Mt Warning and melting bitumen

Woke up this morning at about 0500, to the usual fierce sunshine scorchy morning that non-daylight saving summer Queensland loves to dish up.  The weather forecast  claimed it was going to be mid-30s, so I decided the best option was to chuck the bike in the car, and head south into New South Wales for a day ride.  The non-stop bogan parade that is Brisbane summer has been getting me down a bit lately, plus I've been wanting to try out a bit more riding / touring solo - heading to the northern NSW town of Uki seemed like perfect destination to scratch my riding and anti-social itches.

A couple of hours in the car and soon I was there, in the sleepy little town of Uki, near the headwaters of the Tweed River.  The car was parked and unloaded, I looked at my map to get a vague idea of a loop for a few hours, and away I went.

I'm a little unsure of how to do the whole "photograph a solo ride" thing, so I mostly fell back on the old favourite of leaning the bike on things.

The main street of Uki.  A pub, a small supermarket, a couple of artisty gallery type places, and a shop that DEFINITELY DOESN'T specialise in herbal remedies of the non-taxed kind.

First order of business was to ride up the main road 10km towards the main local town of Murwillumbah.  Traffic in this area is quiet and polite at the best of times, today it was particularly so due to a traffic police blitz between the two towns involving numerous marked and unmarked patrol cars.  I tried to get a high-five from one of the cops as I rode past - he left me hangin'!

 I'm not sure what the full story is around here, but I saw lots of signs all day protesting coal seam gas exploration (aka fracking).  From all accounts it's pretty damaging to people's health and the environment, so I was personally pretty stoked to see people making a stand against the big corporations.

Bridge over the Tweed River.  This waterway was to be my companion for much of the day, in one form or another.

 Riding out onto the remains of the old bridge.

Volcanic heat

By the time I turned off the main drag, onto the small back road leading to Tyalgum, it was getting very, very warm.  By my reckoning it was already well over 35 celcius.  Heading towards the hills it felt like I had 2 flat tyres, and my tread was making a huge amount of noise.  I stopped for an inspection, and it was so hot out there that the tar on the road was melting, and the road base was coming away in chunks that were sticking to my tyres.  I've experienced that a couple of times riding motorbikes in the tropics, but on a bicycle this was an entirely new thing for me.  Wasn't a massive amount of fun, felt a bit like I was riding through molasses - getting anywhere was slow going and a lot of effort.  Still, I was getting into the swing of being out on the bike by now, and the fact that I seemed to be pretty much the only person idiotic enough to be outdoors in the heat was a big plus.

The pointy bit is the volcanic plug of Mt Warning.  I could see i from most of my ride today.  It's apparently the first point of the Australian mainland to see the rising sun each day.

Solutide on an empty country road heading to Tyalgum, albeit a slightly melting road.

The ride started off flat, but as I headed closer to Mt Warning and further into the valley, everything slowly became more winding and undulating.

This is someone's private driveway over the river - 2 long bits of track, one for each wheel.  Imagine driving over that each day - pretty hardcore the first time I reckon!

For a while muddling along the melting road became even more taxing.  Looking back at Mt Warning I could see it was because I'd been slowly gaining elevation for the past few kilometres.

It was about midday by now, and getting scorching hot.  I stopped in under this shelter shed to change my map sheet over as I approached town.  It was even hotter in there than out in the full sun.

I arrived at Tyalgum much earlier than I expected.  I'd never been there before.

The heart of the caldera

As the sign suggests, this town and area whole area was once basically the middle bit of a volcano.  Now I'm not one prone to exaggeration or hyperbole, so I'm 100% sure the conditions today were EXACTLY like when the volcano was erupting IN EVERY WAY.  It was hot, like magma (ie runny volcano juice).  I stopped and chatted to a council worker who informed me it was 39 celcius.  Certainly felt like it.  He also informed me that the foresty road that the forestry road around the edge of the crater was closed, and I'd have to go a different way back to Uki, a way that involved about 200m less elevation gain.  This was perfect for me - I got to pike out of something difficult but still feel good about myself as the excuse was rock solid.

