Three of my riding buddies had decided on a camping weekend last weekend so they set off for Strathgordon on Saturday at 8.00am, each of them with their trailers loaded up with their camping gear. The day was bright and sunny but rain was pedicted for Sunday and Foxy and I had thoughts of just maybe riding to Strathgordon on the Sunday, and riding back with them. But because of the weather prediction we decided to wait until first thing on Sunday and see how the weather turned out. We were both up early on Sunday and although it was cloudy and looked a little like it might rain we decided we might just take a punt and head off and see how the day panned out. We choofed off at 7.00am with the intention of fueling up at Sorell and the weather was fine up to that point, but just as we began to fuel up it started to rain.............should we or shouldn't we...........bugger why not, lets keep going and see what happens. Well it rained all the way to Granton, on the other side of Hobart didn't it, but we could see the weather was clearing in the westerly direction we were heading in so on we pressed. Next thing we knew we had blue skies and the sun was out and about
......we had a fantastic ride all the way to Strathgordon, but we did meet up with our friends about 50kls from our destination and they were heading for home in the belief that rain was on the way. After a bit of a chit chat Foxy and I decided to press on as we were keen to have a look see at Strathgordon, so on we pressed. We'd brought our lunch with us so we stopped at a nice little picnic spot by Lake Pedder, had lunch, then proceeded on a little further to the Gordon Dam. I had intended to take a swag of photos but by this time the skies were looking a little threatening and it had begun to rain lightly. Time to head for home....we thinks!
Well, we had very light rain all the bloody way home.............did it dampen our enthusiasm.......did it spoil our ride....no way
!
It was a slow ride but only because of the twisty roads, the rain was hardly enough to wet the road, but it did get a little heavier the closer we got to home. All in all.........550kls for the day, much of it at speeds between 70-90kph and even slower in some sections.
We arrived home at around 5.30pm and I was stuffed...............I've ridden much further than that on previous occasions but I've never felt so stuffed as I was after this ride. It's a lot more taxing riding on tight twisty roads than sitting on speed on a straight stretch of highway thats for sure. Had a bite to eat, one light stubbie, sat on the couch, and I was out light a light!
Sorry Kev, Simon, and Carsten......we wern't at all sure we would be doing the ride so couldn't advise of our plans in case it didn't happen.................but thankfully it did.
Can't wait for the next one!
