Since we all had Monday off work, myself, Kev, Niall and Tom decided to head down to Kangaroo Valley for some MTBing. Watches were syncronised the night before and rendevous was arranged for Tom’s house at 0745hrs at the latest. I got there with time to spare, which was used for some last minute bike maintenance. Kev was late, though he redeemed himself by bringing coffee for everyone and as he pointed out he still had to sit and watch Tom & Niall make sandwiches for another 10mins. We finally left Bondi some time after 8am for an uneventful drive south to Kangaroo Valley.

Once there we had to do the car shuffle, so we’d have one waiting for us at the bottom of the run, which gave me time to do some more bike maintenance, and also to fall over while still clipped into my pedals. I feel it’s best to get these things over and done with early in the day. We hit the trail and immediately stopped for some photos. Tom wasn’t feeling too good already, admitting that he may have eaten too many Easter eggs on Saturday. He figured things would settle down once we got going.

The whole route consists of various fire trails and 4WD tracks. The first section is quite flat and winds through farm country, before taking a turn into Morton National Park. We briefly debated adding an extra loop which was marked on the map, but decided against it. Shortly after entering the park, my front tube exploded. Niall and Kevin almost ducked for cover as they thought an irate farmer might be out with the shotgun! Ten minutes into the ride and we were already stopping for repairs! I threw in a spare tube and off we went again.

We found a nice bit of singletrack and did some exploring but it all proved a little too much. Tom cleared a log, then promptly fell over while trying to cycle on. Kevin’s front wheel slid out from under him and he ended up flat on his back off the trail. Myself and Niall escaped from the singletrack unharmed, but Niall decided to go back in for some reason, whereupon he promptly fell off as well. As mentioned earlier, I find it’s better to get all the falling over out of the way early on. The lads felt it was better to do it without the sort of audience you find in a car park. We wisely decided to leave further exploring for another day and continued down the trail to our lunch stop at a quiet lookout, with a spectacular view across Kangaroo Valley laid out before us as we ate.

Niall broke out the gourmet sandwiches which had taken so long to make earlier in the morning, along with his cup of tea. Myself and Kev had shop bought pasta salads and Tom only managed a couple of grapes. By this stage we were a little worried, as you know there is something seriously wrong when Tom refuses food!

After lunch we continued on our way and the lads got to do a few jumps. I decided to skip the jumps given my impressive performance the last time I tried jumping in Kangaroo Valley, ie: I crashed badly! Soon after that I had another flat, though not in as spectacular style as the first. I’d used my spare tube, so I had to borrow one from Tom. Five minutes later Kevin also flatted, only to find that his tubes felt like they were Teflon coated. The patch wouldn’t stick, so he had to get a tube off Niall. That was our last tube, so we had to hope we wouldn’t have any more tube issues. Lesson for the day: don’t buy tubes made in Thailand, or Teflon coated ones made anywhere at all!

After another couple of kays, we made it to the creek crossing. I waded through with my shoes still on, figuring it wouldn’t take them long to dry out. The lads stopped to take theirs off and I think they had the right idea. As I write this (the following morning) my shoes are still outside on the balcony at home drying out. We were now at the worst part of the ride: a 3km serious hill climb. Tom was in no fit state to make the climb, so he decided to walk. The rest of us were determined to give it a go. Niall and Kev made it to the top without stopping, but I wasn’t able for it. I reckon I cycled about 60% of it, though split into three cycle/walks.

Once up the hill it was a straight-forward on-road 10km back to the car for 37km total riding for the day. Niall took the car back to pick up Tom who was really suffering by this stage. Not being able to eat anything all day meant that he had zero energy left. We thought we’d get stuck in holiday traffic on the drive back to Sydney, though we got lucky and it was plain sailing, apart from the moron we saw reversing through 3 lanes of traffic near the airport!

So, all in all it was a good day. I’d been itching to do that route for a while, so it was good to finally have the chance. I’ll need to work on the fitness for that hill as Kev & Niall can get to the top & Tom managed all but 400m of it ona previous visit. I’ll have another chance in two weeks as we’re supposed to meet the guys from Canberra for another MTB trip, so we’ll see how I go on that one!

Photos are here.