Heading out from home at 6:30 I got a little warm ride over to Adam's where to my shock and amazement the crew was already assembled and ready to roll, amazing! So we headed off straiht away, which was handy for me as I didn't have to cool down and warm back up.
There's a 4km hill when you hit the Monaro Hwy, but it's not so bad, we bunched up and took turns at the front in true roadie style. After this it's 18km of slight down hill, cruising along in our mini peleton at 40-50mk/h with little effort. Before we knew it we were at the Burra turn off and leaving the bitchmen for the two lane dirt roads.
We all agreed to stop (briefly) every hour and fuel up, so Burra was our first stop, a nice chance to reflect on the ease of the ride so far and to wonder what was ahead in the Tinderry's...
The Tinderries
From Burra to the mountains the roads had been freshly graded, so this was fast and fun, Allan and Adam breaking 75km/h on the dirt descents, we put down some pretty good speed and made great progress. As we progressed the road went from dual lane, to single and it started to get smaller and smaller. Lots of nice farms around here, and so far, very little traffic.
To get to the Tinderry Crossing, we had to head through the private property "Benbullen", heading through the gates we pass right by the home, and I mean less than 10m away from it, so we stopped to be polite and ask if it was okay to pass through. No one was home though, so we popped the gate and headed East through the property on rough farm trails that later we come to thing of as smooth highway...
The Tindery Crossing wasn't far, but the tracks to it are pretty over-grown, this leg of the trip is where I praised the GPS, it was pretty much essential (else spend ages gawking at maps, with the GPs we could see clearly where we were and just kept moving). I expected the crossing to be a bridge, but it was really just a low spot in the water for 4WD's to push through. We crossed a little further downstream where rocks made for stepping stones, and it was time for another food break on the sandy shores of the Queanbeyan River, which is the feeder to Googong Dam, which is not far to the North.
It's pretty nice here, Australiania at it's best and a nice place for a rest, but not for long, we got back on the bikes and continued East into the mountains, following skinny dirt roads past propertys like Silver Hills, and it was here that we found it hard to navigate, one wrong turn was quickly corrected, then another lead us through a trackless paddock, where we were tailed by 3 massive black bulls, I think one of them had a thing for Adam, because it started to serenade him before mounting one of it's mateys, haha :D
The wrong turn meant we had to go back through this paddock and these bulls were standing us off, Allan and Adam being the men of the group (while I was more the scraedy cat), chased the bulls off and we headed back over the paddock to find the missing trail... we had missed it because it's barely a goat track, then it became grass and then a sheep trail, the map said this was a track, I swear it did guys! ;)
After a while we got to where the firetrail should have been, well where it once was, maybe 20 years ago! The trail was so over grown you could only just make out where it once was, we pushed on and found fences going straight across the "trail", no gates, just fences, that's how much of a trail this was! At one point it was so over grown we wished we had machetes, and I had to hold Adam's bike while he tried to clear a path through, it was tough going.
Captains Flat
Finally after 5 hours, we made Captains Flat. Time to hit the local shops (read: the servo) for some chips and coke. We were tired, but knew we had another 130kms to go, the only thing keeping us going was the promise it would be easier from here on.
Getting to Majors Creek on the dirt roads was pretty straight forward, on one screaming descent I pinch flatted my front tyre. In hindsight I wonder if I had the fork lockout on? It was a costly mistake, as my pump is a price of crap, I never got enough air into the replacement tube, stupidly, I pushed on, feeling guilty for holding every one up.
Later thgouh, on a another screaming 50km/h descent, I pinch flatted again, dammit. This time I had used up my spare tube and resorted to patches. One of them musn't have taken 100%, and I would suffer a slow leak at the front for the rest of the trip :(
Majors Creek to Araluen - Weeeeee :)
At Majors Creek we stopped at he local pub and quizzed the locals on the road ahead, we had 80 kms to go and it sounded pretty good. Alan was getting more coke here and I swear the bottles were getting bigger ;) I had to pump up my front tyre which was slow leaking and almost flat, but after that we were off again and into the wicked descent down the side of the Great Dividing Range. My slow leaking front tyre robbing me of too much confidence, but Adam and Alan made the most of the trail. It was steep descent on bumpy and sometimes rutted single firetrail and very windy, with huge unprotected drops off over the edge and a few tight hairpins, it was wicked fun, even with my tyre the way it was! :)
The crew abuzz with stories of near misses and adrenalin rushes at the bottom, we set off for Araluen which was only 10kms away. The road there flat and easy and the crew still strong we were pushing pretty well.
Araluen to Moruya - The Wall
Adam had a sugar low when we got into Araluen, but fixed it up with lollies and rest pretty quickly while I pumped my tyre up again and the crew got in some more food and drink, I thought we were nearly done but a sign on the way out of town read "Moruya 63". I could feel fatigue getting the best of me, but kept pushing on. It was 4pm, and if we were make it to the coast by dark (7pm I thought), we'd have to sit above 20km/h.
