Saturday, June 6, 2009

The race to Coochie

Well the rain continued through the night - I know this because of how many time i woke up off the side of the camp mattress... prior to leaving sydney I thought it would be a good idea to downsize to a ultra compact mattress.... worst idea I've had.
The full size deluxe matt is currently on it's way via care package (thanks mum)
Anyway after a bad nights sleep with about half my gear wet & more rain forecast I packed up & ran out of Byron. ( I tried to get a photo of camp but my memory card decided to pack up... grrrrr.. what else could go wrong....)
At this stage of the trip i was wet, smelly & tired but determined to make a mile today & head for a dryer area.
The ride through Bangalow out to Nimbin was fairly fast but pretty slippery with the roads in really bad condition... I did have a funny expierience when riding out of Nimbin, I rode through a "funny smell", only to find it lasted about 2 minutes, this was until I overtook a car doing 40 in a 80km zone to find the female driver with a joint the size of a cigar.... they do get away with anything up here!

After a bad night & a wet start to the day I pulled up at Clarrie hall Dam just out of Nimbin to change memory cards on the camera & have a break... this is where I met Morgan. (camera shy) Morgan was on a day trip with his carer Nick, who explained he is Autistic but would probably like to shake hands & look over my bike
This was the turning point of the day for me as spending 5 or 10 miuntes having Morgan play with everything on my bike & teach me some sign language, gave me a appreciation of what we all take for granted & had a smile back on my face instantly....
Next stop was a rest area on the banks of the Tweed river, I toasted up some muffins & tried out my camp gear before pushing on over the mountains of the Border ranges national park.


Todays Trip - bring on the bends!

1080 km to the border crossing

The Natural Bridge just over the QLD Border.

I think the Nimbin experience was still effecting the camera.





The afternoon consisted of great roads that were drying out & apart from having to straight line off into the gravel to avoid a P plater trying to impersonate Brock coming down one of the ranges it was great riding (hence no riding pics)

I stopped off at the old Tramway tunnel to break up the effects of numb bum

Rosins Lookout over looking Numinbah Valley towards the Gold Coast

Mount Tambourine ~ Looking West towards Beaudesert

It was at this time I rang Red to find out if he would house the needy & he informed me I had around 35 minutes till the last car ferry (around 58km to go)
Now I like a challenge however at this time of the afternoon there was no way I could make up that time so I headed off to the local shops at Victoria Point picked up the 3 important items (Wine -Kylie /Iced Coffee - leigh & Boubon 4 Me!)
I caught the passenger ferry over with all the gear I could carry off the bike & set about getting clean & dry.... Thanks Red & family!
Total so far 1248km / Numb Bum stops so far 5

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