A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Season 10

[elantra]

Wonderful result of a lot of thinking and planning and no doubt a fair bit of fudging it and problem-solving.
It looks great.
Presumably there’s a lot of fine details that will be added with every visit to there.
Cheers

[ldrcycles]

Besides a beautiful winter morning, the other thing we woke up to on Friday was a flat tyre on the car, caused by a tiny but razor sharp piece of rock. Mrs LDR hadn't replaced the jack that broke the last time she had a flat, but one of our lovely neighbours came to the rescue. Even as I was changing the tyre visitors were arriving to welcome/stickybeak at the newest addition to Pine Street.

After entertaining what felt like half the village we eventually made our way in to Gladstone to have the flat tyre plugged and buy a new jack, and shelves for the kitchen.







The next day we were off down the valley







On some "challenging" roads-







To reach the beautiful Kroombit Tops lookout







With that it was time to bid farewell to Builyan, and make the long drive home. 390km later, there was a strange noise and....







I had regreased the hubs less than a thousand kms beforehand, and last checked on them only an hour and a half before the wheel went on a solo adventure, but apparently the wheel bearing decided its time had come and that was that! The trailer had to stay on the side of the road overnight until I got back with a flat farm trailer to rescue it the following day. From the side of Tatnell's Gap

[ldrcycles]

Wonderful result of a lot of thinking and planning and no doubt a fair bit of fudging it and problem-solving.
It looks great.
Presumably there’s a lot of fine details that will be added with every visit to there.
Cheers

A LOT of fudging! It's come together well though, and I can't wait for the next trip up to fit the other window awning, carpet, and gutters.

[find_bruce]

Looking for the pic showing insulation

[elantra]

Looking for the pic showing insulation

Yeah Nah up here in Queensland insulation is an extravagance !

Some would say that a cold XXXX or 2 is the best form of insulation.

Actually I reckon that a big tarpaulin could be set up to shade the mini-house on a hot day.
That would be more than useful.
A fan would not go astray either

[ldrcycles]

Looking for the pic showing insulation

The pale green/silver air cell wrap you can see in the framing photos is a combination thermal break and insulation. The wall studs are only 51mm deep, so not much room for pink batts type insulation. My main concern was keeping it warm in winter, which we didn't really get to test with the mild temperatures on this trip, but even in really cold weather I expect just an extra blanket would be quite sufficient. Keeping cool in summer is another story, the tall ceiling will probably help, and there's room for a 12v ceiling fan. Worst case scenario is I just suffer like I have in the Trottage

[ldrcycles]

After a bit of resting at home we were off again at the end of the week, this time to the Ipswich Railway Workshops museum.







It was a great day out all round, one of the highlights being the all Queensland made and beautifully restored 1906 Spencer motorbike








On the home front, frustration with Noosa Council's failure to do, well pretty much anything, in Kin Kin meant I headed out with my brush hook and pole saw to make the road a safer place.




















In Kin Kin we're used to the spotlight being on Noosa, and that's fine as the unwritten rule is that in return for only the bare minimum of services we don't get harassed by them the way people in town do. But lately that bare minimum isn't being provided, and a lot of people are rightly angry about it. It's been 3 months since a rough as guts temporary repair was made to our road which hasn't been sorted, 4 months since we ordered a new wheelie bin, 28 months since the flood gauge last worked and so on. In the meantime, if there's something that really needs doing, and I have the capacity to do it, well it's going to get done.


At least it's still a pretty place to be.

[warthog1]

It looks like beautiful spot!

[ldrcycles]

Since Winter was 6 we've made a tradition of climbing Mount Cooroora for sunrise once a year in winter. The aim is for a foggy morning, as the first time I saw sunrise from the summit it was so foggy it was like being at sea. The last 3 years have all been in the second week of June, but with this past June being exceptionally dry we had to wait until today for a forecast fog. I was keen to experiment with some astro shots, so we left extra early to have time before first light, starting the climb at 4:45.







