New Year Resolution – a Restart !!

Yes, at last, a week with 78+ kilometers travelled.

The weather was showing signs of improvement and my winter arthritis was not so bad. Tasmania as well as the southern Australian mainland has been impacted by strange behaviour of the southern Polar Vortex.

Click on the link below for an explanation :

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-27/nsw-antarctica-warming-over-50c/104142332

This is what has been causing the recent run of freezing nights and very cool days.

Now things are looking up so – let’s go riding.

While driving I had noticed a lot of roadside rubbish building up along Wilmore’s Lane and Bishopsbourne Road so I decided to take a ride and do some cleaning up.

I started picking up along Wilmore’s Lane. By the time I reached the bins at Bishopsbourne I had quite a bag full. Lots of aluminium cans squashed down to very little, several disposable coffee cups also squashed down but not so much and a few non-squashable plastic bottles.

The bag emptied into bins, I continued on Bishopsbourne Road to get to the level crossing turnaround point. In not more than 200 metres along this stretch I filled the bag again! It would seem that this is a rubbish disposal point like the bottle tossing points on the Tour de France. Wherever the coffee is purchased it has been drunk by the time the driver gets to this bit of the road and so the cup or can is tossed out the window. Grubs.

This rubbish was also put in the bins at the Sports Ground and then I put the bag away and enjoyed the ride home. This was a 32 kilometre ride.

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As the week went on the nights stayed above 0° and the days were sunny, rising to 10-12°C at midday. All good for another ride and if I rode over to Carrick that would make it 80k for the week. So I did.

The nose was a bit sore due to use of anti skin cancer cream hopefully disposing of a pre-cancerous part of my nose – so I wasn’t able to wear any sort of nose cover. Other riders I passed were wrapped up well with only eyes visible.

A secondary purpose for the ride was to get to know my old DSLR camera which I have ignored for a few years. I began digital photography in 2002 with a Sony Cybershot 3.3 mp camera. This was soon outdated and the race for more pixels was on in earnest. After a couple more cameras I bought the D4oX in 2008 and used it until I was given a Coolpix P520 “bridge” camera with unbelievable zoom capabilities with which most of my blog pictures have been taken. Anyway, back to the D40X DSLR. It needed a new battery and the local shop “Every Battery” found me a replacement, Nikon replacements being hard to get for 16 year old cameras.

It was time to get to renew my acquaintance with the camera so, at the above viewpoint, I took several shots initially without success. Eventually I got it together but even the OK ones were “fuzzy”. I think a mixture of camera movement and needing to choose the point of focus better was the problem.

I was not collecting rubbish today but found I was collecting – bird information. By the time I reached Bishopsbourne I had spotted Green Rozellas, Swallows, Galahs, Starlings, Noisy Miners, Magpies, Wattlebirds and Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoos.

The last has been in the news recently. Well, an unusual one, a yellow one. The bird was found by the roadside and taken to a southern Tassie wildlife park. It looked like a humongous canary!! It hadn’t been hit by road traffic but was near death by starvation. The theory is that it’s parents rejected it – wrong colour – and, once fed. it has regained health and, after some work, was found to be a totally yellow Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo. It’s now a member of the wildlife park community.

Passing one farm dam I could hear a frog or possibly multiple frogs croaking. This needed another stop, this time to record the frog “song”. It’s Frog Week and the Australian Museum has asked us frog recorders to send in some frog song. This was my entry.

As I turned right at Bishopsbourne I seemed to be waved over by two Policewomen at the junction. I was a bit mystified. They were dressed in black and one had a yellow jacket on. Both had pouches and bits of equipment. They asked what I was doing and seemed impressed this old fart was cycling to Carrick from Longford. I then asked them what they were doing as by now I had worked out they had no guns, badges or id of any sort on them. Turns out they were runners and had come from Carrick. Not officials of any sort! I reckon they should both wear yellow as runners dressed in black might be a bit hard to see in some situations.

It was a “two battery” day for the trike so from this point I gave things a bit more welly and cruised at 20kph plus most of the way. Most enjoyable – light traffic, the sun occasionally poking out from the clouds and no wind. You beauty.

My coffee brewing system was in the pannier but I had to get something for lunch. Sometimes the local servo shop at Carrick has some lamb and relish sandwiches. They are tasty even though the bread used is some squishy white stuff. If they haven’t got any lamb sarnies left I leave it as the other offerings have cheese in and the mixture of dry cheese and squishy bread = something hard to eat! Today was a lamb and relish day.

To brew the coffee today I had the Firebox stove and used the stove top that allows the mug to sit inside and get full benefit of the Trangia flame. It worked well and soon had the water ready for the Aeropress. Ah .. delicious.

Sometimes the No Camping signs do not specifically say no bicycle camper trailers and we assume they come under the heading of tents – specifically No Tents. I think the Carrick sign clarifies that we are not allowed to stop overnight here – temporary structure / shelter probably covers it.

After a battery change, sandwich and coffee it was time to ride home. This leg was completed using speeds between 20-25 kph and continued the enjoyment of being out and about with hardly any traffic to worry about.

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83.2 kilometres for the week. At last a week over 78k!

The trike is running well, the batteries haven’t been affected by minimal use in cold times, I am a bit stiff from the cold winter .. will there be another 78k week next week? Hopefully BUT the polar vortex could well impact our weather once again as it’s still winter.

’til next time ………………….