DUBBUG Ride Report
6 October 2013
Colleen Henry
A small group of five riders set out from Macksville Aquatic Centre for our monthly ride in the southern part of the DUBBUG patch. The low turn-out could have been a combination of this different starting location, school holidays and the long weekend, or perhaps people forgot to turn their clocks forward and missed the start.
The 54km ride route took us south of Macksville five kilometres, then out Scotts Head Road to Grassy Head Road, turning south again to Stuarts Point. Joined at the start by a cyclist from Macksville’s road cycling group, we did that distance at a pretty good clip just to show him that we weren’t a bunch of slouches. Once he left us after coffee, we breathed a sigh of relief (well I did anyway) and I slowed back down to my more comfortable pace of just over 20km an hour.
The cloudless blue sky meant conditions were warm and the strong southerly we’ve been experiencing over the past few days was nowhere in evidence. It would have been a welcome addition when we hit the Pacific Highway to head north back to Macksville. It felt at times like we did have a bit of a wind as cars, recreational vehicles and campers roared past.
Three potential insurgents – Mike, Kirk and Phil – tried to talk the ride leader into taking Upper Warrell Creek Road instead of the highway to avoid the traffic, but I stuck to the planned route, much preferring the whiz of traffic to the prospect of hills on the side road. We did decide that future rides on the highway should be planned for those periods outside school holidays, as the volume of traffic was noticeably greater and makes the ride less enjoyable.
Herb once again provided his sterling tail-end-Charlie services, and congratulated me on my second ride as ride leader. Everyone had a great ride, even without the usual crew.