The window for long exposures was surprisingly short though, long before what would be considered first light the sky was far too bright for any more astro. We made the climb in a solid 48 minutes, then immediately got our jumpers back on as the gusty westerly on the exposed summit made it much colder than the 11 degrees at the base. There wasn't much fog about, and the wind was enough to unsettle my lightweight tripod at times, but the conditions were otherwise good.























The track up the mountain is in very poor shape at the moment, and going down took almost as long as getting up. Then it was off to the Pomona servo for well earned chocolate milks and crumbed sausages

[foo on patrol]

Ya got some crackers there mate. We've had heavy fog here of a morning for the last week.

Foo

[ldrcycles]

I wasn't satisfied with the amount of fog on this years sunrise daddy/daughter climb, so when a meteorologist I know flagged good conditions for heavy fog a month later I set the early alarm and off we went again. I decided not to lug the tripod up so the astro shot at halfway was a bit blurry from leaning against a rock.







We pushed on to the top at a very good pace to find the fog reached even above the 438m summit.









After waiting for a while to see if the conditions would change, we were rewarded with a clear window that allowed us to look out over the twisting ribbons of fog below.







The descent into the fog, now lit with the morning glow, was even better.

[ldrcycles]

A good mate of mine is into four wheel driving to scenic places, and when he suggested a trip to Double Island Point I was only too happy to tag along. Queensland late winter weather is pretty hard to beat, so I'll let the photos do the talking-
















On the way back south along the beach we spotted a whale putting on a show, I grabbed a couple of photos with my mobile phone at max zoom. "Not bad for a phone!" I said. "Give this a try" my mate responded, and handed me about $7,000 worth of DSLR with a 500mm lens











Can you tell which is which?

[ldrcycles]

And yes, there's even been a little bit of cycling! (emphasis on little, but things are moving in the right direction)

[elantra]

…………..
On the way back south along the beach we spotted a whale putting on a show, I grabbed a couple of photos with my mobile phone at max zoom. "Not bad for a phone!" I said. "Give this a try" my mate responded, and handed me about $7,000 worth of DSLR with a 500mm lens











Can you tell which is which?

Well my guess is that the bottom pic is the one taken with the $$$ camera.

It’s a cracker of a pic.
I’m no whale expert but my impression is that there are “lots” of whales cruising up the coast this year.
At Kingscliff NSW you don’t have to be on the beach for more than ten minutes or so before you see a Whale - in the distance.
That’s when the beach conditions are calm with low swell.
When the weather is bad or the seas are big you don’t see them.
I’m not sure if that’s because they are not close to the beach when weather is rough or because it’s harder to see them.

[ldrcycles]

There's a whole lot of fitness to be regained, but I'm back into proper training now, and enjoying every minute of it

[find_bruce]

There's a whole lot of fitness to be regained, but I'm back into proper training now, and enjoying every minute of it

I've been loving the story every year, but I'm not sure the wannabe racer is accurate - farmer, father, funny guy, fotographer, enthusiastic if occasional cyclist absolutely

[ldrcycles]

The title is somewhat a matter of tradition, but for the next 6 months or so the needle will swing firmly back in the direction of cycling. Before the end of this summer the Warwick-Brisbane record WILL have my name on it!

This morning I was off to Boreen Point, and as waiting for thick fog to clear a little had me starting late, the planned vigorous pace had to be flat out. That was only worth a 28.4kmh average, but I'm ticking along ok on the flat, and the new Cooroy training loop will soon have the climbing legs back.

[ldrcycles]

Strange weather for Sunday's ride, thick high-based fog at the same time as a solid northerly was blowing. It was a bit of an eerie feel but it kept the roads nice and quiet, and the temperature was very nice. As I was feeling so good during the week I headed over the Kin Kin range for the first time in a long while, out to the Mary Valley to Kandanga and Tuchekoi.