In Tyalgum I surveyed the main street, and stopped at the shop for a fizzy drink to regroup before my attack over the back of Mt Warning, back to Uki.  I was sitting there chilling out and some French hippie looking guy came over and sat with me and tried to strike up a conversation.  He was a nice enough guy, but I really didn't have much to say.  I think he was a bit confused that I was happy to sit there with him in silence.  I finished my drink, and pedalled off in the now blazing midday sun, towards the locality of Bray Creek. 

The main street of Tyalgum.  Pretty quiet on a Monday - a very lovely out of the way little spot.

French dude with the blue pants sitting on the step.

I'm guessing this is the end of town where it all happens - the pub end.

The conditions are an unfit cyclist on an atomically hot day who stupidly didn't have any lunch in the last town.

Heading south from Tyalgum on pleasant empty roads, a few tree lined avenues offering a little shade.

 Had a funny feeling riding along here, like I'd been here before in a dream.

I can confirm that sign is acccurate.

Over the top

The road became progressively more undulating, eventually becoming a series of sharp ups and downs.  I was tiring fast, and my water had become too hot to drink quickly.  I arrived at the base of a climb that would take me up and over the "back" section of Mt Warning, where few people go.  On this day I was the only one there, for the next hour or so of climbing in the dirt I didn't see another soul, and indeed didn't see another car until getting back to the main road almost 20km later.  The isolation was both exciting and terrifying - I had that vaguely uneasy feeling that I'd bitten off a bit more than I could chew.

 At the base of the climb, the dirt begins.

The road flattens out along a ridge for a little way, still nowhere near the top.  The surface for the most part was smooth, although care had to be taken on the approached to corners, pushed up into jarring corrugations by local rally-driving enthusiasts.

I estimate the grade up was about 10%.  It just kept going and going.  In thick rainforest, but with no escape from the sun.

Very nearly at the top of the climb.  Condowie Rd is where I would have ended up had I gone the steeper, more remote way.  I was pleased that I hadn't.  I sat down for a bit to get myself composed for 10 minutes or so before continuing in the heat.

Trying to wipe the sweat out of my eyes before the self-timer went off.  I failed.  Or I possibly could have been weeping foreseeing my own death from heat exhaustion.  Either or.

 

Beginning the descent I was relieved to see a sign that I was on the right track.

Hairpin on the way down.  My steering stem bearing were destroyed before I started the ride.  They were well and truly munted by the time I finished the 10km or so of this.

 Out of the rainforest the road opened up and flattened out a little, still making its way down to the bottom of the valley.

Creek crossing as I rode into the valley.  There were a few of these - cool and majestic.

The Tweed River again.  My car was parked in Uki right next to the Tweed River, so I was at least on the right path to finish this ride.

Back on the bitumen.  I normally would have picked up the pace a bit, but the heat and melting tar were really slowing me up.  I estimated I had about 15km to go, and maybe 200ml of water remaining.  This could get interesting.

Pleasant riding along the river, far from everything.

 My final crossing of the Tweed River today.  I tried the water, it was kind of brackish and weird.  I pushed on.

Back on the highway, only 7km to go back to Uki.

I obviously utilised this facility.  Completely out of water at this point.

 I started feeling really dehydrated and very hot as I arrived at Uki.  At least the town wasn't far.

Mission accomplished

I was getting pretty past it as I rode into the edge of town.  I was really hot, and I felt dizzy and sick.  I probably only had about 400m to go back to my car, and I saw it - a tap!!!  I quickly pulled over and ripped off my helmet, filled the bidons and started tipping them down my back and front and over my head in delight, like a beautiful lady in a shampoo advertisment.  It was about that point I realised I was directly across from the pub, full of patrons who seemed pretty bemused by my actions.  I didn't care.  I drank about 2L of water and tipped the rest all over myself until I was soaked.  It certainly gave me the lift I needed to ride the few minutes up to the mobile industrial oven that my car had become.

