I know this sounds crazy, but deciding where to ride is a spiritual experience for me.
It forces me to think about where I’d really like to go, which means I have to listen to my “inner voice”. I often feel like I’m being “drawn” towards a particular place, and I just go there. Perhaps the spiritual part of all of this is feeling a connection to the land, and responding to that connection.
The end result is I fall in love with most of the places I visit, and come home really happy.
Some of the beautiful open eucalyptus forest that surrounds Dunlop Lane in Kurwongbah. As I’ve written before it’s an old road – blazed over 170 years ago, but unlike most old roads, it has retained its magic.
Looking over one of the gates on Dunlop Lane into the “Slickers” horse riding ranch. Lilly loves visiting here. So do I (but for different reasons!).
Lake Kurwongbah as seen from one of the quiet tracks that lead off Scout Road in Kurwongbah. It’s amazing what you see when you follow a dirt track to see where it goes 🙂
Total distance: 49.36 km Total climbing: 799 m Average temperature: NAN Total time: 05:39:02
In Aboriginal Dream-time stories from this area, “Taggan” was the spirit of the Rainbow.
Whenever the end of the rainbow touched the water, Taggan would leave small crystal stones, and the Aborigines seemed to know exactly where to dive for these prized stones.
Only one or two older, experienced men in a tribe would be allowed to have these stones which they believed gave them special powers to bring thunder, cure disease, or bring rain.
These special men were called “Turwrans”.
One of the great Turrwans of our area was Dalaipi. The local people looked on him as their Rain Maker.
Tom Petrie tells of how Dalaipi wanted to make rain come once, and dove into the North Pine River with his tomahawk to look for a “taggan” stone quite close to where I took this picture today.
The North Pine Tribe believed that in winter, the flying foxes hid under the water where the “taggan stops”, and that they waited till the warm weather came back before returning.
Today I couldn’t see any rainbow spirits, or flying foxes, but I thought a lot about Dalaipi and this place that was special to him.
I’m still healing from a crash last week, so I have decided to avoid riding on rough trails or single tracks at the moment to let my shoulder heal.
Today I rode to Mount Pleasant in the hills behind Dayboro. This rural area is nestled in a valley created by the North Pine River between Mount Mee and Mount Byron.
What I enjoyed most was having a few hours on the bike on quiet rural roads to daydream and get in “The Zone” while covering a reasonable distance (80km). The hills were mostly gentle, although I managed to ascend a total of 1,048m during the ride.
Andrew Petrie reported a stand of Bunya Pines in this area when he visited it in the 1830’s. I’ve got some ideas about where that stand might have been. As you ride along the road, there are some quite mature specimens poking out from behind the hills about 300 metres from the road. These two Bunyas are quite young – perhaps 60 to 70 years old.
Some time in the next year I hope to come back here again and ride through the rainforest up to Toogoolawah in the Brisbane Valley. But the management roads in the rainforest are closed at the moment due to damage from a lot of the heavy rain we’ve had lately.
I’m happy to wait 🙂
Total distance: 80.65 km Total climbing: 1131 m Average temperature: NAN Total time: 04:53:22
I found a decent looking route on Garmin Connect (thanks 1aggers) that I thought was worth a try, and set off from Matthew Flinders park.
This place appeals to me from a historical perspective because it’s where Matthew Flinders camped in July 1799 while exploring the Moreton Bay area aboard the Norfolk, which makes it one of the earliest places in our region where European contact was first made. The story goes that Flinders sailed up the Pumicestone Passage and then up Glasshouse Creek before coming ashore and hiking to the base of Tibrogargan. It was too sheer for him to climb, so he took the easy option and climbed Mt Beerburrum instead.
Whenever I visit the Glasshouse Mountains, I’m always mindful of the Aboriginal Legend of the area, and the timelessness of family conflict, disappointment and forgiveness (or the lack thereof). I don’t know what it is, but when you spend the day in front of these large monoliths, the legend becomes more than a quaint story. It takes on a power of its own. I could understand Tibrogargan’s rage, Beerwah’s disappointment, and even Coonowrin’s reticence.
So all of this was going through my head while I tried to complete this difficult ride today.
I started off on the Trachyte Track – a beautiful single track around the base of Tibrogargan. But watch out – it has stairs in some places making it a challenging ride at times.
