Old favourites

After a few weeks away it was time to return to two of my old favourites on the weekend. On Saturday morning (after a group bushwalk was cancelled), I decided to head for Springbrook in the Hinterland. One of the things I love about this place is that I appreciate it, even after visiting somewhere as amazing as New Zealand. The charms of Springbrook still stand out, and this is why I wanted to return.



The obligatory climb to Best of All Lookout was always on the agenda. In truth I was a little slower than I would have liked because of the heat that had already started to scorch the coast at 5.30am. Once I got up into the mountains, however, things became more pleasant, even if the promised rain didn't materialise. I basically took my time on the plateau, savouring the environment. Had the 17km Warrie circuit bushwalk been reopened, I might have stayed here all day.



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I followed up on Sunday with a climb to the Binna Burra section of Lamington National Park with Martin. Conventional wisdom says you should never ride with a bloke who has good form on the bike when you're backing up after a decent ride the day before. I ignored that "wisdom" and went anyway. It was yet another beautiful day on the mountain (if a little windy). The sweeping views stretched forever in every direction one could imagine. It was yet another time when I should have simply spent the day on the mountain rather than return to the heat of the coast.



Somewhere on the lower slopes of the descent home a motorcyclist had apparently been run off the road by a wrong-way driver. Apparently some things never change. Still, we managed to avoid that, and every other idiot on the road. In fact, the only real issue either of us had were the insects who took a liking to my sunsceen, immediately after I'd applied it. I'm not sure what they saw in it, but they were pretty determined about it.