Riding Stradbroke Island - again

One day, when the sun was shining warmly, I asked Matias if he was interested in coming for another ride on Stradbroke Island.  The public holiday in June was agreed.

looking out the back door of Ferry

Monday dawned, overcast, cold with possible rain predicted.  When I collected Matias, he was still fine to come along, so we headed east to Cleveland, unloaded our bikes in the light rain, paid our tickets and boarded the ferry.  Yep, out on the water it was cold and windy, so we went into the little cabin and huddled close to the warm (enclosed) exhaust.  When we pulled into Dunwich, it was raining lightly, so we stopped at the Bakery to have a cappuccino and muffin.

Just as we were ready to head off, it started to rain, but the wind was actually coming from behind, so the rain wasn’t in our face.  A little way out of town, we stopped and set up the GoPro helmet camera and headed off.

It seems our visits to Straddie are always fraught.  At least this time the hills were manageable with only a couple really making me puff.  But the cold and wet certainly dampened the experience this time.  We eventually got out to Point Lookout and found a café to buy a burger and chips and a chance to sit out of the rain and wind.

wild seas

We went and looked out over the wild sea and then turned back to Dunwich.  Before we switched on the GoPro, a large bedraggled wallaby, bounded onto the road heading towards Matias and dodging the traffic.  Luckily, he missed Matias and bounded off.  Ain't that the way.  So we switched on the camera again, but nothing more exciting happened.

I was thinking we are going to turn the corner at Amity Pt and be hit by a fierce and wet head wind.  But thankfully the thick bush was a strong buffer zone against the wind, so it was a relatively comfortable ride back to Dunwich, with just the last bit into Dunwich that was really wet and cold.

The Red ferry was about to leave and it has a café on board.  We were pretty wet and cold and after awhile, we decided that a hot cuppa would be nice, so I had a hot chocolate and Matias had coffee.

Back home we quickly checked the video from the GoPro and apart from the droplets of rain on the ‘lens’ we both were pretty impressed with the imagery captured!  Will try and upload some – somehow!

 But I forgot to take a photo of the Newbie!  And now she is so muddy and messy!

Stay turned!

Stats for our Stradbroke Is ride:  44km, 2:30hr trip time, avg 17.7kph, max a zipping 54.1kph

( I remember puffing up that hill on the way out!)