Awoke to the Itch

Yesterdays ride was with Chris and Mark. (all the others invitees found other things to do) The start was somewhat different as everyone prepared for the rain, quite a lot of rain had been forecast, but the ride was completed without even a shower! (at least for Mark and I on the other hand Chris  rode through a southerly headwind and shower just to get here from the coast).

Rode off with Chris arriving a little late after picking up a puncture at Casuarina, the start of the mechanical incidents! While riding up Cudgera Creek road Chris stopped a couple of times to snap off a couple of photos with his camera. The small gullys were still streaming with water after the previous nights rain but it was decided to still take Waba Road through Moobal forrest up to the Tweed Valley Way on the journey to Tunnel Road at Stokers Siding.

Waba Road started out uneventfully athough a little slippery with traction becoming quite slipper at times. The further along the track we rode the thicker and taller the grass growing on the track became. It eventually forced me to get out of the saddle and push the bike through a distance of about 500 meters. While I was pushing Mark on his mountain bike and Chris on his hybrid were able to struggle through, Chris managed to complete this particular climb but Mark succumbed to a mechanical failure, his chain broke! The walk was to reveal itself as a curse in itself, and hence the title of this post!

So at the top we spent about 45 minutes fixing his chain. Luckily Chris had his chain breaker with him! While the repair was undertaken it was noticed that Mark and I, the walkers had picked up a fair few hitchhikers. Leeches. Covering the exposed skin on our lower legs and as was later revealed at Burringbar inside my sox.  No problem at the time pulling them off and monitoring my legs while the repair was performed. OK with the chain reconnected we attempted to move off again. Less than a meter was ridden before the chain broke again and a further 4 links were removed to reconnect it. The greatly foreshortened chain forced Mark to complete the ride without the ability to use all his gears thankfully there were only another two short ascents to go before we reached the "flat" of the railway line off Tunnel Road.  

Mark was unable to shift to high gears and so even his descent of the range was slow as he couldn't even peddle through the gentle slope sections, he had to coast all the way. Chris and I waited in the now welcoming shade of a tree, half way to Tunnel road turn-off.

It was good that Mark knew the way onto the railway line. We needed to open an unmarked gate and ride along a mowed grass stretch of ground on the other side it until it petered out 500 meters further on. This is when we met the ballast and sleepers for the first time, the surface we were to ride and walk over for the next 5+ kilometers both before in and on the other-side of the tunnel. The line is becoming quite overgrown with weeds in places and only short stretches were free of any regrowth. The peddling over the ballast was bumpy and slow, 6-8 kmph.

Just as we were about to enter the tunnel Chris discovered  an open drain covered by tall grass that his front wheel managed to 1/2 disappear into! He was not hurt unlike on Waba Road when he had came off at slow speed when a long branch hidden in the grass decided to trip his bike! This was not to be the last such event I managed to fall over on two further occasions riding on the railway line as we approached the trestle bridge and V tracks sprang out of the grass at me and this is where, I think, I buckled my rear wheel!

Back to the ride! We shared the lead and the person upfront cleared the Green Tree snakes from the track for those following, bouncing, in single file behind, Mark scared three and I rode over two others!

The tunnel was an experience. It was quite hard to see properly inside as it was very dark, derrrr, but the ends were, in that darkness, blindingly light and unavoidable to your eyes. This meant continually re-training your eyes to look at the roof and walls again after walking on only a few meters more. Chris rode the full length and walked back in whereas Mark and myself walked through pushing our bikes. Now don't take this too literally but in many places the tunnels surfaces were covered by glowworms! it appeared as though you were looking at a clear dark sky! with hundreds of stars glowing in that inky darkness! In the safety wall recess' you could see with the aid of a torchlight many very-small bats hanging from soot covered concrete surfaces. For the majority of it's length the tunnel was quite dry but near the southern end the tunnel wall and ceiling was covered with running water pouring and cascading through the now porous concrete. In places it was forcing it's way out as though from a common garden hose!  The sight was as impressive to me as the bats and glowworms inhabiting this man-made cave!