What a beautiful tap.

 And a significant tap too!  Some kind of commemorative tap!

I was enjoying an apres-ride pie and chocolate milk when I noticed this local business.  Something I was pretty close to doing just a few minutes earlier.

In terms of what I wanted to achieve, the day was a total win.  I explored somewhere new, had a few riding challenges thrown in (you can check out the route here), got to get out of Queensland for the day, and I had a chop at a bit of adventure riding all by myself.  Maximum respect to those guys who get out there and tour solo, it seems a pretty different sort of game.  But I must admit it's a game I'm going to devote a bit of time to in 2013...

Introducing the newest member of the cycle adventure crew

This is an apologetically self-indulgent child-related blog post, so be warned - dadblog imminent...

Since my eldest daughter was about 1.5 years old, she has been right into cycle touring.  I spend a lot of time at home looking at maps and reading bike books and things, and she usually joins in saying she wants to ride here and there with me.  Every time I leave the house she's always saying "I want to come bike riding too".

One of the great things about being a parent is I can force my views of how the world works onto my children and they don't know any differently - in this instance I indoctrinated her into my belief that training wheels and / tricycles are counter productive for learning to ride a bike, and therefore have no place in a child's life.  So since a young age she's been burning around on one of those timber balance bikes, and rides one of those little alloy scooters the 3.2km round trip to kindy each day.

Now that my wrist has been fused solid and healed, I felt I finally had the stability in my hands to get her out on a little BMX (donated by Rudi, who frequently appears on this very blog) to get her pedalling around solo.  I had a burst of extra motivation from my mate Dave (who writes the MAJESTIC cycle adventure blog "A View From Above"), who I discovered had ridden the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail with his daughter.  Teaching kids to ride seems like a sweet little investment in a lifetime of getting out on cycle adventures while simultaneously looking like Father Of The Year.  Daughter was super keen too - I asked her if she wanted to learn to ride all by herself today, she said yes, and off we walked down to the local park.

Before the ride she declared "I'm going to ride my pedal bike today - don't help me!"

I live about 100m from a large park that joins onto a convoluted series of reserves that includes creeks, bushland, playgrounds, sports fields and bikeways.  We walked down there, got to the edge of a sports field, she sat on the bike and I gave her an almighty shove to get her moving.  And she just kind of did it straight away, pedalling 39 metres on her first attempt!  I thought it might be a bit more complex than that, and I'd have to run around for days holding onto the seat, thereby providing me a lifetime of fatherhood memories I could later recall while tearfully listening to "Cat's In The Cradle", but no - she just pretty much rode off like it was no big deal.

Off she goes!  By her third attempt she was getting about 80m in the grass before stopping.  On her fifth attempt she started riding around in tight circles and weaving in and out of trees.

We were riding around on the grass of the sports oval, which must have been pretty tough going for her little legs, so after a while she wanted to tackle some downhills.  I asked her if she knew how to stop, and she said "just pedal backwards" - she already had the intricacy of the coaster brake sorted out it would seem.  We walked up a slope overlooking the sports ground and off she went - down the slope, across the sports field, off the edge of the field, weaving through the trees through a patch of scrub, before tackling the hill up to the next sports ground.  After that marathon ride she suddenly stopped, and declared "my legs are tired.  Tired from bike riding!".  As readers would well know there's nothing I enjoy more than taunting my riding mates mercilessly when they show the first sign of weakness - and my riding mates would have no doubt be disgusted when I today said something like "that's OK, you've done a great job.  Let's have a little rest."  According to my speedo she had done around 2.7km of solo riding on her first time out.

Pleased with herself.  Note I have also indoctrinated her into my belief that adjusting the seat so feet can rest flat on the ground is an insult to pedalling efficiency - to quote her "I need the seat up high so I can go fast!"

As we pushed the bikes back home, I asked her where she wanted to go cycling next.  Without hesitation she said "I want to cycle all around the world, on a rail trail!".  I have no idea where a 4 year old girl could have picked up an idea like that...

