Day 1: to Singapore

Blog 1:  24 June 2012 

The day before lift off we had a lovely ‘midsommar’ luncheon at Emma’s – potatis & dill, beetroot salad and meat (or quorn) burgers!  Followed by blueberry flavoured tea and ‘Emma’s Cake’ a yummy cake topped with icing and heaps of strawberries – it was very Scandinavian! 

Emma Cake!

Just to get us in the mood!

We had some games of kubb, with Karina, Emma and myself, all trying to help Matias win at least one game – but it wasn’t to be.

Kubb team

So a late night was followed by an early morning - the last of the packing was completed and soon we were zooming out to the International airport – via the port & cruise ship, but that’s another story!

It was great to have lunch with our send-off crew and to have a few last minute hugs and cuddles from MissE and then onto the escalator down to the check-in area. 

  

And off on the plane for the first leg of our trip – to Singapore!  Bit miffed that we didn’t get the seats that I had paid and booked on-line – will need to follow up that!  As usual there was a meal to start off – only an hour since we had lunch, but hey – why not!  In fact both the meals were quite edible. 

The flight was a bit bumpy in places – especially when I went to the loo!

 This time, I easily worked out the touch screen tv and watched Ewan McGregor introducing salmon to Yemen.  Bit lame really!  And I listened to some great gypsy Italian music – quite nice. 

We had 4 hours in Singapore, which was a bit boring, shops are all the same and we added some calories at Starbucks.  So far, no dramas!

On Facebook already??

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!)

Granny's Got a New Bike

 

Maggie takes over

 When I took Nellie in for her medical before heading off on another trip – the mechanics gathered me to her bedside and spoke in soft tones –

“It’s time to think of retirement for dear Nellie” they said…. 

“Surely not!”, was my reply.

“But she needs so much surgery that it’s not sure that she will pull thru…  New crank shaft, new cassette & chain, probably new drive cogs – new brake & gear cables and the issue of the rear brakes continues and she will need new shoes, especially on the rear…  it’s probably kinder to put her onto lighter duties and start again…

We have a suggestion based on the kilometres you travel, see here - this nice new shiny bike!”

The tiny shiny steed pointed out was a bit laughable…  I mean would such a spindly thing carry panniers and all the other toys that Nellie has shouldered over the past 3 years.  And it wasn’t a step thru – I mean how is a granny going to throw her leg over??

I might do some research…  I did want a step-thru, but research revealed that there were little options.  Step-thru’s are coming back in fashion, but aren’t too serious – low gearing options, not that long lasting for the kms I wanted, so maybe Granny is just going to have to toughen up. 

Suggestions from ‘those that know’ came up with a nice looking stead, but when checked out it was too high-geared – I still need granny gears – and so eventually I ended up back where I started. 

And so Maggie was born – she came a week earlier than promised – but that’s not unusual, been there before!  

So, despite the cool weather and threatening rain, we headed north – now with computer set up.  Can I really be skimming along so fast?  I stopped in at Cycle Obsession to see if they had any handle-bar bags, but nothing there.  Oh well, will go for a bit of a spin to Nudgee beach, that should let me know how comfy Maggie is. 

I did made it out to Nudgee, where I had a bit of a break.  Whilst munching on some carrot cake, I was visited by a rather cheeky magpie, who checked out the chances for some crumbs and checked out the new bike.  and so the name for this bike was found!  

Resting at Nudgee

A few issues to iron out I think.  Got the seat the right but I think the handle bars are too low now.  So we shall be going back to TK, to see if we can get that right.  Otherwise, Maggie is much more manoeuvrable, lighter and zippy for sure – but we shall have to see how she goes once she starts carrying a load!  Nellie is pretty relaxed about it all (I hope) and is keeping an eye on the new kid on the block!

Wynnum to Thornside, Labour Day 2012

Another public holiday!  Where to go this time?  It was a beautiful blue sky day, no wind - but there were other things I needed to do, so just a short ride - and I do like to be beside the seaside...

Using the "Where to Ride - SE Queensland" book, I decided to do the Wynnum to Manly loop - knowing that I will have to share the bike path with heaps of pedestrians...  stress!!

Arriving in Wynnum

I drove to Wynnum - to be greeted by beautiful calm blue sea.  Strapped all the toys onto Nellie and away we pedalled 

- toys being a gps tracker, 

a camzilla camera mount

(but still too nervous to put new SLR on it whilst riding!)

and Garmin E-Trek

Riding around the Bay

narrow bridge over the Mangrove swamp

 As I guessed, the first leg was crowded with pedestrians, dogs, little kids on bikes and scooters!  But I managed to dodge them all, thankfully.

and on such a beautiful day, even I was pretty tolerant!

Beautiful boating weather

Mangrove lined creek

  Past Manly, things started to thin out and it was nice to pedal along through park lands. 

