The power source -- GONE! (temporarily)

I knew this was coming, but it's no easier to take. For the last four years or so, my riding has been powered by a secret power source, the world's biggest and most exotic passionfruit vine. For four years I nurtured it, tended it, and was rewarded with a fruit supply so plentiful that not even I could eat all of them. I still have vivid memories of filling panniers with passionfruit for long weekend bike tours, of pitching my tent out in the bush and watching the sun go down while eating passionfruit.

So it was with great sadness that I had to bring forward the annual pruning by a few months as a result of my upcoming move. It's a serious shame to have to cut it back and lose so much fruit -- there were literally thousands of flowers on it (and what pretty flowers they are). This was the peak of the season, and after Queensland's first decent wet season in five years, this year was set to be a bumper crop.

Most of the fruit that was there was not yet ripe. However, all is not lost. I still grabbed a couple of hundred or so, and brought them inside. The climate here is warm enough that I should be able to ripen most of them (even if it has to be indoors). Those that I can't ripen will go into a pot at my new pad, to start the process all over again. I'm not losing the vine.

Incidentally, I managed to pass a passionfruit-powered milestone over the weekend. The climbing "odometer" on my altimeter now reads 322km, or 200 miles. That's the tally since May 2004. 200 miles in under two years. The only ride I had was a quick exploration of Wongawallan in the hinterland, in the foothills of Mt Tamborine. It was quite pleasant in it's own way, but these days 70km rides leave me feeling a little unsatisfied. Still, that was all I had time for, so I can't really complain I guess. The scenery was quite nice, too.









I'll be looking for something really big and nasty on Anzac Day.