...kids these days!

Back on the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail

What a year it's been.  As I sit here typing this, I've spent a total of over 700hrs this year so far sitting in this office chair, working on a postgraduate uni course I foolishly undertook.  University study, combined with a long recovery from major surgery, has meant I have not been on the bike much at all this year.  This lack of riding turned into kind of a big problem for me - on the one hand I was wanting to get back out riding again, on the other hand I'd kind of gotten comfortable with the inertia of having a convincing excuse to do nothing, and on the third hand I had a lot of fear about just how I'd go back on the bike with the new wrist, and just how that would work out.  

 Fusion of my right wrist.  They took bone from my hip, chopped my ulna down, removed all my joint linings, bunged in a bit of alloy from my forearm to my middle finger and bolted the whole lot solid.  The plate is a permanent addition - my wrist won't be moving again.

I thought I'd be three weeks off the bike, it ended up being closer to three months.  A few weeks after getting my cast off I gingerly headed out for a 7km ride.  It totally destroyed me - I was weak in body, heart and spirit.  I stayed off the bike for another few weeks, before making a point of forcing myself just to have easy, relaxing rides.  I managed 30km one week, then 35km the next, then 45km, and within a couple of months I was back up to doing 75km rides without too much difficulty.  The body seemed to be getting back on track, but my head was still all over the place.

During my recovery I was keeping myself motivated by saying I'd go and ride the southernmost part of the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail, then as each weekend approached I'd enable myself to not go for the ride somehow.  It would probably rain.  Or be too boring.  Or be too easy.  Or be too hard to get to.  Or I couldn't be bothered putting the bike in the car. Or some other excuse.  For a ride that starts only 60km from my house, I certainly was doing a great job of equipping myself with a whole lot of reasons to stay at home in my comfortably lazy state.

Jump forward to a couple of weeks ago, and here in Brisbane we had a visit from my wife's parents (ie my parents-in-law).  I've always kind of been on the same wavelength as my father-in-law (herein referred to as Laurie), in that we're both somewhat similar in being hermits who like doing things the difficult way.  Despite knowing him for over 13 years, I don't think we'd ever spent any time together just he and I.  I'd been chatting about rail trails and the like, and Laurie seemed keen to go and have a look at what they were all about.  One overcast Sunday morning we were faced with a choice - go with the womenfolk to some local organic market to watch people being all "passionate" and "local" and fret over "macrobiotic food miles" and other such nonsense, or get out of town and do something slightly adventurish.  Laurie hadn't ridden a bike much lately, and I'd never been to the southernmost section of the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail, so we chucked my wife's old mountain bike in the car, chucked my touring bike on top of it, and got out of town.

I know this place...

We drove into the town of Fernvale at around 10 in the morning, pretty late to be starting a ride, but we only planned to ride the first 8km of the trail before heading back for afternoon tea  The whole area is reasonably familiar to me, having spent 4 years at university in the nearby town of Gatton, back in the 90s.  As we unpacked the bikes and made our way over to the trailhead behind the Fernvale information centre, it all came back to me.  I suddenly remembered a much less pleasant visit to Fernvale in recent years, when I was stopped at a pre-dawn checkpoint on a wet and miserable midnight century ride (which basically involves riding for 160km, starting at midnight).  As we rolled up to the start of the ride, I resolved not to punish myself as severely as I did that night, and make a big effort to have a relaxed and easy day.

The Fernvale trailhead of the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail.  For some reason I didn't have really high expectations of this section of the trail - I was to be proven very wrong.

Laurie heads out of Fernvale, towards the town of Lowood.

The trail out of Fernvale winds westwards through the lifestyle blocks on to edge of town, next to a quiet backroad across the Lockyer Valley.

Laurie on the mighty Malvern Star, purchased circa 1999.  It weighs roughly as much as my car, but with a set of Detonators on it was rolling easily across the well-groomed gravel surface.