We travelled on over the bumpity-bumpity surface on the southern side of the tunnel, here the regrowth was quite a lot more significant. Maybe the traffic was less on this side or the southern side of the range or something else was the cause it but it was noticeable. About 1/2 way to the now unused railway level crossing on Upper Burringbar Road we found a clear stretch of line and sat down to eat an uneventful lunch.

Farther along the track after lunch I nearly stepped on a meter long Goanna that was quite unperturbed by out meeting not moving so-much as an eyelid as we passed by. At the trestle bridge we all proceeded to tackle the crossing in our own way but no-one attempted to ride! The gap to the ground below through the lattice work of sleepers and beams was only a little disconcerting luckily the drop below was not more than 10-20 meters! 

Here we determined that time spent on repairs and the condition of Marks bike meant an attempt to find where Upper Burringbar road would lead would have to wait for another day! At the park in main street Chris and I took off our shoes to find a few freeloading leeches still sucking. Mark decided he would wait until he got home to do it. Here is where my back wheel buckle was noticed by Chris.

So we separated Chris taking the Tweed Valley Way over the range toward home Mark and I Cudgera Creek Road which we noticed had 6, yep counted them 6 cars encountered over the 5 kilometer gravel section, quite an unusual experience. Nearing the freeway entrance Mark said he was taking the flat way along the freeway as the climb over Cudgera without gears was quite an effort and achievement. I took Kanes road and rode contentedly home to round out 50kms taking almost 7 hours!!!!! Chris will have completed at least a 100 more by the time he gets home!

All in all a good days ride! I'll post more if I think of it later....

I remember now. The reason for the heading the leeches! and me waking at 6:00am to a desperate need to scratch!

To Chris and Mark, Thanks for sharing the experience. and thanks for the sunscreen Chris my face appreciates it!

For some images and another ride report visit Chris's Blog Life Cycle

Todays Trundle

Rode over Kanes road through to Cudgera Creek Road on to Burringbar-Mooball turning onto the Pottsville-Mooball Road and returned home via Kanes Road again.

 Just an enjoyable 42kms of sunny, although, cool ride over gravel and course aggregate bitumen.

There were a 'cupla' cars/4wd utes needing to get past but they were not aggressive nor did they seem to be in too much of a hurry for a Saturday afternoon. Just chugged up the 2.5k hill to the top of Cudgera Creek with ease. Later on the swift descent past the old Pottsville/Taggert quarry was fun and glanced at the speed on the descent and managed to see it hit 74km/hr for the short burst. fun! The ride returning over Kanes road was good, as I tried to not drop below 16k during the ascents and managed to pull it off. Felt very pleased with myself, even though I know it is really slow when compared to a serious and not so serious road riders pace. Oh well, each to their own goals!

Prelim

Did a bit of research on the Burringbar Tunnel over the last cupla' days. Came up with the Geochasers site where someone has placed a control point in the tunnel. I'll post some cryptic clues later in this post. and also stumbled upon a mapping site using Google Maps that also shows Terrain Maps Zeemaps Site Link it was good!

" 

Easy walk flat ground.The cache is a round plastic container. 

The usual small brick a brack plus log book. 

This cache is a link to the past. 

When you travel down this road you will come to 

a gate this is not the end, continue on through the gate. 

After you go past the banana plantation on your right 

go down the track until you come to another gate, 

go through this gate also. 

A big hint to others - yes several gates have to be passed through. 

The first gate made us hesitate as it looks like private property. 

Yes there is a big cream shed over in front of you but the track to follow 

in your car does continue through the gate. 

Go through that gate and follow the track!!! 

We backtracked and double checked we were in the right spot as we hesitate 

about crossing onto private property of any kind!!! 

Thanks for the cache - we thoroughly enjoyed it - 

the glow worms and bats were awesome to see! 