Scotty and Mark were string on this leg and Alan really started to shine, at the other end of the spectrum, I was getting tired and started to srop off the back. The road is very undulating, for the entire 60 kms, nothing steep, but it's like a roller coaster, up, then down, up then down, over and over. It took it's toll on me and on one of the longer ascent I dropped right off from the pack, strggling to find any sort of pedal power. I quickly threw down some Nurofen Kylie had packed for me, my legs were killing me, mainly my quads. The pain was intence.
Alan who off the front of the pack looked back and knew I was in trouble, he slowed right down and waited for me to ctach him, then pulled me along for the next 5kms or so. It was a gesture I won't forget, and one that saved my sorry arse. I took the chance to throw down all the food I could eat, included the foulest of foul Envirit fluid stuff, that was shocking, but I was desperate. I also hooked into my bottle of Opti and I just can't say enough how good this stuff is. I started to feel good again and before I knew it, Alan and I were off the front of the pack and I was feeling better.
It was clear now the sun was going to be down earlier than anticipated, and I was getting worried we wouldn't make it back before dusk. At the next crew stop, I pushed on, thinking they would catch up anyway. Off the front solo, I found my ryhtm again and and cruised along this never ending undulating road, before long though, the sun went down and I still a good 20kms from town, disaster.
| Jason's Version | Adam's Version | Pushing on through the dark I started to hunger flat again and went a little mental, as I tend to do. I recall ringing ahead to Kylie to let her know I was OK and Dan called me and said "I didn't sound too good", he was right, I was getting messed up again. I shovelled in the rest of the food I was carrying and pushed on into the pitch black, hoping there wasn't any pot holes ;)
With 18 kms to go I cam across Mark's wife, we had driven up to provide light and possibly a lift back, what a gem! I sent he on to find the crew and hoped that when she found them, her headlights would help them push on and catch me up. Everything from here got a little blurry, I was hurting but pushing as hard as I could, trying to get to town. With 3kms to go the firetrail became smooth and fast, bitchmen, I had hit the bitchmen!! I knew I was nearly home then, so I dropped the hammer and cruised into town, the bitchmen was a welcome finishing chance, and made for a glorious finish. I rolled into the River Breeze and met Kylie, and not long after the boys rolled into town lit from behind by the car. A motor pace finish for them. We'd done it, 190 mad kilometers, two flats our only mechanicals, and no one had cramped or stacked. The crew looked weary, but hell, we made it, I think all were stoked with the accmplishment. Thanx guys, an awesome ride! |
At sunset everyone was starting to get pretty tired, Jas had pushed on ahead while I got left behind for urinating for too long but caught them up eventually. As night fell Mark thought it wise to call his wife as there was no way we were going to get out in the light hours. I was getting pretty stubborn at this stage as was happy to ride in the dark, Alan and I rode in front while Mark rode with Scott who was starting to feel a little off (hence his spew at the park and non attendance at dinner).
Leanda came along the track and we told her that Mark and Scott weren't far behind and to pick them up first, this was my chance to try and get to town before the opportunity of a lift in a car with a case of crownies in the front was presented to me. Al decided to stop and wait for the car and I pushed on only for Alan a couple of minutes later deciding he would catch up. He snuck up on me in the dark of night and let out an almighty roar scaring the be-geezers out of me and cricking my neck in the process hehehehehe we laughed for ages about that one Thanks Al. It was at this stage we were wondering why the guys in the car hadn't caught up yet. Then around the corner came a slow driving vehicle with to riders cruising in the headlights. After a brief discussion and much encouragement from Leanda we decided to push on with our new found energy knowing we were very close and no more hills. With the moon in our face and only a faint white line on the road to follow we were off. It was at this stage I was having dreams of getting into the campsite and finding our tents all set up so all we had to do was shower and then off to dinner hehehehe yeah as if that would ever happen.........WELL....it was like a mirage, Leanda had set up all the tents just like in my dreams. Scott decided to crash after his shower as he wasn't to well so we went in search of food. Anna and Sam's Italian restaurant did the trick nicely with many bottles of water too. I got bugger all sleep deciding to listen to Alan and Mark snore but luckily the bus trip home was quick and comfey and thanks to Ann-Maree for picking us up from Kingston for the final part of the journey. A top ride indeed, much fun was had by all. |
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The crew:
| Jason | Giant Trance |
| Adam | Scott Scale HT |
| Alan | Giant Anthem |
| Scott | King Kikapu |
| Mark | Avanti HT |
The Stats:
| Distance | 189km |
| Time | 12:45 |
| Climb | 3000vm |
| Speed | 19.2km/h avg, 77.5km/h max |
| Power | 159Wavg |
| Date | 5/04/07 |
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