The Alternative View

I was undecided on where to ride this morning, so I decided to inspect something that I saw on a map. I headed to Austinville again, this time to see if I could turn the ride into a circuit. The map wasn't quite right, and I ended up riding directly across the paddocks pictured above. Perhaps not such a good idea in the rain, but I may not get the same chance again.

The original intention had been to follow Tallowood Road, near the top of the hill on which the local hall sits. After a couple of steep gradients, with the road turning to dirt, everything looked to be heading in the right direction. There was even the promise of further places to explore later, such as the Mudgeeraba State Forest. Things got a bit silly when the dirt road appeared to dead end at a farm, but I then saw another "track" through the undergrowth. To say I was riding in faith at this point wouldn't be totally accurate, it was more like wishful thinking.



After some rough bits, the "road" eventually petered out to a dead end. There were signs of human habitation -- maybe someone decided to build a house here at some point, but it was anything but what I was looking for.







It all left me with little option but to turn back. I wasn't so keen on heading for Tallowood Road and back out the way I came, that would have been the sensible thing to do! I chose the option of riding cross-country instead. There were no signs indicated private property, and no fences, so I figured the owner wouldn't be too bothered. As it was I didn't see them, but I did have a minor crash in a mud patch at the bottom. Eventually it brought me out to the start of the rainforest section in Austinville proper. Regular readers of this page will know what that means.



The rest of the ride passed relatively uneventfully. I was a little surprised to end up with just 51km by the end of it. It seemed like a lot to pack into such a short distance -- especially considering that around 20km of it was passing through suburbia. I'm hoping for a century tomorrow, the planned century may be called off, as it includes a dirt road on a mountain that has seen four inches of rain (and counting) in the last 24 hours. I'll just see what I decide in the morning.