Kilkivan to Gympie - Don't read your emails

Ride time - 3 hours 2 minutes

Distance - 51 kms

Climbing - 249 m

View the ride here:

http://cyclemeter.com/4539622a02fdb662/Cycle-20160830-0623

I made the mistake of checking emails this morning, and there are things to be done.  So an early start at about sun up.

It is a nice part of the world out here.  Numerous small ranges and gullies, with plenty of wildlife.

The Wide Bay Highway is pretty skinny in places and a lot busier than last time I rode it. Undulating the whole way, a few steep bits but overall downhill to the Bruce Highway. Then there are the 10kms in to Gympie along the highway which are dangerous - be careful if you ever ride it. Better still, find another route if you can!

Got in to Gympie in good time and thought I might be able to deal with "work stuff" from my phone at Hungry Jacks. Unfortunately no.  So I sent an SOS to Tracie to pick me up and had a burger and chips while I waited - luxurious!! Was home before lunch.

I've ridden to and from Gympie many times, so it's no big deal - that's the way it pans out sometimes.

Overall, this is a pretty challenging ride if you are self supported.

Every keen SEQ cyclist needs to do the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail at some stage. People have done a great job to get it where it is. Scenery in parts is really good and you get to visit places you ordinarily wouldn't get to.  No doubt it's a work in progress, but for it to be really successful and further promote tourism and small business in the region, they need to get the casual rider and his/her family involved. I reckon that will only happen if they make it easier, like the short section of smooth roadbase between Fernvale and Lowood. Most kids will spit the dummy on the rest of it.

If I had my time again, I would take an extra day and keep off the main highways. They are much busier than I remember from a few years ago. There's plenty of country roads to explore if you have the time.

Oh, and I'd use only panniers on the BVRT unless you are with someone who can help lift everything.

Early morning at the Kilkivan pub

Nanango to Kilkivan - More hills

Ride time - 5 hours 13 minutes

Distance - 87 kms

Climbing - 668 m

View the ride here:

http://cyclemeter.com/4539622a02fdb662/Cycle-20160829-0746

According to my phone, it was 2 degrees outside. I was as warm as toast in my several layers. There was a thick dew. Everything, including my riding gear, was soaked.

It was a slow old start but I eventually got on the road about 7.45am.  

There are still plenty of hills and the granny gear got a fair workout.  Over the 50kms to Goomeri there's an increase in elevation of about 100 metres.

I love the country out here. Tall eucalypts and prime grazing land, Poll Hereford by the look.

The road is OK, but plenty of traffic.

Goomeri is an old timber town. There are many original timber buildings in the main street, it has an old world feel about it.  Wonderful war memorial and clock in the middle of town.

For something completely different, I had fruit for lunch at the Goomeri Foodworks.  Very friendly locals, at least half a dozen people stopped to see what I was up to. The word was that the road to Kilkivan would be more of the same, but I thought it was pretty cruisy compared to earlier in the day.

Staying the night at the Kilkivan pub. Top spot, very hospitable people and cold beer.

Blink and you'll miss Kilkivan. It is a pretty relaxed place with a 'frontier’ feel about it. Apparently an old gold prospecting town first settled in the mid-1800's. Some fantastic old heritage buildings here that have been fully restored in some cases. According to a bloke at the pub, Kilkivan is one of only a few towns situated on the Bicentennial National Trail which stretches from somewhere in Victoria to Cooktown. Now, that would be some horse ride! Wonder if you could ride a bike on it.

Need an early start if I'm to do the 130kms to home tomorrow.  Somehow, I reckon there'll be one more night of camping.

Still a bit of dew on the camera lens - we have a way with place names!!

Morning tea. Not feeling too hot, almost the second coming of last night's fried chicken - urgh!

45 bucks worth at the Kilkivan pub

Early morning at Kilkivan

Toogoolawa to Nanango - Where did the granny gear go?

Ride time - 5 hours 48 minutes

Distance - 97 kms

Climbing - 939 m

View the ride here:

http://cyclemeter.com/4539622a02fdb662/Cycle-20160828-0719

A solid days riding.

Very chilly overnight, hard work getting out of the sleeping bag. Turned into a beautiful day for cycling again.

The trail between Toogoolawa and Moore is not open yet. They have a suggested route on back roads to get there. Bugger that, I'm on a timeline. Not too much traffic early on a Sunday morning so made quick time on the highway to Moore.  

The 7km trail from Moore to Linville has a gate or a river crossing every 500 metres. Man, it was doing my head in.

I was tempted then not to do the trail to Blackbutt but take the road instead. Glad I didn't, it's the best part.  It weaves its way thru the Blackbutt ranges through some pretty impressive bush.  There are some grass trees out here, that if they grow a centimetre a year, must be several centuries old. Unfortunately, lantana is taking over in some places. Quite an engineering effort to get a train line up here. Deep cuttings through the hills and what would have been big bridges. Plenty of heritage and interesting stops along the way. At the top, it turns in to a temperate rainforest. The sound of bellbirds and whip birds as you cycle - fantastic!

This stretch has a nonstop incline for 22kms. Combined with a loose surface, gates, bloody steep creek crossings, towing 25 kgs plus my fat arse, it took me 2.5 hours to do the 22kms. Hard work.

There were a few others on the trail, all going down hill - smart move!

Cracking pie at the Blackbutt bakery for lunch.

And then the fun really started. 

