There is a number of reasons, the major ones being that of course fundraising and the difficulty factor to gain sponsorship .. Though there is something special about experiencing our country by bicycle that is hard to describe. The fact that we are able to do it in our country is something we all take for granted, & we encourage you to dust off your bike and enjoy the freedom of two wheeled motion whenever you get the chance.
We've had the sun on our skin, wind in our hair. We've seen the bronzed wintered grass bow and dance before the spring winds. Bell birds and magpies, bright yellow wattles waving us on by the sides of the road. Cows grazing lift their heads in a quaint hello as you pass by. Peach and apple blossoms, grapes glossing plump in the sun, fields of grain, sheep, dairy and wheat .. The things that keep us and our country alive are all part of something you travel through and feel. Driving past in a car is just that ... As the road takes up your focus. It's not hard to see how you can fall in love with the country when you take time to experience her like that...
Woodenbong!!! With a name like this we were all expecting to arrive into the hoochie cooch capital of NSW, but we were out of suprises on that front and it was onto Boonah for the day.
With the mornings now above zero, and feeling as faded as our jeans, or should I say Lars's jeans that look like they time warped from the 80's !.. the warm weather was a welcome relief for us all as we packed up camp and climbed our way strait up for 5 km's out of the 'wooden carved smoking apparatus'. The descending this day was something spectacular, both on the bike and visually. We followed the road as it wound and wrapped it's way out of the scenic rim and down the Cunningham gap range.
The crazy ones among us sped past signs at over twice the indicated approach speed .. these are some of the fun moments cyclist are either ravishing or fear. One split second on a sharp hairpin after swerving to miss a braking Trek rider in front of me found myself almost off the road and into a rocky abyss below but luckily for luck, my trusty tubular tyres held their own and railed me and my iron steed away from a deathly demise.
It was at about an hour into the ride, just after your legs have warmed up from the build up of weekly fatigue that Lars and I spotted a detour off the main road upto Mt.Barney and decided to clock up some extra miles. This road which looked like a scene out of a Texan chainsaw massacre movie had it's own detour, which on the way back took us so far off course we became quite lost and into the probable arms of a human butchery, though as luck would have it, we happenned back onto the ride route by chance, albeit missing our lunch stop.
Meanwhile Trudy was having mechanical problems as she was no where to be seen at the lunch stop. Les and Dan began having a mild panic attack as to her where-a bouts. Later we discovered her saddle had broken completely off! To those who have not had this comforting experience, it's the equivalent of ridding a horse minus it's saddle and in it's place a steel post! No wonder she was no where to be seen.
Afternoon tea stop for the day was at Maroon primary school, where parents of the students had prepared some delicious treats for our jersey pockets. Schools in these tiny places are a real sight to behold, so personal warm and friendly in comparison to the more common ones in larger places.
Mid afternoon had seen us clock off around four and a half hours of once again hilly cycling, and the heat now off the Tarmac was sitting at around 30 deg plus according to the weather gurus, with some bike computers registering 34 deg of very dry and hot QLD country sun and wind. I left my riding companions just before the days end and headed west towards the mountains once again to log some extra sponsorship k's and on arriving back to camp, fitted in just nicely with all the other wind and sun burnt FMN riders. Sunscreen seems to have little effect here.
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