Been decapitated lately?

This seems like a great way to commence a ride:



And so it was that I set off south, past the concealed head, on a hilly tour of the Burringbar range and surrounds this morning. A freezing start to the day, just 5 degrees C this morning -- highly unusual on the coast! Actually, I'm not sure it even reached 20 all day. All in all a very pleasant day regardless, the highlight being the wildflowers blooming and continual vistas that open up all around this range on the various routes to climb it (three different ones in all).









Actually, these ones are being grown by some of my neighbours, so I was a little surprised to find them growing in the wild, too.



Some of the other noteworthy things to come out of the day: I should probably use the mountain bike on the dirt track through Mooball National Park, rather than the hybrid. Having said that, there were no crashes or even any narrow escapes, but I didn't feel as "in control" as I'd like. I was also a little lethargic at times on the ride, not so much in the spectacular sections, just on some of the "in between" bits. I'm hoping this will clear up shortly. I may have taken the first step to that with a strong finish to the ride.

The thought passed my mind today that this range seems to be a little piece of paradise just to the East of Murwillumbah, and one that remained undiscovered for so long, given that it's relatively close to home. There are actually a lot more quality pictures I could take, ones that I decided to save for my next visit (whenever that may be). Perhaps it's all just as well -- the terrain on parts of this ride is actually quite challenging. Maybe if I'd discovered it too soon, I might have found it a little less to my liking.

Perhaps I'm paying too much attention to the sprint stages on the TdF. On the final stretch of this ride (153km into it to be precise), some teenager on a BMX wanted a "drag race". Instead of trying to play along with his acceleration, I just jumped into his slipstream and drafted until his charge died. Then I came around the outside, dropped a little "can't you keep it going any longer?", and then did exactly the same thing again. I probably shouldn't pose like that, but he didn't seem to mind.