The Trachyte Track winds through the forest up the northern slopes of Mt Beerburrum to Jack Ferris Lookout, which has some great views of some of the other mountains, including Tiberoowuccum and Ngungun – two of the smaller ones.
I then bit off a bit more than I could chew when I tried riding over “The Twins”. These two pert mammarian hills seem harmless enough. But I ended up dragging the bike up the steep rutted track on one side, then carefully walking it down the steep rocky track on the other side. But I did ride some of it 🙂
I then bashed north through some narrow muddy forestry roads until I reached the main lookout which has some excellent views of the mountains.
From there I headed up to Beerwah then down some steep but picturesque tracks towards Coonowrin. All along this section, Beerwah towered over me as a rode. It was almost like she was looking over my shoulder.
Towards the end of this track, the wet weather and the 4WD’s have taken their toll. The track is terribly rutted, making it impossible to ride (or drive) through. My “Giant” bike was dwarfed by some of the ruts in the track.
Total distance: 40.92 km Total climbing: 935 m Average temperature: NAN Total time: 05:30:20
A koala gatecrashed our Friday drinks on the deck this afternoon.
He quickly scrambled up the paper-bark tree then jumped into a neighbouring eucalypt before munching on some gum leaves.
When I took this picture he was probably less than a 2 metres away.
While I was leaning out taking photos of a Koala I didn’t realize how close I was to this golden orb spider. Looking like a strange little potato with spindly legs, these little creatures can be found all over our garden
Mount Samson was called “Buran” by the local Aborigines. In the Turrbal language it means “wind”. Unfortunately there was no wind up there today.
The aim was to ride our mountain bikes up to a flattish point at about 500m elevation, then hike the rest of the way to the 680m summit. Easier said than done. The road had been washed out in several places, covered in fallen rocks and logs. We climbed 430m in the first kilometre. With my head spinning and sweat dripping from me I was exhausted. Thankfully Derek gave me a bit of a push-along when I needed it, and we all managed to get the bikes up to the planned point.
From this vantage point, the views over Lake Samsonvale out to Moreton Bay are spectacular.
At this point we met up with some hiking friends, and started the long slog through the lantana and up the mountain. Lantana is a horrible weed with stems that can grow thicker than your thumb. The leaves and stems cut at your skin and several times blocked out way entirely. We had to smash through it with our feet (we didn’t take a Machete).
Eventually we beat the lantana and took a breather before the final push up through the rocks and the rainforest to the top.
Strangely the view from the summit isn’t panoramic. It’s covered with trees. But it’s still beautiful. Someone has erected some Tibetan Prayer Flags at the top. It took me a while to make the connection. Prayer Flags are usually flown high up in the Himalayas. But I suppose this is as high as you’re going to get around Brisbane, so it make sense to me.
You could see a few good views by peaking out through the trees, but for me the best bit about the summit was taking a well-earned rest with some really fun people. This started off, for me, as a harebrained scheme when I asked a few friends “Do you think we could ride bikes up Mount Samson”. The fantastic thing is that those friends were willing to try something difficult and silly with me – even the ones that weren’t able to ride. I’m really grateful to have friends like that.
What’s next???
If you’d like a sadistic look at the climbing-profile for this trip, here it is:
Total distance: 22.56 km Total climbing: 1002 m Average temperature: NAN Total time: 06:08:37
To celebrate Australia Day, Liz and I took the kids for a walk through the rainforest in D’Aguilar National Park.
There are various traditional owners of the D’Aguilar Range area, including the Turrbal, Garumngar and Jinibara Aboriginal people. The country is magical: the calls of Bellbirds ringing in the forest, the cool mountain breezes, the dense rainforest and the towering majestic tress. I can only wonder what it would have been like thousands of years ago before European settlement.
We started our walk through the “Rainforest Circuit” in the Maiala section of Mount Glorious. We followed an easy 2km trail through some lush rainforest.
At different points in the forest we spotted giant Sydney Blue Gums towering over the forest. Before this area was logged in the 19th century, the area was full of these majestic trees. Now they’re much scarcer.
We then finished our walk following the trail from the “Western Window” lookout, through the bush back to the car park, before driving down to Jollys Lookout for some stunning views of the Greater Brisbane Area – no wonder Lord Mayor William Jolly built a road to it in the 1930’s!
Total distance: 4.91 km Total climbing: 167 m Average temperature: NAN Total time: 01:18:18
