Moving into Winter.

There’s not too much to write about at the moment. Bird baths remain frozen all day and the temperatures outside crawl up to a max of 12°C. Satellites remain elusive.

I have ridden some of the usual loops out from Longford and almost achieved 100 kilometers last week. 100k each week was a goal I set a few weeks back. Haven’t done it yet.

Last week I did get into the 90s but not all were recorded in ‘Ride with GPS‘. The App stopped during one ride with a “Bad Gate” message. I cycle past a lot of farm gates and one of them obviously annoyed it. More often it doesn’t locate enough satellites to allow the GPS to work. I don’t know if the problem is in my phone, the App or in heavenly coverage. Perhaps Tassie, being way down south, is not served as well with satellite coverage as, say, Europe or North America. I have long since stopped recording kilometres covered using pencil and paper and so some distances I have cycled are being lost to history.

---

Never mind – here are a few snippets from the past week or so.

The firewood I collected from the roadside while cycling last year continues to fire up in the OzPig for backyard cooking sessions. This was probably one of the last of the season as the evenings are getting cool even with the wood heater. Sue came out and we had a nice evening drinks session huddled around the OzPig. We discussed the jumper I was wearing. Sue had spun the wool and knitted the jumper a few years ago. How many years – our thoughts went back in time, then back some more and finally put it at 38 years in the past! Spun and knitted when we lived in Sydney. That’s one hard wearing, warm and very patched old jumper.

To connect the jumper to cycling – I took it up to Liffey Falls with me in Spring 2019. I expected a cool morning up there and it was. I whacked the jumper on and the bloke at the next site came over and asked where he could buy one!

---

A mini loop on Brompton

It was this ride on which Ride with GPS stopped early due to a Bad Gate. Just about here too. I stopped to read the sign.

For many years now the Longford sewage treatment plant has been the subject of derisory comment from the township. One of the largest employers is an abattoir and from it’s waste product a certain amount of smell is generated. It should be noted here that they argue the issue and point to much improvement being constantly made.

The local newspaper has a daily report on the level of smell achieved. So much so the issue became a nationwide piece of gossip and the town is sometimes nicknamed “Pongford”. Indeed, when I cycled to Adelaide last year I found the name had spread far and wide. “Ah yes, that’s not Pongford is it?” when I told them where I was from.

I am glad to see one objective of the above project is to “reduce the potential for nuisance odours”.

---

On another loop ride I came across a herd of cows being marshalled along the road. I thought they were being taken to a gate opposite my stopping place. This was not so and the cows began coming past. The woman in front advised me to “Get into the gate quick!” so I did.

There were a lot of cows going past. I took a brilliant video of the event but stuffed up the processing and ended up deleting the files before producing the final cut. So I can’t show you just how brilliant it would have been.

At the end of the blockade of cows was the woman’s husband. He told me they were retired – “But look what we do of a Sunday!”. He had a bit of a rant about cyclists wearing dark colours and blocking up the country lanes. “Driving your truck you can’t do the 100kph you are entitled to”. My thoughts were that country lanes of the type we were currently on were not really suitable candidates for 100kph in a truck. I was also worried about the “entitled to” bit. It might explain some of our encounters though.

---

Armstrong’s Lane

I have taken to riding in the afternoon – so the air is warmer. At the time of the above shot is was possibly even 10°C.

I rode the Armstrong’s Lane loop twice last week. Once anti-clockwise and once clockwise. It is a loop. You end up back where you started. Why then does it seem hillier travelling anti-clockwise? This is a mystery I haven’t yet solved.

---

I have just checked the up coming weather for the next 7 days and there doesn’t seem to be a good gap for a longish ride. So, for now, I will continue to ride local rides and try to get the 100k in a week thing happening.

Keep well. Keep distancing. Keep washing your hands.