Ridin' around town........

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Leon H

Pack Dog
Joined
Feb 22, 2006
Messages
204
Reaction score
0
Location
Townsville, Australia
Bike
BMW R1200GS
All week I have had grand plans to go for a decent ride today. I wanted to head south across the dirt to a place called Gorge Weir on the Burdekin River. The plan was to get up early, ride down there, and be back before the start of the MotoGP coverage. Last night at midnight it was still raining, so I opted to can the trip and sleep in a bit.

When I got up at about 0830 the weather had cleared up enough to go riding, but I had left my run too late to get to Gorge Weir. While I ate breakfast I moped around the house, lamenting there was nowhere good nearby to go riding, being miserable in general. Then I remembered the olden days when I was a lad - I used to be happy enough just to ride around town, with no where in particular to go. So I set aside an hour, grabbed my camera, jumped on the bike and went to see what I could see nearby.

So I headed off to Mt Stuart. This is the big mountain that borders the south-western edge of Townsville. It's a great little road, when I first moved to Townsville I used to ride up here every afternoon after work. The car club also uses it for hill climb, so the surface is excellent. Very tight and twisty, a great bike road within 8km of the CBD, but no-one ever seems to be there. Today was no expeception, so I had time for a quick thrash up and down the mountain.

IMG_0005.JPG


IMG_0001.JPG


IMG_0008.JPG


IMG_0006.JPG


From there I headed back out onto the highway and over the new bypass road that links the east and west parts of town with a new bridge over the Ross River (home of the fever of the same name). I decided to follow the river upstream - years ago I remember you could do a big loop in the dirt and end up on the northern end of town, through some nice mountains and creek.

I stopped by the river for a bit of a look and a munch on a muesli bar.

IMG_0012.JPG


IMG_0011.JPG


From there I continued south along the river. The rural residential blocks gave way to small farms. I was getting close to the spot where the road forks into two, and I could see the mountains I planned to ride through getting very close. And then...........

IMG_0010.JPG


The bloody road was closed! Due apparently to the upgrade of Ross River Dam. Still, I wasn't too concerned as the day was getting on a bit and needed to get back to MotoGP on telly.

By the time I got home, I was feeling pretty good. I did 86km in about an hour, but was never more than 19km from my house. And I managed to regain a bit of that youthful feeling when all I needed to keep me happy was just to cruise about town. So my advice is next time you have an hour to spare, jump on the bike and just cruise around - you will have more fun than you expect!

Leon
 
Top