Ride time - 5 hours 48 minutes
Distance - 97 kms
Climbing - 939 m
View the ride here:
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!
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.
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| Morning tea at Moore |
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| There's this and the pub at Linville |
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| Old workers hut and a mango tree |
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| Near the top - bell birds and whip birds everywhere |
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| Blackbutt, the end of the official trail |
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