We slowly made our way out of Fernvale, across a dead flat bit of trail running about 5 metres from the road.  So far the trail was living up to my expectations - it was pleasant enough, but not exactly what I would call the full rail trail experience.  Despite having not been riding in the dirt since March, the whole experience was leaving me a bit cold - goes to show what a spoiled little adventure sook I've become!  We rolled along past all the hobby farms and small agistments as we headed slowly west.  Had I been by myself, I think I might have found this section of the trail a little dull - but I found that Laurie's excitement for the trail and being out on the bike was infectious, making for a very enjoyable ride.

After a few kilometres the trail veered from the main road and headed high above the Brisbane River - it looks very different up here to the muddy waterway that winds its way through the city of the same name.

Even though we were still only about 20m from the main road, we were also about 10m above it, so we could no longer see or hear most traffic.  It really changed the whole tone of the ride to have just that little bit of distance between us and the cars.

When I was trying to find info about the trail on the Internet, people were saying all sorts of things about the gravel surface, much of it not very kind.  The reality is that between Fernvale and Lowood on this section of the trail, the surface is smooth, firm and fast - a kid could ride a scooter along it.

And here was where the whole tone of the ride changed - some old rail infrastructure!

Heritage happens

Up to this point the whole experience had basically been a pretty nice ride along a dirt road, although certainly nothing particularly rail-ish had happened.  We climbed a little further up the embankment, turned a corner and it all happened - some railway heritage.  The whole tone of the ride immediately changed, and all of a sudden all the feelings I enjoyed about riding came flooding back.  It truly was a great moment after so long off the bike and unsure of what riding would be like when I got back into it.  It was the moment when I went from "I wonder if I will do cycle touring again" to "I'm doing cycle touring again".  I wasn't the only one feeling very pleased about it all - Laurie was beside himself that all the old structures and artefacts were still sitting around untouched, in pretty much the same condition as the day the last locomotive went through.

Laurie was intrigued by some layer of rock (I'm going to go ahead and call it metamorphic), among all the layers of sediment.  He raced up the steep slope for a look, as it turned out getting up there was a lot easier than getting back down.

An old brick and sandstone block retaining wall near Lowood.  This went on for ages, sometimes about 5-6m high.

Laurie's welcome to Lowood was discovering that I obsessively and continuously adjust my bike if there's even the slightest noise.  Today it was my rear brake squeaking a bit that was driving me insane.

Heading into Lowood on the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail was very reminiscent of heading into one of the towns along the Otago Central Rail Trail, with the old line heading running literally into the centre of town.

Pausing for a second at the restored Lowood railway station.

The trail passes within a few metres of the Lowood bakery.  Obviously the only sensible thing to do was to have a baked treat and a soft drink.

In the middle of nowhere, close to everything

Given our late start, it was about 1130 by the time we finished our morning tea.  We'd only covered about 8km, and decided to press on towards the small village of Coominya around 12km away.  I'd heard the trail got a little rougher between Lowood and Coominya, and I must admit as we rode through the town section of the line, I wasn't in love with the rough gravel surface.  After a few hundred metres we crossed a stile, and all concerns about the slightly rougher nature of the rail trail were forgotten as the landscape opened out into wide open agricultural plains, stretching far away to the mountains in the north and west.  It was at this point the trail well and truly left civilisation for the next 10 kilometres or so, cutting directly overland, far from any local roads.

Leaving Lowood as we rode towards Coominya.  The weather got a bit strange for an hour or so, but I once again felt the landscape energising me to continue, a feeling I'd not really felt since getting back from New Zealand over a year ago.

The first railway cutting of the ride - exciting times.

I was really getting into the swing of it now, riding through a vast valley with not much about other than weird clouds and a black soil plain.

Even though we were still really close to a major urban centre and not far at all from the nearest town, we were both taken by how remote the stretch between Lowood and Coominya seemed.  It was an unexpected treat.

It's been a long time since I've seen one of these - a deserted country road.  We crossed over it briefly before continuing along the trail.

