Arrival of the night

Mark down Saturday 19 February 2004 as the first all-night century. Martin and I met up at North Burleigh Surf Club for the start of the ride, we ended up getting away around 15 minutes or so late, but I wasn't complaining. It just meant the temperature would be a little cooler for the start of the ride, and a little less daylight to be concerned with. The traffic was heavy at first as we picked our way through the suburbs, but soon disspated once we got out to Currumbin Valley, and it wasn't long before we reached Tomewin, the major climb of the evening (but by no means the only one).

The first stretch of this is a gradient of 11% -- I opted for a more measured approach to this, in preference to the all-out attack -- mainly so that I could get a more consistent beam from my headlight. I crested this bit first, and had a few moments to wait, so I decided to play with my camera in the unfamiliar environment -- although this shot of the moon was about the only one that worked:



Then Martin came up to the summit.



A few ups and downs, before the final sustained climb to the top of Tomewin, then came the screaming descent into the Tweed Valley. Here I attempted a photo of Murwillumbah by night, but it was never on. It was then a flat run for a few km, before hitting Chilcott's road, a short dirt stretch. I had worried a little about the narrow, winding dirt road here, but it proved less of a problem. The moonlight actually offered a little scenery to the side, and then there was the flooded creek to ford at the end.



Then we passed Chillingham, and the ups and downs to Tyalgum, with two major hills and a few minor ones. The views were hard to spot for those with weak eyes in the light, but they opened up spectacularly as the clouds formed on the surrounding mountains. It was a refill of the waterbottles at Tyalgum, before the back-country run to Uki via Byrill Creek. We actually opted to cruise a little here (although I was still attacking the hills for the sake of light consistency). The views were still spectacular, but they gave way to forests for quite a stretch. Here I had three owls fly across my path, isn't this supposed to represent good luck? The temperature dropped to the minimum of 18 degrees C here, so perhaps that was my luck.

The dirt ended a little sooner than I expected, and we were soon back on the main road toward Uki. Martin took off here, and I had to chase bloody hard to catch him. We arrived in Uki at around 11.30pm, and after obtaining more water, we headed for a bench that was actually in a bit of light to eat the food we'd carried with us.

We left there around midnight, and headed on the Stokers Siding road. This is flat at first before a short steep climb right in the middle. I attacked it viciously because I could, then I had to slow down and wait on the other side. After a few more minor ups and downs, we by-passed Murwillumbah on Cane Road. Here the night was a blessing -- we were able to forget just how boring this road really is! Martin remarked that "this is really the absolute dead of the night", and it felt quite eerie that nobody was around.

The next object was Urliup, a consistent 2km climb that i once again attacked before setting up for the winding dirt road through the dense rainforest. By now the moon was gone, but it would be of no assistance here anyway, such is the density of the forest. Like the other patches of rainforest, there were some interesting bird calls to be heard at this time of night. Martin and I paused briefly at the Meeting of the Waters to take in the sight of the truly stunning night sky -- now that the moon was gone there were literally billions of stars visible. It's just a shame that not all of us get the opportunity to appreciate things like this.

After negotiating the final patch of dirt for the evening, it was left to the final climb of Bilambil. I had "noted" this hill for the problems it gave me on the back end of a 200km ride a few weeks back, when it was about 34 degrees C and no shade to hide from the sun. Tonight it was 22 degrees C and no sun at all. I adopted the clinical approach here, although my legs complained a little in the initial kick -- I had already accepted that they would be sore after this ride.

After this we just had to put paid to the remaining bits of suburbia, and keep an eye out for the drunks. In the end, neither provided us with any problems, although suburia is seldom interesting. I went on a bit of an attack at Palm Beach, but couldn't convince Martin to come with me on that one. We did attack the final few km at Burleigh, however, and put paid to the end of the ride.

Today I've been paying for the effort severely. I don't know whether it's the 80km ride I did that morning, or that I'm just not used to riding at those hours (I haven't done that since my university days, and certainly never a century at that time). I did go and get a massage, but in 30 minutes it didn't really help a great deal. I was actually told one or two muscles were really tight (as in almost at breaking point). Hence I opted out of the 40km planned for tonight. I'll make that up somewhere else.