Found with gjdjb after 3 hours looking further south. 

Should have taken a map or looked further before going hunting. 

Had a good laugh when we finally found the correct road to take us there. 

What a great spot! 2 geocaching families (warren9981) had a ball finding this one. 

We didn't do our homework very thoroughly and tried gates at the end of a few other 

roads before finding the right one - which of course couldn't have been more obvious! 

And one we'd driven passed many times over the years! 

Filled in a very pleasant Saturday afternoon. Took tb tftc 

Quite an adventure!! First we searched for an hour to far south, 

and couldn´t find the right gate. 

So we tryed further north and everything fell in place. 

After the gate it became quite muddy the last 350m very muddy, 

not recomended after a lot of rain without a 4WD. 

After out adventure-walk with heaps of glowworms we found the cache right away 

This will take you to wp1 The rest is up to you. 

Please close all gates as you go through them. 

G1377T 

28.42888S 

153.42938E 

A TORCH WILL BE HELPFUL. 

GOOD LUCK 

Additional Hints ( Decrypt ) 

Decryption Key 

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M 

------------------------- 

N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z 

(letter above equals below, 

and vice versa) 

860 fyrrcref sebz bar gb gur bgure. Oruvaq n ebpx. Ercynpr nf lbh sbhaq vg cyrnfr 

860 Sleepers from one to the other. Behind a rock. Replace as you found it please. 

"

And also re-discovered the way to Hells hole waterfall on the same site which will be a journey all it's own, another time....

" 

Hells Hole 

An odd name for such a beautiful place. 

This is one of those hidden hideaways that not even many locals know about.Even on the hottest Summer day this hidden rainforest creek is cool and inviting. 

The "hole" is a few swimming spots along it linked by little waterfalls. 

Years ago you were able to drive down to the creek but now the fire-trail 

is gated and it's around 2km downhill walk to the cache. 

From Mullumbimby you would drive along Main Arm Road about 18km to 

Middle Ridge Road. (S28° 29.023, E153° 22.462) 

Or you could come from the West via Uki. 

The dirt road is kept in good condition but take care in the wet. 

Follow Middle Ridge Road road to the head of the 

Fire-trail at S28° 29.475, E153° 22.134 

where you will have to leave your car. ( 

If you have a Mountain Bike at this stage you will save yourself a walk!) 

About 1.3km along the trail, turn left at the junction 

and follow the road down the hill to the creek. 

Then you can just follow the arrow. 

"

Mid April Musing

Just a rambling post...

Been in Sydney for a couple of days this week and on both days walked from Broadway to North Wynyard via George Street and Pitt Street. On the way I took note of all the bicycles I saw and there riders. The traffic was dense and the number of riders was in the 50's. But there was a noticeable disregard for road rules about 1 in 5 wore no helmet others rode on footpaths and on the wrong side of the road snuck through red lights rode through pedestrians etc It was a bit of an eye opener... There didn't seem to be any bike lanes or routes available.

And yet during peak hour there was a lot of riders blending into the traffic with safety and consideration... But the ones that were doing the wrong thing will be the ones remembered and talked about by car/truck drivers thus the stereotyping of bicycle commuters as arrogant law breakers... the few spoiling the whole reputation.... All I can say is I am glad I don't have to ride in the exhaust filled chaos that is the center of Sydney roads.

The rest of my time seemed to conspire against me getting a ride in every day this last two weeks but still managed to get in a fair few kilometers. But I will need to put in some extra effort this week in prep for next weekends little adventure....

Anticipating the tunnel treadly trip I sourced a site with a couple of images its Burringbar Range Tunnel to see the ride conditions.... not a problem as it would only be a couple of kilometers of pushing...

Below is a couple of images from that site.






Some of the track seems to be a bit overgrown!

Some of those contacted have shown varied degree of enthusiasm but I will go on my own if all find better things to do that day.....