A new arrival

This post is a couple of weeks old, but I did manage to go and buy that MTB that I was talking about.  I still haven't given this machine a name yet, nor have I taken it out on any epic rides -- hopefully I'll take care of that this weekend.  I did manage to take it for an 80km spin around Tomewin in the Macpherson Ranges on the New South Wales border.  It wasn't the full "Garden of Eden" circuit, but that would have been pointless after the Tweed Shire Council's "upgrade" of Urliup road anyway.  

It always takes a few kilometres to get used to a new bike, and somehow I managed to pick a semi-rainy day.  Actually, at this time of year, the rain is more of a help than a hindrance -- heat exhaustion is the last thing I want to deal with.  It was, however, a good 30km before I hit any dirt.  Like any good MTB, the dirt is where you really start to see the advantage, especially over the rock on the ridge-top route on Glengarrie "Road".  It's also amazing how light this thing is compared to "Kevin", the MTB that I was using previously.  Before, it was difficult to get the height of a decent "bunnyhop" when trying to clear corrugations, tree roots or whatever else.  That doesn't seem to be a problem here.  

I'm still weighing up just how I'll convert this one into an off-road tourer later on, but right now, I'm content to simply enjoy what I have.  Could another crack at the infamous Duck Creek Road be on the agenda?

Destination: Taiwan

I love snap decisions.  Thanks to making one of them on Tuesday of this week, I'm flying out to Taiwan for my next bike tour in a little over five weeks.  It doesn't even seem as though I returned from Europe all that long ago, but I've decided to take advantage of another opportunity (even if it does mean working a bit of overtime in the next few weeks).  It probably seems crazy to some that I'm leaving summer behind and heading straight into "winter", but, well, this is the tropics (at both ends of the flight).  I'm still not sure if I'll be able to cross the 3,275 metre Wuling Pass in December/January, but I might just do it anyway.  

The main reasoning behind the decision was reading that some of the local mosquitoes in Taiwan carry Dengue fever.  A little research into that particular ailment provided some stories that I'd rather not confirm in person, and it seems "winter" is about the only effective mosquito repellent that I can ever recall coming across.  It just seemed the most logical thing to do was to bring the trip forward, and go December/January.  It took less than 24 hours to make all the arrangements (as an aside, that's one of the many benefits of living alone, the ability to make decisions like this and make the arrangements quickly).

It may be an overreaction, of course, but I can see other advantages -- cooler temperatures, escaping a Queensland summer for a few weeks, and biggest of all escaping usual bogan parade that goes with Christmas in Australia these days.  In fact, since there's no more Gold Coast United FC, and therefore no Boxing Day M1 derby (look it up on wikipedia if you don't know what I'm talking about), there's no real reason to stay here at all.  I fly out on December 22.

Tosspot of the week

I had someone else in mind for this week's award, but they'll have to wait until next week now (and I doubt that particular controversy is going away any time soon).  The truth is, there was a far more worth recipient on Bermuda Street, Broadbeach Waters last Friday evening.  Some old guy copped a red light, but decided that simply waiting in line for it to change was too boring, and thought his time would be better spent getting out of his car and trying to pick a fight with the guy in the car behind him.  Meanwhile, the light turned to green while this idiot was still on his feet demonstrating his limited vocabulary (which apparently contains no words longer than four letters).

I have to ask, what was this guy trying to achieve?  There really wasn't much point asking him, as there's no way someone of his limited IQ was ever going to figure it out.  I'll admit that being bored at Gold Coast traffic lights is a very real possibility, as they are second only to Brisbane as the slowest in the seven countries I have visited so far, but there was really no possible benefit to what this idiot was trying to do.  I suppose he may be trying to make his mother wish she could go back in time and declare a Jihad on her unborn foetus with a coat hanger, but I suspect she already feels that way (and I would too).

I can only assume this idiot was trying to keep me entertained at the end of a long working week.  If that was his intention, he certainly succeeded.  I was continually laughing at him for the remainder of the ride home, and then told my neighbour about it, and he was laughing too.  In exchange for all those laughs, my humble offering is a Tosspot of the Week award.

Sackings imminent

Would you believe it's taken me almost three weeks to get around to writing this post?  Despite (or perhaps because of) a rather disappointing way to start a 180km ride.  It was three weeks ago that I discovered the Tweed Shire Council have now decided to seal all but 1km of one of my favourite dirt roads -- Urliup.  I probably should have known it was coming eventually, but they seem to have forgotten what happened last time they pissed me off. 

As it was, I now had 140km left to try to find another dirt road to fill the role that Urliup used to fill (which is basically a quick and effective way to escape "civilisation" and all it's dubious "benefits").    A few suggestions came to mind.  Reserve Creek Road?  Nah, not enough rainforest.  Settlement Road, Chillingham?  Nah, it's a dead-end with only one way in and out (very nice though).  Richard's Deviation?  Nah, too short.  The same goes for Chilcotts Road.

I ended up climbing over the Burringbar Range on Cudgera Creek Road -- and very nice it was, too.  If it was only a little closer and more convenient.  It also reminded me of another option that I'll keep to myself for now.  I finished the day with a final ride over Mt Jerusalem National Park (note: the real Mt Jerusalem is a fair way to the South, but since it's now legally inaccessible... ).  That's another option, which also offers several other places to explore in the area.

Someone at Main Arm once told me there supposed to be caves in the area with aboriginal rock paintings inside.  I've not seen or heard any evidence of that in the since, but as it's an area few tourists know about (Much less visit), and as I now have a new MTB to play with (more on that later), I might spend some of my summer doing just that, there.