Altering Austinville

On Saturday Martin and I spent a couple of hours exploring the ridge on the eastern side of the Austinville valley. In time it wouldn't just be our usual ride in that area that was altered, but there is another far more exciting change going on. This ride opened with the detour climb up Tallowood Road. I've ridden this before, but that was some time ago. The gradient hit 18% at one time, and it seems I have a talent for finding hills. The views at the top made things worthwhile, however.



At the top of the hill I noted that the old farm appeared to have been abandoned, while the farm house was largely (but not completely) demolished. This actually provided access to an area that I wasn't in a position to explore previously, but due to time constraints that would have to wait for another day. Right now we were faced with a ride across a paddock to rejoin the main road. Unfortunately, we headed in slightly the wrong direction and crossed a gap in a fenceline, which put us on some private property. Lessons learned. The other lesson learned is that I need to purchase a new MTB before undertaking this adventure again, as a spectacular crash resulting in some bruising around my ribs showed that a hybrid really isn't up to this sort of thing.



We were actually told by some locals that the council are creating a nature reserve, hence the (at least partial) demolition of the old farm house at the top of the hill. At the other end of the valley, we actually saw the full extent of it. As there are no signs prohibiting it, it looks like there will soon be some serious places to explore on a mountain bike in this area, to add to the already stunning ride along the main road to the end of the valley. Life is good.