Richard's Cycling Blog: Snakes, roos and some good trails too...the Great Aussie Adventure 2017

This is my favourite country on the planet. The only thing wrong with the whole place is that it's 10 000 miles from home! I had grand ideas for lots of rides in Oz this time but a combination of Cyclone Debbie ruining my plans in Noosa and the fact it's my family's holiday not just mine have trimmed the riding a bit! However the other stuff we've done has been just brilliant. We really haven't missed out!

Quite early in the holiday I managed to renew my acquaintance with the hardy specimen that is my brother in law's dual suspension Claude Butler Ark. I also unearthed a gem that is the Redlands Track Park in the Scribbly Gums conservation area, just a few kms from my sister's house.On a blistering hot day 18km was all I could manage because when my head gets hot on a bike I get a blinding headache! However I'd made a preliminary exploration of a well laid out set of tracks and I planned to return. The greatest disappointment was that the Redlands Council had provided a bike repair area with tools, a stand and a track pump. In possibly the first vandalism of this type I've seen in Australia the tools had been stolen and the pump broken. A resident told me that the "local knuckles," had done this. A real shame!

Today I returned to Redlands Track Park via the excellent Moreton Bay Cycleway. It only hit the mid twenties today as Autumn sets in in Queensland, so it was a far more comfortable ride. Well it was in terms of weather...on the Cycleway I encountered a snake. My closest identification has this as a yellow faced whip snake, however it could have been anything from a harmless tree snake to a lethal brown! Let's face it, I don't know and I wasn't in the mood to find out! I startled the snake on my bike and the snake in turn startled me. Hissing Sid dived backwards into a strike position and I zipped past as far over the track as I could manage! Some later research revealed that cyclists round here regularly encounter snakes and no one has been hurt, still there's no need to be the first! The advice is not to ride alone and if you do get bitten, get a picture of the snake, call emergency services and move as little as possible. So, don't ride alone...it appears I can be foolish in more than one hemisphere!!! My sister laughed at me when I told her: "they don't flipping chase after you...just be noisy and they'll get out of the way...we're more of a danger to them than the other way around..." Cheers for your concern Jayne!!!!

This left me a bit nervous on the bush trails. After all if there's snakes on paths then the slippery characters are going to be all over forested bit aren't they? Every rustle made me jump for about half an hour. I suspect it was mostly lizards as I saw loads of them up to about a metre in length but no further snakes! I covered a lot more of the park and tackled some of the harder trails as a result. It was great fun! This isn't the most technical of areas, it's a bit tougher than Wakerley but nothing like Cannock.

The fun with the wildlife didn't stop. I came into an open area and there appeared to be a deer, as it hopped away I laughed at myself, obviously it was a grey kangaroo. Duh! Anyway here's a video for today.

I have also managed to get SuperSam out for a small ride but he's been so busy that he's a bit tired for cycling on top! We've done so much: walks in National Parks, body boarding in the surf (it's a bit stronger than Newquay,) I've been for runs, we had the awesome tree climbing experience on Tamborine Mountain, theme parks, swimming, we've been out on the boat, kayaking, paddle boarding, fishing and then yesterday at the sea life centre Sam snorkled with sharks, rays and an array of other fish, then we all went swimming with Dolphins! Then we finsihed off his 12th birthday in style with a trip to our favourite pizza restaurant and finally a trip to see the Brisbane Broncos beat the Sydney Roosters. Life does not get better than this!