When I was younger and used to drive through the area a lot in the car, I always though the entire Brisbane Valley was kind of the same.  Now on the bike I was amazed by the diversity of landscapes we were moving through.  In the space of about 15 minutes we'd gone from cropping land, through cattle grazing properties, and now were passing a lush, green dairy farm.

As soon as we got up close to the cows, Laurie started up with the dad-jokes.  Well I can hold my own in the dad-joke stakes (I have two daughters), so I started firing back with some lame cow related one-liners as we rolled along.  The weather was getting very warm by this point - we were pretty surprised as we thought it would be Friesian out there (yes I know they probably aren't Friesian cows, just thought I'd give you a sample of the champagne comedy on offer).

A very unexpected surprise

We eventually came to a spot where the trail suddenly turned sharply left onto a small farm track.  We could hear some people tearing about on trailbikes nearby, and I decided to continue straight ahead to see if I could spot where the old rail line continued.  The trail appeared to stop in a big clump of grass, I parked the bike and continued on foot.  Pushing through the grass I made a very unexpected discovery...

The old rail bridge crossing high over Lockyer Creek.  It certainly didn't appear stable enough to get a bike across, and it looked like we would have to cross the creek far below.  As an added bonus, sometime right about this point my compact camera went all weird - the poor old thing.

I had read about this crossing of Lockyer Creek, apparently it can be quite slippery in the wet.  The climb back out the other side looked insanely steep.

I was standing there looking at the bridge and creek crossing while Laurie walked out on the ricketty old structure a little way, before deciding that was actually a pretty bad idea.  A short distance away, a group of local teenagers on dirtbikes and quads pulled up and surveyed us with interest.  After a little while the lead guy cautiously approached us to say hello.  It turned out they were local guys and girls (one on them lived on the property the trail passed through here), and they were very knowledgeable and justifiably proud of the trail.  We made the usual chit-chat for a while, before the whole group eagerly escorted us down a little track to the crossing, and ensured we made it safely across.  I must admit it was a pretty cool encounter to have out in the middle of nowhere, and I thought it was a huge endorsement to the value that local people place on the trail as a recreational facility to showcase the region and bring pie-eating and chocolate milk-drinking tourists like us through the little old towns.

Down a steep switchback the Lockyer Creek crossing below the old bridge.  The local lads were all concerned that I had stacked it on the way down - I had just stopped to get some photos.  What a bunch of caring legends.

Laurie puts his shoes back on after crossing the calf-deep water, before starting the steep climb back up onto the plain.

This is the only bridge I've seen remaining on the rail trail - not sure if it's the only one left along the 150km-ish length of the line though.  The dust in the bottom left is one of the local tearing off on his bike after he was confident we knew the directions into the next town (as it happens you just follow the trail along).

The local guys stopped to pose for a photo and / or laugh at us attempting to get up the steep bank on the other side.  I opted for the cyclocross run up to the top - in the process discovering just how spectacularly unfit I've become.

Looking back across the Lockyer Creek railway bridge.  Not sure why this particular bridge is still there or what the plans are for it, but it sure adds something awesome to the ride.  It would be easy to say it should be fixed up to allow bike traffic, but in truth I really enjoyed the little detour to the creekbed - it added an unexpected touch of adventure.

The trail runs alongside the road here.  Laurie wisely suggested to ride along the road into the township of Coominya.  Good call.

Riding along the middle of an empty country road, how I have missed thee!

Turning point

After a few kilometres of riding along the bitumen I arrived in the little town of Coominya, crossed over the main road next to the crowded pub, and headed over to the restored station buildings in the centre of town.  This place was very familiar to me - we used to go to the pub boozing on the weekends when I went to uni down the road at Gatton.  In more recent years I passed by there at about 2am during a midnight century ride -  back then I got out of town and realised I needed a nature break and pulled over to the side of the road to take care of business pro-peloton style, managing to very skilfully piss all over myself, my bike and (somehow) my handlebar bag.  Fortunately I had no such issues today.  Looking back down the road I spotted Laurie stopped a little way away - I was unsure if he was lost or having cramps or what was going on.  He eventually made is way over to the station and we had a muesli bar in the shade to celebrate reaching the halfway point of the ride.

