After bidding adieu to the Riverloopers, i turned my nose south and proceeded at a fairly leisurely pace to the charming, quaint hellhole of Canungra. (Hellhole is a little strong, but it is very small and not particularly pretty to my eyes).
And so it came to pass that at 5 past elevenses, with the temperature at 34 degrees i rode out of town into a headwind (far from ideal but beggars can't be choosers), this time on what i was hoping would be a more reliable conveyance.
My hopes and dreams of reliability were short lived, only 2kms from the get go i had to pull over and give the rear derailleur a stern talking to, and educate it as to how important it was that it stay in the selected gear, and the dire consequences if it did not behave. Suitably humbled, it did not give any further trouble.
Now several people have mentioned O'Reilly's Vineyard
as the start point for the climb to the guesthouse, but given there is no climbing of any sort between the vineyard and Sarabah Bridge, i will make a daring solo breakaway by calling that the latter the start. In any case it was about this point
that things really start to kick off (note that you will need to keep an eye out for the locals, being country types their road sense is not so good eh?).
Just round that corner is this view
and roughly thataway is where things head.
(Although unfortunately there are a few of these in the way
and although they had planks across them at one stage they have long since rotted away, and even crossing them on foot is a bit dicey. Really breaks up the rythm
).
But the next few kilometres is very solid and enjoyable climbing up a whole bunch of winding switchbacks through dry open gum forest
I kept on winding my way up and up the side of this ridge, the top of which never seemed to get any closer, though there was a lovely view to keep any negative thoughts at bay.
The road itself was a fairly crook surface, nothing crazy but it was relatively rough and made of very coarse chip, however it was particularly narrow, especially at this section
After rounding this corner
i was treated to this spectacular view
(the photo does it no favours at all)
and to my disbelief, the road KEPT going up. I just couldn't get my head around the fact i had been climbing up one side of the ridge for many kilometres, and was now STILL climbing on the other side. It was a very strange experience, riding along constantly climbing but with the top of the ridge above me never seeming to get any closer. Almost all of this riding was in the 53-28 gear at 17-22kmh, occasionally clicking it up one or 2 to get out of the saddle and use some different muscles.
I kept pushing on through more switchbacks
and then all of a sudden after rounding a corner which looked like so many others, i was confronted by what looked like a green brick wall, with the road forming a dark acrchway through it.
and from that point on it was bye bye open gum forest and hello cool shady green rainforest (the shade was particularly welcome).
After some time i reached one of the landmarks of the climb, the alpaca farm.
This is still a long way from the top, but not long afterwards is when things start to get really serious, the tough thing about this ride is that until the last few k it's actually not very steep, and then after 20odd k of climbing you are presented with this 12% slope
and at this point the road surface also turns to hell thanks to all those trees, it is horribly lumpy, and while the cars going up were, without exception, very friendly and courteous, a lot of the oncoming cars didn't slow down anywhere near as much as i would have liked (the road is VERY narrow), this held true for the descent as well.
But after all the hard work i was finally rewarded when i reached the top.
After a meat pie and 1.2L of coke (it was really hot ok?) i set off back down the hill at a very relaxed pace, taking all the photos along the way. I hadn't been going long when i stopped to take a photo of the last steep climb, and as a car passed i stepped back off the road, pressing into something with sharp thorns. I quickly turned around to see a shrub with no thorns or sharp protuberances of any kind, yet my back and arm still hurt. To my utter horror i realised it was a Gympie gympie tree, aka 'one of the world's most venomous plants'
. I had heard about these but never encountered one and my only thought was to continue into Canungra and hope for the best. It must have been a different species from the one normally referred to though, as the pain didn't get beyond multiple bee or ant stings, and it had pretty much subsided by the time i got back to Canungra. There is a little tingling today but nothing much, all the same, beware of the plants up there!
Only 1.5k from Canungra i had my first flat in a very long time
(what's wrong with this picture?)
Normally flats inspire a special kind of rage in me but it turned out the Maxxis Re-Fuse was still intact (as is my faith in it) and the tube had actually split right at the base of the valve stem for whatever reason. I sat down on the side of the road in some shade and got things sorted out, enjoyed the view, and watched a magpie swooping a large snake in a nearby paddock.
Then i continued into Canungra and collected my trophy.
I think i earned it.
When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.
.
. I could go a lot better on all of them, especially now i know where they are. Not least for the fact i'm on a 13kg single speed!
and then up the hill out of town. It was at this point i was overtaken by a grader and i noticed for the first time that graders look quite like buses. In spite of my best efforts i couldn't quite get onto his wheel, but as the gap opened up i realised i was feeling really good, and went through to cooroy MUCH quicker than usual. By Tinbeerwah i realised i was on a blinder, and i ended up rolling into work afer 1:11:23.
. Very angry with my body, especially as things have been going so well, my legs have no pain at all from yesterday's ride and i'm up to 5228k for the year. The last week was 308k, my best for this year. I guess i'll just have to wait and see, but i'm definitely not doing any riding tomorrow 
.
.