By Saturday I had logged 1 kilometre in “Ride with GPS”. Actually I had ridden 27 kilometers but, what with one thing and another, only 1 was captured as proof!
I bought some chemically based hand warmers to try out. $2 a pair. Will they work? Will they fit in gloves? What is in the packet to be disposed of afterwards? All questions will be answered later.
But first.
Sue and I had several tasks to complete during the week and when there was a bit of free time there was also rain. I spent some of this “down time” getting the video editing tools on the laptop groaning into action. The Apple software “iMovie” no longer works as the 8 year old computer no longer has the internal bits and pieces needed to run the latest operating system. The downloaded “Shotcut” had stopped working too but eventually I was able to start it up again. This was the result – a video of a troublesome ride a week or two ago.
Friday and the River Road at Deloraine. Colin had borrowed an X1 Greenspeed to ride – he was thinking about buying it and was offered it for a week on appro. I have mentioned this trike before when Rob brought it along to a ride. It looks like a smaller, lower, meaner Magnum on it’s 16″ wheels.
I was riding the Brompton and was not outridden by the X1 so by the halfway point I guessed it was not suiting Colin. This proved to be the case. The trike was functioning perfectly well but …………
By Saturday the limited cycling was getting to be an issue. Saturday was forecast to be good. We decided to tackle the Deloraine to Meander ride and take a look at and, possibly, a puff up “The Grunter”.
The weather was indeed, fine. Before leaving home I opened up the hand warmers, took out the pads and shook them to start them up then stuffed them into my pockets. By the time I had driven to Deloraine they were emitting a pleasant heat. They fitted well between the gloves and backs of my hands – will they keep hands warm?
The ride starts with a crawl up and out of Deloraine. With cold muscles, knees and other important bits we kept the pace down and just drifted around the back streets before joining Emu Bay Road to head up to Mole Creek Road. Turning left at the junction we started a nice rolling descent heading to Montana Road. Great weather, sun out and countryside looking wintery but good.
Montana Road in turn soon heads to a climb. Steep enough for bottom gear and a chat on the way up. Then it’s a very nice cycle along tree-lined, traffic-free roads until we arrived at 41°South. This is a salmon farm plus ginseng growing property in the middle of the bush. They also make good coffee!!
Stowing a packet of cooked, smoke Salmon in the pannier and saying “Goodbye” to George the guard dog, we returned up the bumpy driveway to Montana Road. A left turn and the route continued heading towards Meander. We left the trees behind and moved into open paddocks. Cows and sheep watched us with interest but didn’t answer our attempts to talk to them in their native language. Montana Road has areas densely covered in gorse. Some of it has been cleared in recent years but some patches remain. I hope that gorse eating mite gets down here soon.
It was not long before we took the turn to Meander and cycled past a growing number of buildings before we hit the main street. A right turn had us through “town” and before we knew it we were on the foothills of “The Grunter”. No traffic so we climbed alongside each other and chatted away until suddenly we were at the top!! Should we carry on to Huntsman Lake? It seems that this was not the day as we turned back and made a rapid descent to the Meander Bridge Cafe for lunch. The friendly atmosphere in the Cafe always gets me to call in when passing.
From Meander back to Deloraine the route is on busier roads. We encountered some high speed driving on this leg and just as we entered Deloraine a crazy person in a white 4-wheel drive was attempting to overtake the car in front of it, any way it could. First tried the outside, then the inside, all with excessive braking and acceleration. What was that about? Was the driver a complete idiot? Did he want to punch the car driver on the nose? We never found out.
The hand warmers? They got hotter as the ride went on. At the Cafe I took them out of the gloves and put them in the pannier. They were still working when I got home. Contents? Looking at the ingredients they don’t seem to contain anything harmful so they can be disposed of in the bin, ending up in land fill. I will check with Mr Google though first.
So, a quiet week for cycling. Looks like June will be a so so month, total kilometers travelled-wise. BUT – it is winter.
Tony's Tasmanian Cycling Blog 