Exploring the old station complex featuring an assortment of historical railway artifacts around the place.  Despite the overcast conditions, the weather in Coominya was scorchingly hot.

After riding the Otago Central Rail Trail last year, I actually appreciate the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail a lot more than I did.  The local councils and community organisations have done a great job providing a real adventure experience, with very little money and even less support from the powers that be.

A feral bush ute at Coominya - this is something of an Australian rural tradition.  The basic concept is get a ute, put truck mudflaps on it, and as many stickers, flags and aerials as you fit.  This was a particularly good example, with the bed of the ute full of artistically arranged random junk.

Risk it for a biscuit

I had originally planned for us to ride straight back down the rail trail to get back to Fernvale, however Laurie wasn't too keen on the idea of bouncing along for another couple of hours.  I suggested we try the main road back to Fernvale, along the sometimes busy Brisbane Valley Highway.  From my memory of a few years ago the road was mostly flat, and reasonably short (wrong!), so Laurie said "let's risk it for a biscuit" and take the main road.  I wasn't too concerned either way, but I do enjoy biscuits, so off we headed away from Coominya and out to the highway.

I was slightly economical with the facts and "forgot" to mention to Laurie that there was a 2km moderate climb from Coominya up to the highway - I figured it was probably best he just did it without getting too stressed out about it beforehand.

With the only hill of the ride dispatched with, we rolled along the highway towards Wivenhoe Dam.  

Laurie had something of a trial by fire today.  He went from not really riding at all, to a 45km ride with me a week ago, to riding 20km along a rail trail earlier in the day, to riding on open highway.  Of course as with any ride on a main road in Queensland, he was treated to the full works - trucks, idiots in lime green commodores passing within 20cm of him, bogans beeping horns and revving engines in his ear, young dickheads in Monster energy drink caps with their ears tucked into their hats hanging out of cars yelling "oiyafuggenpooftacunnnnn!!!".  All pretty standard stuff to me, but no doubt new to him.  He took it all in his stride though, never flinching once and always holding his ground.  We stopped for a drink and the top of a hill and he said with a chuckle "good to see we have a few supporters out on the road today!".  I think I can learn a lot from the way he just laughed it all off.

We had the pleasure of riding over the Wivenhoe Dam wall.  Another novel experience for Laurie, as most people just rip over it in a car at 100km/h and don't get to see just how huge that expanse of water really is.  I kind of got the feeling that Laurie was becoming a bit of a convert to the whole cycle adventure concept.

A short ride from the dam and soon we were back at Fernvale.  Laurie was quickly becoming skilled at pulling awesome poses every time I pointed the camera at something.  Note to self: bring the better camera next time so I can get one of his amazing photo poses into a magazines article.

Aprés velo meal of champions = pie and chocolate milk.  One of the great things about this ride is how often it passes through little towns, and how many of those towns have bakeries.  Pretty sure I finished this ride heavier than I when I started.

I finally did it

I was so pleased with myself at the end of that ride.  The ride itself was easy and reasonably short (about 50km), but the fact that I had actually got back on the bike, made the effort to go somewhere new and spark my interest in cycle touring again was a huge milestone for me.  As an added bonus, my new wrist passed all tests with flying colours - even in my unfit state I had a lot more strength and agility handling the bike than previously.  I definitely came away from Fernvale with a big smile on my face - I was very much "back in the saddle".

The other big bonus of the day was how awesome the southernmost section of the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail is.  I'd read mixed reviews, but after being out there for a day I can safely conclude it's awesome.  Starting under an hour's drive from Brisbane, the Fernvale - Coominya section offers a prefect slice of rail trail experience, including lots of little towns to resupply at, plenty of restored and original rail heritage, and just enough riding challenge to keep it all interesting.  Definitely high on my recommended rides list and I'll most definitely be back.

