Sunday 26 October 2008 - Old Great North Road (+ Spiders!)

A brilliant days riding. A little marred by the fact that one rider lost his water supply through some unfortunate leaks, and with the necessary sharing, three of us were out of water before we managed the return journey in 30+ degrees of sunshine...

[If it hadn't apparently happened before, the offender would have gone nameless, but from what I hear JOHN M this is not the first time...! Perhaps a new Camel might be in order?]

Setting off from the pumping station at a leisurely hour, the weather was perfect - not too sunny, some cooling moisture in the air). We were pretty quickly into it, and the bush was just beautiful.

The crowd at the end of Spiders (John, Martin, Stephe, Donal):



And some 'scenic' shots!



We had a quick bite to eat at the beginning of Spiders, and then had a blast along that section (which was just plain great!).



Then back through the farms, on to the road (said "Hi" to the dude that lives on the property we pass through, and he was an entirely nice chap!), and then to the climb up Shepherd's Gully.

It was hot, and it was very (very) hard.

At the rest point at the top of Devine's Hill, John M had been out of water for a while, and with increased consumption Stephe's ran out, and Donal was running low (I confess that I'm not sure what Adventure Racing Legend Martin was up to on the water front at that stage...!).

We cruised back along the ridge line, counting every hill, with John M feeling progressively worse (amazing just how quickly not enough water can harm you). Finished the last of the water at the junction with the Western Commission Track, and then raced to the Wat Buddha Dhama for a desperately needed quenching!



It was equally amazing, however, just how quickly we all recovered from that point once the water was into us. It was a great ride down the hill, although the finish involved Stephe getting stung by a wasp while handing bikes around the fence, dropping a bike (which Martin caught before it sank into the resevoir), and then cramping up with all the screaming and yelling. But, that was quickly a memory as we conquered the last 500m of vertical bitumen and fell back into the cars.

Old Great North remains the best ride in Sydney, yee ha!

Full set of photos (such as they are, Stephe ain't no photographer, of that we can be sure) are here.

Sunday 19 October 2008 - McCarrs Creek on the road

Nothing much to report, except that the tendency towards road riding is getting a little out of hand... Saturdays is one thing, but intruding on sacred Sundays is quite another... let's see no more of it possible!

Sunday 12 October 2008 - Menai

Another great trip to Menai, with more fun than you could poke a stick at...

Started and finished at the Lucas Heights Community school car park: Stephe, Brian, Johnbo, Liam, Daniel and Caro...



We did the now standard loop (track details recorded on Johnbo's Motionbased GPS unit), and had a good warm up with some fun along the way (Brian and Caro showing us how it's done).



We were also treated to a very amusing discussion between a cranky Cockatoo (presumably nesting) and a misguided Goanna (presumably nest disturbing), which was pretty interesting until we realised we were in the Goanna's path for the quick exit...



Having survived that, we cruised up to the playground at the top of the hill and began to play! It was a hoot...



And then we cruised back around the top of the bowl, and had a good healthy ride around the perimeter and back to the cars.

Full set of photos (including some cute 'action' sequences) are here... A great ride, and sorry about the delay in getting the report up (indeed, failed to get the report on the web before Caro managed to plaster her collarbone all over a tree at Ourimbah - get well soon Caro!).