Holy smoke, there are some hills out here. And for some f@#$%^g reason, the front dérailleur would not engage the small ring. There are two hills either side of Yarraman that did me in. I doubt I would have made the first one even with the granny gear (check the ride log at the link above at about the 70 km mark)

Was tempted to stop and do some repair work, camp off the side of the ride somewhere if I had to. But with the day running out, thought would just grin and bear it and get thru to Nanango. While there were still plenty of hills, it is basically downhill.  

Got in to town about 4pm. As it turned out, the derailleur fix was a simple one. It's still a bit cantankerous, but will engage with a bit of encouragement.

In case you are wondering what happens in Nanango on a Sunday night, it's not much.  Quite a big town, I'm guessing the main centre for the surrounding district. It's still a pretty sleepy place though. A couple of pubs serving beer but not food (not that there's anything wrong with that) so it was to the "country fried chicken" shop for tea. Three pieces of deep fried chook with chips was pretty good too I have to say, much better than KFC from memory.

After last night, I'm wearing thermal pants, woolly socks, 2 t-shirts, gloves and a balaclava. Expecting it to be colder, hopefully that will be enough to get a decent nights sleep.

Morning tea at Moore

There's this and the pub at Linville

Old workers hut and a mango tree

Near the top - bell birds and whip birds everywhere

Blackbutt, the end of the official trail

Taringa, Ipswich to Toogoolawa

Ride time - 5 hours 28 minutes

Distance - 90 kms

Climbing 525 m

View the ride here:

http://cyclemeter.com/4539622a02fdb662/Cycle-20160827-0659

Great day for cycling - blue skies, cool, no wind.

Caught an early train from Taringa to the 'switch'.  The Brisbane Valley Rail Trail starts at Diamantina Boulevard in Bassal.  There'd been some rain over the last few days, the southern part of the trail was quite soft. The section thru to Fernvale was pretty rough, but makes for good mountain bike riding.  The surface can range from mud to sand to road base, but is mainly the ballast that the line originally sat on. The surface overall is OK, towns are evenly spaced so there's plenty of food and water, the gradients are gentle, there's no cars, it's quiet, you can camp for free, you see a lot of heritage and it takes you thru some nice bush. It's an excellent place to ride.

It's very slow going though. 

There are dozens of gates, grids and quite steep creek crossings that really slow you down. There's even a dozen or so of these pine log contraptions that that make it really hard for anyone towing a trailer to get thru at all.  

It took seven hours (about 70 kms) to get to Esk,  rolled in about 2pm. I had the shits by then.

After a world class pepper pie at the Esk bakery, decided to take the main drag thru to Toogoolawa - sick of those pine log things. The highway is safe enough, generally enough verge, just need to keep your wits about you.

Arrived about 3.30 pm and camped at the Showgrounds. Hospitable people and a top camping spot!!

3 pub options to choose from for rehydration.  It's a small town, don't know how they can support so many, they all seemed pretty quiet. Had a few beers at the Toogoolawa, to wash down my rump steak and chips. Crikey, it was good.

Straight to bed after that - buggered!

Early Start

This is where the trail starts

Good surface

Dozens of these things. This one had a gap you could cycle straight thru, so not sure of the point.

Brisbane River

Doesn't show but some crossing must be 30 or 40 degrees in and out. Flat out pushing the bike and trailer out of them.

Typical of many of the bridges along the way

Nothing left here anymore

A pine log contraption to stop motorcycles and other vehicles using the track, Just about impossible to get over these with a trailer. Had to unhitch in some cases. 

Nice spot for morning tea

Do you have an alcohol problem when you take a photo of your first beer?

What would you have ordered?

Home for the night

Getting to Ipswich

The original plan was to catch the train from Nambour to Ipswich very early on Saturday morning. As it turns out the Caboolture line is closed tomorrow, just as well I checked. So caught the train tonight and staying with the kids in Taringa. They just love it when the landlord turns up with not much notice. Catching a really early train from Taringa to Ipswich tomorrow. 

Tracy has taught Lucas well who has put on a magnificent feed for me of spaghetti surprise and salad. See the photo below. Well done Lucas, best pasta I've had in a while.

Nambour station

Thanks dude for holding my bike

Not sure what it's called, but a chicken, bacon, mushroom mix. Unfortunately, we only had five olives.

Summary

This blog covers an unsupported bike ride from Ipswich, south- west of Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane. The route is the long way through the Brisbane Valley, along the D'Aguilar Highway through Nanango and Kingaroy, up to Kilkivan, across to Gympie on the Wide Bay Highway and then head home through the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

Catching the train to Ipswich.

Roughly half the trip is off-road via the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail which takes you through Toogoolawa to Linville, back to Blackbutt, then through to Yarraman. From what I've read, this should be great cycling. Nice part of the world out that way, really looking forward to it. 

Planning one night at the Kilkivan pub. Stayed there on a previous ride - what a cracker!!

Distance is around 450 km over 4 days with climbing of maybe 3,500m. There's a few hills between Linville and Blackbutt, but should be OK otherwise. 

Gear is my Cannondale Lefty hardtail MTB with home made trailer. An oldie but a goody!! Towing weight is about 25kg's.

Training has been a bit unusual - at least one hours cycling every day for the last 30 days.  In theory, that should be an OK preparation. Feeling pretty fit, we'll soon find out!! 

The likely route

Packed and ready to go!!