Last weekend, I started my testing of what was not waterproof on the bike. Firstly, I put a bowl with a brick in it in each liner bag and let it sink into a bucket of water. Within a minute there was a centimetre or so of water in the bowl in every case. I first suspected that the seal… Read more →
I’m home and back in the land of decent Thai food 🙂 Everything got wetter than I immediately saw in Coffs Harbour; it appears that the inner liner sacks have a life of about 15 years, and they’re looking a bit mildewy and damp. Water came through in all panniers to some degree, and then soaked into stuff at the… Read more →
My hope for a wet day came true. It must have rained all night and it was still teeming in the morning. I just focused on turning the pedals over as evenly as possible and on the road just in front of me. When I next looked around, 20km had passed. Water was centimeters over the road at Braunstone and… Read more →
Today was a good day. I left Casino at about 6:20 and the skies were overcast with temperatures in the low 20s all the way to Whiporie at about 9:45. After a milkshake and some of a burger I pushed on, making good time. The temperature increased but only to the high 20s. Skies were still overcast with intimations of… Read more →
I left Huonbrook at about 6:40, this morning. It was quite overcast so I didn’t put on sunscreen. By the time I reached the bottom of Montecollum it looked decidedly clearer and I applied some at the side of the road. However, it wasn’t until after Lismore that the skies really cleared enough for it to be necessary. The Goonengerry… Read more →
Thermarest explosion Originally uploaded by wamblicious I went out to the tent last night to find my Thermarest mattress had exploded on me. It’s been 7 years that I’ve had it – bought for the first Big Ride in 2003 – and it’s served me well. At least I don’t have to pack it on the bike for the trip… Read more →
I left Uki this morning at about 6:30 and shortly thereafter it bucketed down all the way along Smith’s Creek Road until I reached the hill. Like last time I had to walk up it, being nominally a 15% gradient. That said, there’s a sign on the Burringbar Range southwards that indicates a 15% gradient, but it’s certainly no more… Read more →
It seems wrong that a town just 20km or so from one of the major population centres of the far north coast is without mobile reception, but there you have it. I’m typing this up for transmission tomorrow. Today’s ride was hot and slow. Naughton’s Gap was an early indication of the overall tenor of the day;Â I crawled up… Read more →
I set off at about 6:30 and, apart from a little fog on the outskirts of Grafton, there was hardly a cloud in the sky. It’s a boring ride in general from Grafton to Casino, with the main sights being roadkill and potholes, so I was pleased (for a while) to be diverted by the antics of my new Edge… Read more →
But it was overcast and sprinkling when I left Coffs. Sometime during the night it bucketed down (and apparently did in Grafton too)Â and the road was wet all the way to Coramba. The climb out of Coffs was hard again. Flicking through all the data fields on the edge, I noticed that there was a stretch of 11%Â gradient… Read more →
Traveling up north on the train today, I started reading Matt Taibbi’s Griftopia. It quite affected my perception of the new housing development north of Maitland. It was encroaching on old dairy farms, and I had this immediate impression of the estate as a new type of farm, where the farmers are in the mortgage business. The grass comes in… Read more →
I didn’t get a response to my nasty-gram that I sent last week, but I rang up again and spoke to a guy who looked through the options and asked why I didn’t just book the 7:41 am service out of Coffs Harbour on the way home. That’s a good question – I guess I’ve always felt that I was… Read more →
I tried to book train tickets for Christmas holidays today 🙁 Obviously I’d forgotten how much of a pain it was the last time I did it (two years ago). Still, I didn’t have the issue with the service north like I did on that previous trip – this time it was the return service from Coffs Harbour at 12:27…. Read more →
… but it’s the quickest way from the heart of the west. I left Des and Deb’s place at about 6:15 and rode down the Great Western Highway through a pea-souper. The fog had closed in last night and hadn’t lifted and the visibility was only a few hundred metres. I really should have kept my lights on the bike… Read more →
The RTA hates cyclists. You might have already guessed that, but I have proof. I rode through the inner west to Meadowbank (where there’s these ugly apartments called Shepherd’s Camp or something similar – no self-respecting shepherd would come within a mile of them, I’m sure). From there, the bike path winds along the north of the river until it… Read more →
I’m writing this on a borrowed netbook from Des and Deb’s house. It’s now started raining after threatening to do so for a few hours. The temperature has dropped a bit but not too much. Hopefully the night won’t be too warm. The train ride was long – I’d forgotten how far out Katoomba is. It would have been a… Read more →
Western Sydney is hot. Marrickville might seem hot, but it’s not really. After about 75km and 4:35, I’d had enough. Now I’m waiting for the train to take me the rest of the way. I’ll do a longer post later, with details.
Danya and I rode to Church Point and back today, in a figure 8. I rode over to his place to meet him at 7am, and we went through Lilyfield to the Bridge and up the coast from Manly to Mona Vale. Then we scooted up McCarrs Creek Road and back via Mona Vale Road and the Pacific Highway to… Read more →
Since I didn’t have enough leave accrued to take off up north again this Christmas, I’d gradually been planning to take a week off to do some longer rides around Sydney and hopefully get up to the Blue Mountains to see the new home for some friends who moved out of Sydney a few months ago. Everything coalesced into next… Read more →
I woke up a bit sore, but not too bad, considering. The saddle-sores had lessened, but the legs were still feeling over-used. It wasn’t raining, but the sky was more threatening than yesterday. Not enough to convince me to put on a raincoat, though. There was a decent headwind, and it took me an hour to get to Braunstone, crawling… Read more →
