The comeback is complete

It seems everyone knows about this except my blog readers, as I have once again been slack in updating. However, 10 days ago, and basically 10 weeks after breaking three bones, being knocked unconscious and all the other crap that went on, I have now officially completed the comeback by successfully riding 190km in a day. I talked my friend Martin into coming with me for a jaunt along the Coolamon Scenic Drive in the hills behind Mullumbimby. Of course, that meant that most of the kilometres would be accumulated in getting there and back, but we can live with that.



We started off by heading south, down along the Tweed Coast with the intention, for me anyway, of a complete change of scenery. Those long weeks I spend cooped up in Suburbia were driving me crazy. I'll never forget the feeling I got immediately south of Pottsville and thinking "Damn, it's good to be here again". The feeling continued and must have had something positive, because it was the first time I've ever broken three hours from my place to Mullumbimby. We were flying!



Making friends is easier in some places than others. While putting on sunscreen at Mullumbimby, a dog from near by decided to go and find a stick to bring back to me. I'd never seen this dog before, but as long as (s)he wasn't chasing my wheels, I wasn't complaining about throwing a stick a few times. We soon set off into the hills, climbing the Coolamon Ridge on the accidentaly discovered Possum Shoot Road, then taking in the sweeping views of the surrounding area, and the surrounding rain.



The rain closed in soon enough, although we missed the thunderstorm to the north, there was rain waiting for us after we passed through Mullumbimby on the return, bound for Burringbar. The rain was actually quite pleasant, and made some of the climbs around Billinudgel and Mooball feel probably easier than they were. The food stop at Burringbar was a little rushed, however, and I didn't take the time to stretch.



I believe the stretch between Burringbar and Murwillumbah on the old highway is one of the most underrated stretches of road in the area, with varying views and a lot of forest to please one's senses, although for some reason I have rarely pulled out the camera here. Nonetheless, we rode on, and negotiated Murwillumbah, with it's usual stop-start traffic (just why it's this way I don't know, it's rarely heavy traffic).



The climb of Tomewin was the final test of the day. I knew that reaching the summit here would give me the "century" I so desperately wanted, and I also knew that there wasn't going to be much difficulty in the final 30km after this. My legs had other ideas, so I cut a deal by simply riding up the climb very slowly. Martin showed the value of regular riding during the previous weeks by taking off on the climb and slaughtering it, I was a little slower. As it was, we got over the top and descended to the coast and suburbia.

I did get a bit of a shock to find that we actually finished the 190km at around 2pm. That was a good hour quicker than I had expected. When I get fit again, anything is possible.