Wibba wabba

Yesterday I joined Dave from Tweed Coast Treadly and his riding partner Mark for a trip through the Mooball National Park. In order to get there I had a 48km ride down the coast to begin with. Perhaps I could have left a little earlier and detoured to find some hills, but there would be no shortage of those to follow. As it was, I probably needed to spend some time riding into the wind, and this provided it.



After assembling at Dave's place and making acquaintances, it was time to head for the switchback climb over Cudgera Creek road, to the top of the ridge where the real ride would start. I had been wondering why such a fuss was made over "permissions" and so forth -- given that most of the dirt roads in that area are actually gazetted as public roads. Evidently permissions become important because of the practice of many land owners in illegally fencing off such roads.



This was the case at the start of Wabba road, which basically forced us into some cross-country trekking to get to the start of the national park. Here, the real ride began. This "road" is more of a track, and barely formed, but it passes through some stunning forests as it gradually snakes it's way up the Burringbar range. Along the way there were a few stops to check maps and so forth, but negotiating a route for the first time provides a sense of excitement.





The key discovery on this ride was to be the Palmvale Spur firetrail. Along the way we'd looked at a couple of other potential detours, but had figured this would most likely enable us to create a circuit out of the ride. It almost did, but for the aforementioned practice of fencing off public roads. We faced a dead-end road with nothing more than an unmarked track heading off in a completely different direction to provide any additional options.





I made the mistake of suggesting we follow the track for a while, which soon became totally unrideable. Eventually we found a clearing in which to leave the bikes and continue on foot. Tramping through a heap of lantana and picking up some scratches eventually led us to a dry creek bed which may have actually linked up with Palmvale. The temptation was to follow it, but time constraints put an end to that, pretty as the area was. We decided to return, but Mark was apparently in a hurry to get home, and decided he'd climb over the fence on the Palmvale fire trail and ride it to the end regardless. I await news of how he got on.

Dave and I decided to ride back up the fire trail to rejoin the "main" dirt road through the National Park. This is actually an extremely pretty climb, rugged and slow, but definitely rideable -- providing time to really enjoy the surrounds. Back at the top we rode across the top of the range, before the final switchback descent back to Murwillumbah. I'm sure I took those corners way too fast, but fortunately my brakes are in good condition, and this didn't present any major problems.

Back in Murwillumbah we said our goodbyes and I decided to ride back home over Tomewin. Evidently the 750-odd metres of climbing in 27km on dirt wasn't enough. I got myself into a grinding rhythm on Tomewin, and just took it apart clinically as I'm finding that the best method of dealing with climbs like that. Tomewin wasn't the final piece of drama, however. 15km from home my gear changes became sloppy, and when the gears started changing of their own accord, the reason why became obvious.

My rear gear cable was about to break. I nursed it through the final kilometres (fortunately this part of the route was flat and the northerly wind didn't eventuate), and just made it home. Today I was riding the Black Magic to work, and just spend a good portion of the evening fitting another cable to my primary bike. The Black Magic did a superb job today on the commute, but it too needs some work. Hopefully I'll find some free time to take care of it soon.

In the meantime I'm left to look back on what was a truly memorable ride, which may even make it into this year's top 10. I continue to be astonished by the quality, quantity and variety of riding experiences that just keep turning up in this part of the world.