Sunday 7 January 2007 - Mooney (debacle!)

Ah, 'tis sad how badly Mooney treats you when it wants to. Today was a classic example, not of Brian's exultation "Mooney, how we luv ya", but much more of a "Oh, Mooney, please don't treat me so bad...".

The day started well, with overcast skies and a bit of rain taking the place of the 35°C forecast - almost perfect conditions in fact. Unfortunately, most of the crew (Doug, Richard, Rees, T-Bone and Stephe) were suffering from post New Year's day malaise... (well, except T-Bone, who appears to never suffer any sort of malaise - other than at the 30km mark of a good ride!).



Stephe felt somewhat vindicated when he made the first little hill climb (before the serious stuff), without any serious attempt from anyone else. But it was short lived - arriving at the Creek Crossing to many chants of "well, Brian can do it, don't see why you can't", he bit the dust (or, in this case, slippery dangerous nasty rock!) very quickly...

Doug and T-Bone then did the big climb, albeit with a number of touches - while Richard and Stephe went back to rescue Rees with a broken derailleur hanger (and no spare). Richard tried converting the bike to a single speed (with much breaking and re-joining of the chain), all to no avail, and Rees started the long walk out after insisting that the rest of the crew push on at least to the top of the hill. Just before we finished, Doug and T-Bone had worked out we were missing (it was only 3o minutes later - quick thinking boys!).

The hill climb was long and hard (worse for for Doug and T-Bone doing it again) and Richard managed to go over the bars at the top - told you it was one of those days.

We stopped briefly, and then turned around for the blast down the hill - with T-Bone travelling well beyond the posted speed limit and scaring everyone behind him witless (not sure what his mental state was!). Richard then managed a front flat on the way down the hill, and it wasn't until much later that T-Bone worked out we weren't all still behind him (see a pattern emerging here?).

All in all, it was a good ride to get the cobwebs out - but not one of our more memorable journeys...

Doug has some photos (including the embarrassing GPS plot - 17kms in total) - the full set is here, some samples below.