31 miles off road but not over the Moors, Riverside trails and old railways, great riding though, perfect mtb territory, the rain has made the trails grippy but still dry. Alas, only one pic....
Typical bank holiday Monday over here yesterday, coast absolutely mobbed out so I didn’t get far, just too busy, this pic below taken at a place called Clontarf. Never heard of these…” Dagwood dogs” some kind of processed junk food hot dogs?? The whole stall just sold junk fat and sugar and the locals just couldn’t get enough of it, huge queues and they were shuffling their way across the grass like the “ Whitewalkers” from G.O.T. to get there Took some believing so I had to stop and take a piccie of it Today’s ride, 62 miler up to Newport, absolutely beautiful day and temperature for it, about 25c The Cannondale has a lie down,..wish I smoked so I could have a fag break This whole area is just gorgeous, people are just so lucky to live here.. On the way back now, I took a picture of HMQS Gayundah.. This ship was built in Newcastle upon Tyne , not a million miles away from where I live back home Now my normal modus operandi is to hurtle up on the outward leg as fast as I can, and then dawdle back, so I thought I’d take the slower route back through the boondall wetlands, bike track winds it’s way through here.. Another snake ! Not as big as the 6 foot python the other week, but it was about 4 or 5 foot long and just looked like a mean S.O.B. so I kept well back from it.. It was in no hurry to move, I think they get warm from the footpath, so I started tapping my cleats on the path and the noise made it move along a bit.. Now the path is about 9 feet wide, so this fellas about 4 or 5 feet, a red bellied black snake as I found out later talking to a local, it would still give you a venomous bite as I found out when I googled it, worth just reading the bit about it’s toxins and venom.. https://australian.museum/learn/animals/reptiles/red-bellied-black-snake/ Enjoyed the ride today when you see things like this
Great pictures again, good call dodging the roo/road kill dawg! I spent a few months sailing that part of the east coast approx 15 years ago, Southport rings a bell. Looks like you're having a good time...I personally didn't like Australia and wouldn't go back.
A quick ride to Nudgee beach and a couple of lessons re learned ? Firstly I converted my old hard tail into the grandkids trailer pulling bike, this is better suited for it as the knobblies on the full suss were being eaten rapidly on the tarmac, this is all I needed to do to it … Add the stubby thing that’s the trailer hooks onto a few showers forecast today, so I thought I’d take this for a shakedown ride .. Nice boardwalk around Nudgee beach.. About a 26 mile round trip, and heading on the way back,…..Lesson number 1 Riding along the bikeway, a few bikes heading home from work and this old geezer….. about my age actually , comes past me on a Trek road bike, buzzed me, missing me by inches,..like wtf??.. fair enough, then after about five minutes I thought ….“ he’s actually not going much faster than me ?” so I closed the gap and he turned off the bike path heading the same way as I was going,….a climb through the park , about 700 yards at maybe 8% gradient,..that was all I needed magnets on and I reeled him in and took great delight in passing him on the climb, knobbly tyres squirming away under the effort Lesson number 1, as I have found out many times to my shame before,…..don’t pass somebody unless you’re sure you can make it stick, nothing worse than being re-overtaken by the guy you’ve just passed. Which brings me onto…Lesson number 2 About a mile after this had happened and while still feeling pleased about my climb out of the park on my old mtb , I was pretty near to home and heading downhill, I cut over the pavement to join another bike path, it was bin day here yesterday and someone still hadn’t brought their wheelie bin in, so I had to cut around it on the pavement,…no problem, …spacial awareness, velocity, trajectory, all the calculations we make in our heads in split seconds when we ride any bikes, seemed to work fine as I missed the bin and then….Bang ! Somehow, I’d missed the main body of the bin no problem, but either not seen, or not factored into the equation the bleedin handle on the back of it, I didn’t half clout the old knuckles on it as I shot past, and today of all days, I wasn’t wearing my gloves, now why was that ?? Thankfully it didn’t bring me off the bike, just turned the air around me a bit blue ! Lesson number 2,…..pride comes before a fall I think you always get something out of every ride, this one turned into a bit of a philosophy lesson
I get that completely,.. I have a lot of mates who have visited Aus and for whatever reason just don’t click with it. It’s a fantastic country but it can be a brutal place to live, when we were here in 2020 just before all this covid hit us Australia was having some of the worst droughts and fires they have ever had, was heartbreaking watching on TV how many animals had died and how many people had lost homes etc. This year, more epic weather but it was floods this time, I’ve never seen rain like it, monsoon style downpours for six solid days and nights, when it’s bad over here, it’s really bad. But I find the Aussies themselves are absolutely great people, fiercely patriotic, resourceful, great community spirit, I don’t know if I’ve just been lucky but I’ve never met a wrong un yet? As much as I love the place, I’m too old to up sticks and move over here, but I can say that the place has been absolutely brilliant for my daughter.
I can see the attraction weather wise, apart from the extremes. However, I really didn't like the people I met. Could have been it was just after the rugby world cup and the hatred toward 'poms' was at an all time high...
Them there cycle tourists rack up astronomical mileage, there aren’t many of them but what they lack in numbers they more than compensate in mileage. Sturdy fellows to a man, woman or whatever pigeonhole an individual what to placed in. Trying to get a bicycle on a train is a whole world of pain……….
you would think they would realise there's a possible opening here (npi) - even if we had to fit in with them timetable wise, I would certainly like to hop on a train with a bicycle that takes me 50-100 miles away if it was easier.
My understanding is you are required to book a bicycle on a train and they only have something like 4 to a carriage or whole train. I’m not 100% certain I just recall it’s a right faff especially if the staff are awkward. Have a link https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations_destinations/PlusBike.aspx
