Back to the Tweed

No updates for a while, a lot of things I wanted to write about, but I just haven't had the time. Consequently, it was up to today's ride to provide some entertainment. It all started with a nice sunrise out of the ocean. I don't see too many sunrises near the ocean these days -- largely due to time constriants, but this was worth the effort.



As always, the Tweed Valley turned on another series of beautiful vistas, such as this near Tyalgum.



Perhaps a difference is the number of wildflowers that appeared, I guess it's that time of year.



And of course, the secrets of the rainforests.





The thing notable about this excursion was the fact that I had a headwind in both directions. A southerly in the morning, and a northerly after turning around and riding North from Terragon, south of Uki. It was quite strong at times, but nothing I couldn't handle (even if I did have to make an extra water stop at Urliup). In a grim kind of way I enjoyed it, pushing into a headwind is quite a liberating feeling, because the wind itself becomes the objective.

I like the liberating feeling of the wind becoming the objective, rather than the ride itself. When it's just me vs the wind, it feels like a medieval joust, a game of cat and mouse. The other bit I like is when I'm getting close to the finish, and the wind knows (as I do) that it's losing badly, this is when I take the opportunity to hand out some stick of my own - posing, gloating, launching totally irrational attacks that serve no purpose at all other than feeding my own oversized ego.

In the end I managed to turn it aside, and hand out some stick myself. The only question is how I'll pull up after the ride. Messing around with some stretches after the ride, I realised that I can actually bend over and touch my toes. I couldn't do that when I was a kid, this means that I'm more flexible now than I was then!