Brum

I had a rare complete day off the bike on Saturday. I spent most of the day wondering what the hell I was going to do now? Yesterday I decided to do something about it. The planned distance was only 164km, but there were a few twists. It all started simply enough, opening with a the seemingly pre-requisite climb over the Macpherson range at Tomewin. I know I do this a lot, but for a relatively small climb, the scenic delights it offers are many and varied.





I found myself riding through the Tweed valley, the thing immediately noticeable was the humidity from the previous night's storm. It would later become apparent the extent to which the storm struck here -- there had been virtually nothing on the coast.



After the obligatory short, sharp climbs en route to Tyalgum, it was time to take Swifts Road, followed by Tyalgum Ridge road, which then becomes Brummies Road. This particular dirt "road" (which is more like a track), was absolutely treacherous by now. It seems the storm had scattered all sorts of debris over it, and a few misinformed attempts at "roadwork" by the Tweed Shire Council were still evident and causing problems of their own. The surroundings, however, compensated for the fact that it was taking considerably longer than planned to get up here.



I had now reached the junction with Condowie Road. Last time I'd abandoned the climb to Brummies Lookout as the rain at the time was making it a little slippery for those gradients. This time I pressed on. The road kicked up steeply at first before levelling off toward the summit. Then I noticed the 500 metre walking track to reach the lookout itself. I'm sure it was longer than this, but being overgrown and rough as it was, it's not always easy to tell. I was grateful for some of the mountain biking I've done over the last couple of years, it's really honed my bushwalking skills, and I was able to reach the summit fairly comfortably (if a little cautiously).







Getting back provided slightly different challenges. For some reason the track seemed a little harder to follow, but there are certain "landmarks", natural features one can memorise along the way to point them in the right direction.



The remainder of the ride home was a screaming decent of Condowie road, then back to Tyalgum, through to Murwillumbah the conventional way, then home via Urliup. It was all very pretty, but nothing was really able to complete with the excitement of finally making it to Brummies Lookout. Had the storm clouds that were building up actually done anything it might have been different of course. For me the next question is now where do I want to explore next? At present I really have no idea.