Subject: The Bike Ride - Rosewood to Aratula 8th August 2004

Greetings,

Thanks for your advice and encouragement for our ride to Aratula!!

Despite earlier expressions of self doubt from some, it inspired others to make statements of "I can do that!!, and so five of us went for the ride yesterday.  Robyn, Ken, Wayne, ? and John. 

The day was glorious - we gathered in Rosewood at 8.00, but took til 8.30 to get going.  We rode to Rosevale in great conditions, then those winds you warned us about started to blow from the South/South-west - blustery and cold.

We didn't stop at Rosevale - (apparently didn't even look up sufficiently to see the boat and the beer-keg perched in the tree outside the hotel - until the return trip!!). 

The cloud cover started to increase rapidly, and it looked a bit like rain clouds gathering!! We got into wind shelter on the approach to Moorang's dirt stretch, so the going was a bit easier.

The 'Moorang' dirt stretch [6.8Km by the sign-post, and confirmed by the cycle computers] had sections of good blue-metal embedded in road base and no loose material, others with severe corrugations caused by cars wheel hop under acceleration, and sections of loose gravel overlying a potholed base. 

Along with the dappled sunlight filtering through the treed sections, it made for a challenging surface, requiring close attention, and some skill with quick reflexes.  Travelling from the north, the 'Moorang' dirt stretch is a generally uphill ride of consistent low grade apart from the culverted creek crossing. 

The view from the hilltop at "Callemondah Grazing" (at the Southern end of the bitumen) overlooking Tarome and Aratula was spectacular - Mt Barney and the 'Scenic Rim' mountains linking with the Great Divide with Cunningham's Gap looked great in the morning light (comparable with the world's best; and it's on our back doorstep!). 

The ride into Aratula through Tarome was great.  We got to Aratula at about 12.30.  We lunched at your suggested Aratula Cafe - the burger range was favoured - and they were good - Steak works, Works and Vegetarian.  The muffins were good too - some preferred the 600ml flavoured milk to coffees for drinks.  The cloud cover and wind made for a cool lunch stop, but it cleared just as we were leaving.

We left just after 1.00, and later riders in the string encountered a dog just before the steep hill out of Tarome - I didn't see it so don't know the breed/colour. 

We had two incidents on the dirt stretch - one rider going bush in recovering from a wheel slide in the soft gravel (no harm done); and one rider who dismounted unintentionally while coping with the gravel, pot-holes, etc. - got gravel-rashed knees but like Jana Pittman got up and kept on cycling.

The ride home through Rosevale etc to Rosewood was mostly wind assisted and much appreciated - I have a far better appreciation of your line "Be prepared for cold weather and strong winds" - which I suspect in hindsight we weren't!! 

So we were fortunate this time, but will remember for future [and particularly next week-end for our ride out of Queen Mary Falls/Killarney to Warwick (Saturday) and The Head(Sunday)]. 

We arrived at Rosewood at about 4.30, and confirmed that the RACQ mapping distance of 108Km is seriously short. 

Your 120Km circuit distance is much closer to the mark!! - probably spot-on!

We were all elated at having ridden 120Km in a day - and had such a great day into the bargain!!

Again thank you for your advice, inspiration and encouragement / enthusiasm!!

Regards

JCT

My ride statistics were :

Lapsed Time :                 5 hours 14 minutes 35 seconds. 

Average Speed :           22.6   Kph.; 

Maximum Speed :        53.0   Kph.; 

Distance Travelled:    118.34 Km.