I ticked along well, stopping to stretch a couple of times, and it wasn't until about the 70km mark that my back started to get a little tight. At its worst that would happen closer to 30kms, so this is a big improvement! Doing the right things kept it under control, and I finished on 81km, just shy of 100 miles for the week. Very small steps, but steps in the right direction.

[ldrcycles]

Off the bike, sorting out the chook shed has been on my to do list for a while, since a severe storm came through and removed half the roof. Now that I have a ride on mower, and said ride on is earning me remedial massages in exchange for mowing the massage therapist's property, I wanted better protection for "Deeredre" than just a tarp.

Did I mention the storm was 5 years ago?







An hour of work with the brush hook and what's left of the shed started to emerge.







I'm surprised anything is still upright, but the timber is well and truly rotten, so it will be a tear down and start again prospect. And if I'm starting from scratch, I'm tempted to instead make a single bedroom cottage to rent out, in which case I still won't have the mower shed I originally set out after

[foo on patrol]

You're the King of...can't rush these things.

Foo

[ldrcycles]

I've been a bit quiet on here because the last week or so has been mighty busy, even by my standards. And not just busy, but new and unfamiliar kinds of busy.











Mrs LDR's border collie cross kelpie Biscuit gave birth to 8 puppies (biscottinis? crumbs?) last Tuesday night. I grew up dairying and was an accomplished bovine midwife before I started high school, but when the critters are this small and numerous it's a very different situation. Happily there was very little required of me, as Biscuit sailed through the delivery and hasn't put a foot wrong since. The chirping jellybeans have about doubled in size in their first week, and young Miss Winter is well and truly smitten.


After one of the hubs on my trailer went on a solo adventure a few months ago, ruining the axle, I bought a second hand axle with hubs and wheels. It turned out to be only just long enough to fit my own wheels (one of which has a frustrating slow leak), and substantially too short to fit the newly acquired wheels, which don't leak. Now that I have a need to use the trailer at least once a week I didn't want to get the air compressor out every time, so salvaged a 20cm longer axle off an old Jim's Mowing trailer.







(Workplace health and safety at an all time high there, I did at least make a point of not getting anywhere underneath it)

4 inches each side should have been bang on, but as the new wheels and tyres are about double the width of the old ones, it meant they stuck out well past the guards. After swearing a little, I popped off to Bunnings and bought a roll of new wheel guard extension







All the bending and lifting to do the axle swap had my back a bit annoyed with me, so my hoped for 100km the next day became 72km, but with lovely weather and views.







The return of cooler foggy mornings kept me off the bike on a couple of days.











With the kids on school holidays, after a morning hit on the Cooroy training loop I took us up to Tin Can Bay for lunchtime fish and chips,







then to Searey's Creek near Rainbow Beach,








and finally burning off the byproduct of the continued clearing work around the old chook shed at home.

[foo on patrol]

I'm surprised that you didn't measure the axle width so that you had the correct size, now you can make another trailer I guess.

Foo

[ldrcycles]

The last few weeks I've been flat out, in addition to the usual work and family commitments, I've been keeping an eye on another bloke named Lachlan who's been on a decent sort of ride







In my role with the RRAA the whole of September was a marathon of refreshing Lachy's GPS tracker, organising people to meet him along the way, and then in the last week or two when it became obvious Dave Alley's 2011 record was about to meet its end, preparing for a trip to Port Macquarie to welcome him to the finish.

I have to acknowledge my employer at this point, even with a whole heap of work on they didn't bat an eyelid at me taking two days off with very little notice. So on Friday the 4th I set off for the godforsaken lands south of the Tweed River. And promptly hit such ridiculous traffic that it took 2.5 hours to get from Logan to the NSW border

Once I was over the border there wasn't a hint of traffic, but the distances are BIG, and with the highway having bypassed EVERYTHING it's soul-destroyingly boring. I finally got to Kempsey after dark (last minute accommodation there was much cheaper than in Port Mac), got some food and stretched my legs in town with some photography







Before settling down for a well earned sleep in the lovely motel room.







