DUBBUG Ride Report
14 April 2013
It was back to familiar ground for today’s ride, with an easy, but hilly 50km round trip to Bellingen via the South Arm and North Bank route. The day was glorious – the first in what seemed like living memory where it didn’t rain or threaten to rain.
Eleven of us set out from Urunga, but only ten did the trip to Bellingen. President George is still recovering from his back surgery and realised that he’d overdone the Friday cycle. He vowed to take it easy today and peeled off at Short Cut Road to travel north to Garden Mania for his solitary coffee.
The rest of us enjoyed a slow pace, with Herb and Colleen at the rear counting down the hills to coffee time. Bettyanne and Dave had had a couple of weeks off cycling, but were in good shape thanks to their very active one-week cruise where Bettyanne had scheduled just about every activity on board to keep them busy.
Alan B. was also back after a few weeks off the bike, but was travelling better than he had expected, and held his pace in the middle of the pack, along with Dave, Mike and Tim, who had done his usual pre-cycle cycle from Nambucca Heads. Ride leader Deb and Phil ate up the hills like they were leftover fairy floss from the Macksville Show.
The Butter Factory provided their usual wonderful coffee, service and good food. Mike ended up with rather more than he had intended – first convincing the waiter that his partner really had ordered those scones and they were his, not Alan’s (she hadn’t), and then gulping down what was clearly a cappuccino and not his flat white; again, not his but Dave’s. Entirely, totally innocent of course!
Back towards Urunga, George met us in his car, providing advice about the upcoming road conditions (mud and manure) and being a reassuring support car for the few kilometres remaining.
Today’s was a great social ride, with lots of stops to wait for the slower riders, as well as lot of joking about Mike’s ability to commandeer other people’s food – a wonderful day.