Introduction:
The weather was fantastic, the company was
great, the scenery was awesome and the route took us over some
of the best roads in the Gold Coast Hinterland. It’s hard to
pick a favourite bit of this ride, between the numerous
hairpins on the road to Springbrook, the long sweepers around
the Hinze dam or the twisties of the Beechmont
loop.
1st Leg
Springwood to Mt
Tamborine:
10 riders turned up at McDonalds Springwood for
this ride and it was evident that everyone was keen because
most were there a half hour early. The car park is obviously
getting to be a popular meeting place as a Ulysses Club ride
was starting there as well. Some of those turning up later can
be forgiven for thinking we had a bigger turnout then first
expected. TanyatheCheeky also came down again to see us off
and to give us some last minute
tips.
The first leg took us down the M1 to Mt Warren
Park where we had the first of a series of small mishaps (damn
round-a-bouts). This involved a cage in front of Nicarus
changing his mind about entering the round-a-bout causing Nick
to perform a very slow speed put down of his ZZR. Thankfully
the damage was minimal (which was incredible with the amount
of fairing on the bike) but the bike was flooded which meant a
bit of a wait and then we were on our way
again.
We rode
through the Wolfdene
Valley, Cedar
Creek, Tamborine
Village and then
up Mt Tamborine. The road up Mt Tamborine could be great
except for the fact that the road is extremely bumpy and the
whole lot needs to be resealed. The other notable fact was
that with the warmer weather, all the cages are getting back
out there, and while a lot of them pulled over for us on other
legs, not so on this
road.
2nd Leg Mt
Tamborine to
Mudgeeraba
After a quick water and wee stop on Mt
Tamborine we headed down to Mudgeeraba. Unfortunately there is
no access across the top of the Hinze dam spillway at the
moment as they are raising the dam wall, so it was necessary
to take the back roads through Gilston. This is where small
mishap number two happened. Going the back roads means having
to do a right hand turn just after a crest. It’s a hard one to
pick even with “Jane the GPS Tart” telling you to slow down
and turn right. Unfortunately Cookeetree didn’t have Jane
telling him where to go and almost took out Timnkoo at the
intersection. Fortunately both riders were alert enough to
avoid what could have been a very ugly situation but I think
it did cost Cookeetree lunch. This is one of the hazards of
group rides I suppose.
We stopped for fuel at the Caltex at Mudgeeraba
but not before heading up “The Panorma” which gives a
fantastic 180 degree view over the Gold Coast. It was so good
we just had to stop and get a group photo. Unfortunately it
was hard to find a spot to stand amongst the used
prophylactics. Obviously we weren’t the first to enjoy the
view.
3rd
Leg Mudgeeraba – Natural
Bridge
The road up to Springbrook is a lot of fun and
although there were a number of cages, most of them pulled
over when they saw us in their mirrors which made for a great
ride. There were lots of hairpin corners and some of them are
even on one lane sections which is great as long as you made
sure 300 metres back that there wasn’t anything coming back
the other way. Minor incident number three was when I was
watching what the traffic was doing at a T-intersection and
not the small log that I was about to run over. I almost put
the FJR on its side but managed to plant the right boot firmly
enough to keep it
upright.
We then headed down the other side of the
mountain and out to the “Two Pines” café where we had lunch
and looked for the dinosaurs that Tanyathecheeky had told us
about?????
4th
Leg
Natural
Bridge to
Canungra via
Beechmont
In a perfect world, your house would be at one
end of this leg and wherever you wanted to go would be at the
other end. From the “Two Pines” we headed back the way we came
except this time went around the western side of the Hinze
Dam. The condition of the road is close to perfect and the
long sweepers are just superb.
The loop down to Beechmont has a bit of
everything and you can up the pace or just take it easy and
enjoy the scenery. There were hardly any cages on this section
which was quite surprising. The group spread out a bit through
this section which gave the front runners ample time in
Canungra to have an ice cream at the “Outpost
Café”.
5th Leg Canungra
to Coomera
At Canungra we said goodbye to Cookeetree who
headed back to Beaudesert and the rest of us headed up the
goat track to once again cross the top of Mt Tamborine. After
a 4km/h run down the gallery walk stuck behind a cage and a
rider/pillion who decided to have a domestic about which way
to go, we rode down to Oxenford. Our corner marking was
getting a bit slack at this stage making it difficult for
Nicarus and Grofaz at the back but we all eventually made it
to the BP at Coomera (except for Timnkoo who took off to watch
the Cowboys match).
Conclusion
This is another great ride that I’m sure we’ll
do again. Thanks to all those that came along and sorry so
many of the regulars couldn’t make this one. You missed a
great ride. Thanks to Balmybrowny, Timnkoo and Grofaz for
performing TEC duties (especially Grofaz for doing multiple
stints), to Lurker for compiling the ICE list and
Tanyathecheeky for coming down and seeing us off again. Until
next time…
Riders:
BalmyBrowny
Tomm
Grofaz
Roy
Boy
Timnkoo
Cookeetree
Chrisco
Nicarus
CurrieMuncha
Muttly