As Lachy was treating the last day as a well earned cruise, I had plenty of time in the morning to get ready in my professional new RRAA official kit







and head to Port Macquarie to check out the finish. When Lachy's team told me they would be finishing at the lighthouse rather than Town Beach as planned, I had visions of amazing photos with the lighthouse and sea as a backdrop.

Unfortunately Port Macquarie Council didn't get the memo...











The road itself was closed a few hundred metres away too, so access really sucked, but his heart was set on finishing there, and that's where he started so we would just have to make do. With several hours to kill I drove out to Wauchope to grab some photos as Lachy went past.







I was also able to have a chat with the crew in the motorhome as they waited for Lachy to clear some roadworks up ahead, and they confirmed they were aware of all the fences at the lighthouse, and as there would be media covering the finish, Lachy would stop at the lighthouse briefly, then go down to the surf club at Lighthouse Beach. So I got some lunch, and headed for the surf club carpark to do some more waiting, with my camera trained on the lighthouse about half a km away.

Well you know what they say about the best laid plans, Lachy arrived at the lighthouse just before 2pm, and with the small crowd of locals gathered at the surf club, I waited. And waited. And then spotted a tripod, and realised the media (a lone ABC reporter doing every job on her own the poor sod) was up there and I was very much in the wrong place. So off I ran across the beach and up the stairs to do my job.















It's a pity I wasn't there right at the big moment, but Lachlan got his engraved RRAA pocket watch, his film crew did a short piece to camera with me, and I had enough presence of mind to deliver a fine sound grab for the ABC

"My favourite quote about road records is [from] Sir Hubert Opperman, which is, 'You're not racing the man before you, you're racing the man after you', and I don't think there is a man after this one," Mr Davis said.

As you'd probably all know by now, Lachy didn't just break the record, he obliterated it by over a WEEK. The only way that's ever being beaten is by another pro, with flawless weather conditions and ideally COVID lockdown levels of traffic.

By the time all that was done and I was heading north again, it was 4pm. 700km later, it was quarter past midnight and I was finally back home.

[ldrcycles]

On the home front the puppies continue to inflate at a dramatic rate











And I've been getting a little more photography in (I'm very nearly at the point of biting the bullet and getting a proper DSLR)










I'm back on the bike properly now, and despite rain over the last couple of days I should be able to make this my biggest week of the year (all be it a modest 220ish km). My eyes are firmly set on the Gympie-Brisbane and Warwick-Brisbane records in the near future.

[ldrcycles]

The first week back into proper training went very well with 220k in the bag, not a huge amount but easily the biggest week this year and the biggest since March last year, before covid derailed things.

This morning I was on the bike much later than planned, so my usual Boreen Point and back would have to be flat out. That turned out to a 30.2kmh average, again not huge but there's sound potential there. Most importantly it showed my body and mind are ready to suffer again, and it was really enjoyable

The new shoes (Shimano ME1) and pedals (Exustar for a mere $30) wouldn't have hurt either.







And the scenery in my neck of the woods is always good.







Off the bike, I go to squash one night a week, which has me at the Kin Kin Junction bridge around 7pm. A good time to get the pole saw and brush hook out of the car to deal with the visibility-reducing roadside vegetation that the Main Roads Department can't be bothered to take care of. By just doing a little bit each time I've made a substantial difference, although it's still not quite finished. Last night though, I suddenly realised my phone wasn't in my pocket Looking around was fruitless thanks to the grass and debris, so the only option was to hop in the car for a 14km round trip to home to borrow Mrs LDR's phone so I could ring mine and listen for it.

And then I got back to the bridge and realised I didn't know the password to Mrs LDR's phone and had to do another 14km to get her to unlock it I did find my phone in the end, and it hasn't deterred me from night-time community landscaping work


I'll finish with more puppy spam because why not?