Nellie waiting patiently

At Thornside, looking north

But all too soon I arrived at Ricketts Road, where I should be turning back.  But the path was continuing to the left, so why not follow that?  

It took me to Thornside, which is just another - but quite nice - sea side suburb.

So I turned back.

I thought  would continue back along Ricketts & Manly Road.  Bad idea - no shoulder and heaps of traffic and although no dramas, it wasn't a very nice way to end the ride.

I eventually got back onto the Esplanade and found little Rosie waiting for our return.

Nellie looks out to sea - thru the bushes

Nice gentle ride:  stats:  25km, avg 12kph (no speeding along the busy shared paths!) Max 36kph. 

Brisbane Valley Rail Trail Stage 1 & 2

A public holiday is always welcome and a good excuse to go for a pedal.  Thought it was about time I checked out the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail . I drove out to Fernvale (1hr) to start the trail  to Coominya.

Fernvale: start of Trail

1st Stage 8km:  Fernwood to Lowood is 8km and the track is a well packed gravel trail, which runs along the bank of the Brisbane River. Saw the bat colony & the bricked cuttings.  Not much else really.

The Trail

Apart from the sign at the beginning of the trail, no more signs were seen until arriving in Lowood - a rather sad oversight by the organisers.  There are a couple of times when the track is unclear and a small blue bike sign would have been helpful.

The now quiet Brisbane River

Bricked cutting from original railway line

A row of bats

Strange fruit - fruit bats that is

Old Lowood railway station, now a museum maybe

Off into the long grass - Stage 2

2nd Stage 12km:  After Lowood, the trail degenerates into an overgrown bone-rattling affair, still suffering from the flood through the Valley last year.  It tracks through farmlands, empty paddocks, few dams, nothing really that interesting.  One section is totally washed away, but I was able to walk Nellie around the edge of that area.

Eventually, I came to the heritage Lockyer River Rail Bridge - hiding in a large pile of long grass, a hum of a tractor slashing, in the background.  I parted the grass around the gate, to find a sign announcing that bridge was to be crossed 'at your own risk'.  hmmm....

use the tractor to get some scale to the height of the bridge

Taxi across the Lockyer river

The tractor driver gave a 'hoy!'  so I went over to see him.  He was slashing the grass and offered to give me a lift over the river, still running about 30cm deep.  So I followed him down the really steep bank and when he got to the river - now just a narrow channel over loose rocks - he lifted the slasher up above the water level.  I dragged Nellie up onto the slasher and climbed on myself and for a minute or two, we bounced and jounced over the river, trying not to lose balance.

Lockyer River railway bridge - closed

On the other side, I had to drag Nellie up the steep cliff, leaving the panniers on the back of the slasher, which dangerously followed me up the steep bank.  Phew!  There's no sign of any problems such as this on the website - I think it might need some updating.

The last few kms to Coominya were a bone shaking trip over the railway ballast and eventually just 2kms out of town I gave up and zinked off the trail onto the sealed road that lead into town.

Prosperous Catholic Church

Coominya is just a tiny town, but I found the park and sat down and scoffed my lunch.  I decided that I would hit the real road for the return trip.  It was a much easier, tho a tad longer. Got sworn at by a cheeky little fox terrier!  Got back onto the trail at Lowood.

rough fence

Not really impressed with the trail.  Maybe Nellie agrees with me (she had a flat front tyre the next day).  It's touted as a tourer or mountain bike track.  Generally I think mountain bikers would think it far too tame and I thought it pretty uncomfortable - the scenery was pretty bland, but having to watch the track all the time, who knows what I may have missed!

Austere Presbyterian church

Rich Brisbane Valley soil

Brisbane Valley

Stats for the ride (which include the much faster return ride):

3:04hr actual riding - 45km -  avg 14.6kph - max 34.3kph.

Climbing Mt Cotton

With quite a lot of pfaffing around this morning, I eventually loaded Nellie onto Rosie's rack and we drove out to Redland Bay - taking the long way, with a bit of zigging and zagging around!

Arrived at starting point

I had spent an hour trying to set up the gps before leaving - and eventually gave up and decided to wing it.

So from Redland Bay, I headed out along Double Jump Road.  The name should have warned me, but I straggled along climbing up the double jumps, several in fact, not just one!

Good shoulder

No Shoulder

Broken road edge

The traffic was not heavy but fairly constant and the shoulder on the road disappeared off and on.  The gps was looking good, so I continued along, dodging onto West Mt Cotton.

