like it

Yesterday just seemed second-rate in so many ways. I'm guessing it's probably a function of the seemingly endless summer -- almost six months in and another three weeks (at least) to endure. I got up feeling lethargic, and decided to ride anyway. I'd been planning a ride in the Tweed Valley, but just didn't feel like it. I decided to head west and hopefully escape the coastal humidity. For once it didn't work.
Near Canungra I decided on a climb of Mt Tamborine, only to find the last kilometre of the road was closed for some construction work was started over six months ago. After that I decided to hell with trying to find anywhere else to ride. I had just had enough of the heat, enough of trying to find water every 40km, enough of dealing with Queensland's notoriously aggressive drivers. I just wanted out. I spent most of the afternoon surfing the Internet in front of a fan and wishing I could cool down somehow.
Some cycle-therapy on the commute today seems to have settled things down a little. Lane-splitting at 40km/h tends to do that. The ride home was an interesting one. In typical Chris L fasion it involved me having to detour to a surgery to have two stitches removed after an operation 10 days ago, then detour again to buy some groceries. Of course I walked into the store like a lycra-clad superman, and ended up being asked about various cycling clubs by an attendant who had just taken up road cycling. I did throw in a mention of Audax of course, but I think she was looking for something a little easier to start with. It's amazing who you meet when dressed like superman.

Erupting Aurora over Devil Fish Lake

This was the first "good" shot that I made of the Aurora on July 15, . This moment occurred at just after midnight after we had already been watching the sky for about two hours. My friends were starting to think that maybe we weren't going to see a sky full of active lights that night, they thought that maybe a faint glow was all we were going to get. I told them to be patient, it's not even midnight yet. Sure enough, just after midnight the sky erupted with lights. Once you've seen how quickly the aurora can erupt and fill the sky, it's a vision that never leaves your mind. It is a phenomena that makes you feel both insignificant in the universe and grand all at the same time. On the one hand you feel incredibly tiny, realizing that the source of these lights came all the way from the sun. On the other hand, when the lights are this active they seem so low in the sky that you can almost touch them... in a way almost touching the sun itself. Any way you look at it or ponder it, it certainly is one of nature's most breathtaking sights!

Mt Nimmel and the nine-year itch

"Nimmel" is an aboriginal word meaning "Conspicuous mountain". It's actually ironic that Mt Nimmel should have ended up with such a name. For one thing, at a mere 489 metres in height, it's quite a bit smaller than the surrounding peaks of Springbrook, The Cougals, Mt Gannon, Mt Tallebudgera etc. In my case, I've only managed to get around to riding up it after climbing any number of other mountains in any number of other parts of the country (and in New Zealand for that matter).
It truth, I did attempt this mountain nine years ago, and failed dismally. I later found out that mechanical problems on my bike that day inhibited me considerably. I would discover today that the early kick which beat me in 1998 is actually the hardest part of the entire climb. Shortly after this early kick, the gradients levelled out a little as they often do. This time it settled into a pattern of short, steep ups and downs, each gradually gaining in height. The views were telling their own story.

I watched a line of cloud moving across from the coast, and wondered if I'd be caught in the rain on the descent. As it was, the climb was too pretty to worry about those things. After a consistent grind through some eucalypt forest, the vegetation opened up as the gradient got steeper for the final assault. I then realised that I'd managed to hit a patch of greenery that I had thought was actually on Springbrook when looking at the mountains from the coast.

Some short steep sections followed, but the summit was something of an anti-climax in the end. I reached it, and the end of the road before turning around and descending quickly. There is some debate about the pros and cons of whether or not cyclists should wear underwear. All I'll say is that some brown underpants have a use of their own on this descent.

I found a dirt track, leading off to the East before I reached the bottom. I was tempted to follow it, thinking it might be the "missing link" between Mt Nimmel and Austinville that I've read about on some maps (but not others). It's ironic that I chose not to follow it on this day, because I ended up detouring to Austinville later anyway. I felt I needed some extra kilometres, and the rainforest at Austinville would provide the ideal setting.


My thighs had some arguments on the dirt sections, but that didn't really last long. I coasted home fairly easily after this, wondering if there were any more riding possibilities in this area. The possibility of a back track linking Mt Nimmel and Austinville is an interesting one. It's something I'll have to explore further on the next opportunity, which could be at least a month away.

Honeybee on a Coneflower

A honeybee pollinates a white coneflower in front of the Bouchon Restaurant in Yountville, California.

Rapid response

When the roads in the city centre are choked with Festival and Fringe traffic, and some streets closed to cars completely, the ambulance service still needs to get through. Obviously there's no hospital transport provided by this part of it.
Having seem some of the acrobatic, contortionist, flame-throwing and just downright enthusiastic Fringe street acts, I wonder how much of the business was dealing with injured performers.

I hope to resume normal blogging service soon. So many things have combined to create that TBTB (Too Busy To Blog) syndrome.

We're Here!

This manor house is at Powhatan Plantation resort in Williamsburg, Virginia.  This is the third time we've stayed here.  Once when the children were young, once last year, and now this year.  It's a great place.  It has this authentic house build in 1734 with gardens to meander in.  There's also several pools and plenty of places to walk.  
Inside the house is a harpsichord that I've played on every time we've been here.  All the children did too.  They also got a lecture on how a harpsichord works and how it's different from a piano.  The learning never stops; even on vacation! 
This morning we took a tour of the gardens.  It was really cold.  The two older children went with me.  We learned about the history of the plantation and the gardens.  The two most interesting things was the cannonball stuck in the side of the chimney from a Yankee cannonball and the signatures etched into the brick facade of the house.   The guide said that various owners and visitors would sign the house; it was the colonial form of a guestbook. 
More to come as it happens.  Tomorrow we head to Tennessee.  Ciao!  Or I guess I should say "Fare Thee well".