As I sit here now, I have no more university study left to do - I finished my course yesterday.  It's Saturday night and a huge storm is hammering Brisbane.  Rain is bucketing down and the house is rattling from all the thunder.  There is only one sensible option - grab a map book, sprawl out on the couch and plan my next ride.  

It certainly does feel great to be back.

Something I can believe in - and support!

Well it’s now been almost 5 months since my wrist fusion surgery.  Today was the first time I’ve actually sat down and pondered just how long it’s been since that day in June when I went under the knife to repair my destroyed right hand.  I honestly thought I’d be back on the bike within 3 weeks doing easy training rides.  I was very wrong - it was 3 months until I tentatively got back on the bicycle to go for a wobble around the local bikeways.

Since making those first pedals back on the velo a couple of months ago, I’ve managed to gradually re-learn how to ride a bicycle with the new wrist, to the point where over the weekend I managed to get out for a ride on the southern section of the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail.  That ride will be the subject of another post soon, the focus of this post is how I’ve spent those weird months where riding a bicycle wasn’t an option...

For the first few weeks following my surgery, I wasn’t up to much.  My days basically involved lying in bed, taking extreme painkillers and listening to Depeche Mode and Elton John (separately, unless there’s some duet out there I don’t know about) on my MP3 player.  After that I began reading the few cycle touring books I have, and giving all my old cycling magazines another look.  After about a month I felt up to a bit of light computing, so it was time to trawl the internet looking for adventure touring sites in an effort to keep my spirits up and set some touring goals for my eventual return to cycling.

After searching through the usual favourites I happened across the Inspiring Riding website, by a bunch of cycle adventurers based in New Zealand (aka my most favouritest nation in the whole wide cosmos).  This site struck a chord with me, as I was laying around equally excited and fearful about getting back on the bike for a new adventure.  The aim of the Inspiring Riding site is simple - to inspire people to get out on a bicycle adventure - whether it be a ride to a new suburb or a ride across a new country.  For me the site really captured the spirit of adventure that I was desperately trying to reconnect with.

As I loafed around for the next few weeks doing my endless rehabilitation exercises and hoping for the day when I’d be able to go near a bike again, I received an email from the team at Inspiring Riding.  They are producing a magazine!!!

The Inspiring Riding website says a lot more about it than I ever could, other than to say this looks like a publication that is VERY much on the same page as I am.  It isn’t about having the best bike or crunching the most miles or riding the most technical terrain - it’s just about getting on a bike and going somewhere.  The spirit of bicycle adventure really is that simple...

Journey is a quarterly cycle touring magazine that looks to be very different to other cycling and adventure magazines - a journal that has the single goal to inspire people to get out on a bicycle adventure.  Something that I think the team at Inspiring Riding do so well is really communicate the essence of why I, and no doubt many others, choose adventure touring and cycling as a lifestyle.  To sweeten the deal for me, Journey will contain a lot of stories about getting out in the New Zealand countryside on a bike, as well as bicycle adventure stories from around the world.  So obviously I am well pumped at the prospect of getting my hands on the first issue.

To get the Journey project off the ground, the team at Inspiring Riding are offering subscriptions and a bunch of other rewards for early subscribers and supporters.  The funds will be used for printing, paper and production costs that will not only provide for a boutique standard journal publication, but will also reduce the need to include intrusive advertising - keeping it all about the adventure and not about the latest equipment.

The Inspiring Riding website and the prospect of the forthcoming Journey magazine has really kept me focused, motivated and inspired for adventure over the past few months, and I wholeheartedly endorse and support the project.  I sincerely recommend you check out the Journey supporters and subscription page, and consider getting involved with this startup publication by cycle adventurers, for cycle adventurers.  And be sure to check out the video on the supporters page - it was watching those guys sum up the reasons we ride that made me get off my sorry convalescing arse and get back out on the road!