Nice place to stop for morning tea -

At the top of Mt Cotton

Its quite a pretty ride, lined with straggly forests of casuarinas and eucalyptus.  There is also a lot of weeds - lantana, singapore daisy, guavas growing wide - very tasty tho!

from the top 

Mt Cotton beat me tho'.  I came screaming down a hill (max speed 52.3kph!) dodging a pothole, slight corner and then faced with a wall of a road - looked like a 90% incline!!  I started to madly click down to granny gear and panicked as I was clicked into the pedals - I was quickly grinding to halt!  it wasn't going to be pretty - but thankfully, no traffic and a driveway on the right, so I zinked horizontally and was able to unclick and get off to catch my breath.  The wall was still there, so I plodded slowly up to the top, stopping to munch on the aforementioned quavas!

Cable Ski Park

I came across Carbrook on the Logan River - both places I didn't know existed - and dodged into the Cable Ski Park - another new thing for me - so had some lunch and watched the young lads being dragged around on cables, practising their water skiing skills.  Saw a couple of spectacular falls, one young lad doing such a classic belly flop I was cranky I didn't catch it on camera.  The pulling system made only a buzzing noise, so much nicer than roaring speed boats.  Logan river was a sleepy river - even a nice little house boat for sale!

Tough skier

Logan River down-river

Logan River upstream

I managed to stay in the saddle for the rest of the ride, getting slightly lost as usual, but I eventually arrived back in Redland Bay, dodging around in the suburbs, finding bike tracks, including another vertical climb and eventually finding dear Rosie waiting patiently - and unlocked as I had feared!  but no worries!

Preening Pelicans

Looking over to North Stradbrooke Island

All in all, a typical ride around on Queensland roads - no shoulder, broken edges and cranky drivers.  I witnessed one young lad come flying around the corner towards me, the back wheels skidding out but thankfully he managed to get it back on track - for the time being.

This was a good ride for practising riding with cleats.  Plenty of space for just pedalling along, but there were intersections where I had to think about clicking in or out.


Stats for this ride:  2:43 hours actual riding, 45.3km (my total is now 10749), clocking up a max of 52.3kph and an average of 16.6kph.  I managed to be clipped into the cleats the majority of time, just clicking out when needing to stop for traffic intersections and the horror hill climb.  

Hippy Country

I took a couple of days off after Easter to visit my friend, Linda, who lives over the border near Lismore.

at Brunswick Heads

My first plan was to ride into Roma street, hop on the train down to Kyogle then ride 30km to Linda's home in the forests.  But thwarted by Country Line - bikes need to be boxed - and I wasn't planning on boxing Nellie for a 2 hour train journey - especially as the return trip was leaving at 420am Sat morning.  so Nellie was tucked into the back of Rosie and we set off to the border.


The country is beautiful down that way.  Rolling green hills, tufted with forest - farms along the road sides.

Linda's cottage

Morning brought bright sunshine which revealed the wonderful forest setting of her little cottage - with all those wonderful touches that Linda is so good at.

Over a yummy lazy breakfast we planned our two days together - deciding that there wouldn't really be any opportunity for bike riding.

We drove off to Nimbin for a bit of a look. Nimbin was much smaller than I thought but definitely still has the great hippy feel, happy weed scenting the air!

Nimbin Theatre - Nimbin candles around the back

The local art exhibition in the Hall was well worth a look, with some really high class art works.

We strolled out to Nimbin Candles and stocked up there. www.nimbincandles.com.au 

Nimbin street

Nimbin

Vegetarian food is easy to find there and a big bowl of pumpkin soup kept us going all day.

Nimbin rainbows

Lismore clock

On Friday we drove over to Byron Bay after stopping in at Lismore to check out the Art gallery and its portrait exhibition.  some really good pieces in there also.



Byron Bay has become a little commercial - but still has a good feeling with healthy food outlets.  But we had brought our own lunch, which we scoffed under a shady tree - until it started to rain. 

Palm Valley walk

Thankfully, the rain eased off and we walked up the track towards the lighthouse, detouring along the Palm Valley walk - a shady palm lined loop - well worth exploring, tho no-one else was.

Looking down onto the surf

The walk up clings to the edge of the cliff with great views over the sea rolling in - surfers hanging out trying to catch the waves.

Looking east

And dolphins!  there was a pod of about 20 playing in the water, catching waves, surfing just under the water and popping out and leaping around generally having lots of fun.  Pity I only had my little camera with little zoom!

Almost the most easterly point in Australia

We walked out to the point, wild water on one side, dolphins on the other!


 We topped off a beautiful day with an hour of salsa dancing back in Lismore - and as I have never done this before, I found muscles in my legs that had been dormant for years!!  Ouch!

Too sadly my visit was over and I headed back to Brisbane - and a dental appointment!  a great few days down in New South Wales.

Some images of forest living! 

A riot of colour in Linda's garden

Cosmos lining the vegie patch

Catching the rain water

Spot the paddy-melon!

wonderful bathroom

Good night!