Karawatha revisited.

Although I was there yesterday, I went there again today with a couple of mates to ride mountain bikes again. Some very nice spots in the forest.

We rode about 26km and climbed almost 500m so it was a good workout in the showery weather.

What rain?

This was the picture as I arrived at the starting point for the ride this morning. Everywhere else had turned into a mudfest so we thought we would try somewhere different.  After we avoided the flooded streams, we found some nice trails that we where able to stretch the legs on.

All in all, a good mornings ride.

The Daisy Hill crew on YouTube

It's that time of year again when we look back at what happened this year. For the crew of the Daisy Hill Wednesday morning ride it was more great times out there in the forest ... and we ventured away from Daisy as well. I hope your year on the bike was as good as ours.

And have a great 2010.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWmQdJz2kvw

Mates in a mag.

If you walk, ride, ski or paddle with me there is every chance that you will find youself looking out from the pages of a magazine (with your permission of course). It is good to see some of my mates from the regular Daisy Hill Wed morning crew have made the pages of Australian Mountain Bike over Christmas. At least one of them is available for magazine signings if you like (LOL).

Have a great Christmas.

Snake bites, mountain bikes and art.

If you have a pet snake it is likely to bite you as some point. Well, this week was that time .... and twice in one week !!! Lucky its not poisonous.

Good mountain biking again with mates. Always a good laugh and a good workout.

Asia Pacific Triennial of Art 6 is showing at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane .... certainly worth a look.

The Christmas ride.

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It was a good turn for the annual weekly Wed morning ride

... although a few of the guys forgot their bikes .... bugger.

But luckily we found one lying on the side of the track.

"I found it, so I'm keeping it" said Em.

Meanwhile, not far away, Rich was trying to take photos of lightning.

"What do these instructions say" thinks Andrew with his quizzical face on.

"What does all this mean? .... and so many cameras!!"

Climate change is all the rage

This link below is worth a look at the amount of CO2 that we put into the air.

Carbon dioxide emissions per capita: Map

Still surfing 33 yrs later

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This image was taken of Rod and myself 33 years ago at Clarkes Beach, Byron Bay. Today I went surfing with Rod and another surfing mate Dave who organizes a surf once a month for the crew. It was great to be surfing with mates after so long. A lot has changed but some things stay the same.

           Gaz                  Dave                         Rod

We're still pretty fit after 50 years of life but unfortunately our hair has not lasted the distance. Below is an image of the way we were in Jan 1976. I'm on the left with Rod on the right .... even had tans then  ;-)

Byron revisited

In the past few years Byron Bay has become so crowded that it has lost some of its appeal. This week I was lucky to be down there and found it easy to get a car park, easy to get a beach front table and even easy to get a wave. The reason for the lack of crowds was "schoolies" who tend not to drive, don't go to the cafes and sleep most of the day.  Byron was like it was 20 years ago .... excellent.

To Hells Gates and back

When its hot as hell outside, why not take a trip to Hells Gates

(in a sea kayak of course).

Flat out Wednesday

Although the sign says that it was sunny, the first half hour was light rain which was good in settling the dust.

The flats started out as I took the bike out of the car only to find it had a flat rear tyre which I changed before the ride with an audience of a dozen riders watching me looking at their watches. Simon had a rear flat halfway through the ride which Neil and Jaman helped with after the rest of the crew took off. Rich had the third on 2nd Cummin and Max watch him change that ;-)

The fouth flat was not a flat tyre but rather someone charging down the gravelly fire track doing a big slide and skid towards the barbed wire fenced and then proceeded to over-balance, unable to unclip and ended up on their back like a stunned turtle while the onlookers laughed (a lot). So really the fourth flat was a rider flat - namely me - so no photos 'cause I had the camera.

Chickendrinker helps Simon change a flat. Its good to have mates.

A Sunday with the Wednesday crew

Spent the day racing with many of the Wednesday morning crew at the Karingal 4hr mountain bike race. It was great fun but pretty hot. Below is a bit of the action I captured as I stopped around the track .... a lot of familiar faces can be seen including cameo appearances by Rhino, Jaman, Dean0, chickendrinker, Floody, Token Kid, Rich the Stich, nitronic and many more.

Tall stories and pink lights

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Great morning again for the Wednesday morning ride with a good turn out ... the diggers would have been proud of the mateship displayed .... which also means ragging each other. Speaking of taking the piss .... who had the pink ayups on their bike this morning?????

... and we were all entertained by Jaman's stories of the Crocodile Trophy mtb race in North Qld recently.

Bike, planes and a lot of bull.

Sometimes bikes are a work of art.

But they still get ridden and the old ones can only watch on.

Flyboy gave us a lesson about planes ...

.. and then about riding rocks ...

... but there was also a lot of bull out at Old Hidden Vale.

Halfway up the EE

A perfect morning for an attack on the EE.

...... but I am still waiting for Wezzy.

Too much red?

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It seems that after the Epic everybody is wearing red and white ....

Great morning at Daisy

Its Wednesday morning and that means mountain biking at Daisy Hill. Always good to get out with the regular crew before work.

Another view of the same spot.

Coochie

A great day to paddle or to sail on the bay with 10-15kts of wind. The timing was perfect as we came close but not too close to a flotilla of about 30 yachts as we headed across to Potts Pt. The tide was high so we were able to explore the mangroves of Coochie. .... but where did Henry go?

Ride to work day

Normally on a Wednesday morning it is mountain biking at Daisy Hill but today was a little different. National Ride-to-Work Day saw a small group mountain biking regulars meet up and ride into the city for a free breakfast. A very nice morning for it ... trouble was, once breakfast was done, I then rode out of the city to work.

Back on the water

It was good to get back on the water for the first time after the 12 day Hinchinbrook trip back in August. Myself and a few others did some sea kayak leader training in preparation for leading some trips for QSKC. This photo shows the conditions as pretty calm but we were sheltering from the 20-23kts. A good day out.

Dust, dust and flats

It was only a few months ago that we were complaining about the mud .... now its the dust again. A great ride again this morning and the two flats and two dud tubes were a good laugh as well. Always good to start the day with an early mtb ride.

Bayview

Its great to ride a place like Bayview with a couple of mates ... the tracks are raw and there is no-one else around. Only 35 minutes from the city, but still a world away. Plenty of offs ... mainly by me ... and plenty of laughs.

Back on the bike

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It was great to be on the bike again after focusing on the sea kayaking in the last couple of months. A crew of 9 took to the DH single track this morning before the dust storm engulfed BrisVegas in a cloud of orange.

It was a long since I have ridden with Nick ... and on the Yeti as well !!!

... its been even longer since riding with Dean ... maybe a year.  Good to see you can still ride ... just please don't run over the camera guy next time :-)