Ride Report 23rd September 2012 – Urunga to Nana Glen

DUBBUG Ride Report
23 September 2012

It was always going to be a long day’s cycle, with a 120km round trip from Urunga through Coffs Harbour, up to Bruxner Park, down through Bucca and Nana Glen, and back through Coffs to Urunga. But add to the mix an unseasonably warm day, and an unusually long wait for morning coffee, and the cycle ended up taking the whole of Sunday.

But what a glorious way to take up a Sunday! Despite the warm temperature, there was still a bit of chill to the air and the back lanes between Bruxner Park to Bucca to Nana Glen were filled with the scents of wisteria, citrus blossoms and freesia.

Nine of us set off from Urunga, which was quite a big group for such a long ride. There was an alternative, shorter ride to Bellingen, which attracted three (Allan B, Betty Anne and Robert). Bob, Colleen and April joined the big ride at Coffs Harbour and after cycling through the traffic, we tackled the big hill up to Bruxner Park. The fruit stalls along the road beckoned, but it was the beginning of the trip and stuffing one’s cycling jersey with bananas and avocados was not a good look or very feasible, no matter how nice the bananas would have tasted at morning tea time.

At the top of Bruxner Hill, George decided that he’d cycle back to Urunga – “I’ve done the ride enough times to know what you’ve got ahead of you and I know I don’t need to do it again,” he said.

The ride from the top of the hill down through the forest and out through the farm country around Bucca and Nana Glen is one of the best rides that we do, we all decided. The cyclists tended to clump into a faster group with Tim, Phil and Mike at the front; Bob, Sally, Ian, Deb and Colleen somewhere toward the middle; and Herb and April bringing up the rear. As always, everyone went at their own pace and there were plenty of stops to make sure we didn’t get too spread out.

A late morning tea at a new café at Nana Glen stretched into lunch time, but the scones were home-made and they arrived with plenty of jam and cream, so they well and truly stopped the tummy grumbles. Making an executive decision to ditch the ride program, we headed straight back down to Coramba along the Grafton road and didn’t take the planned East Bank Road which would have taken longer. Unfortunately, George, who had made it safely back to Urunga and grabbed his car and come north to provide a little bit of ride support couldn’t find us where he expected, but finally came across us in Coramba.

The freewheeling swoop into Coffs Harbour down Red Hill was fantastic. A passing motorist leaned out his window as he was going past Mike and told him he was clocking in at 80km an hour!

At the end of the day, Tim had put in the most kilometres. His ride start from Nambucca put 152km on his ride clock – the longest distance for the day, with Sally, Deb, Herb and Phil doing the full 120km. It was a challenge but a good one as it put us up against a longer distance than we’re used to, with warmer temperatures leading into summer, and a fair smattering of hills throughout the ride.

Next week’s ride is the Macksville Meander – Urunga to Nambucca, then “Sally’s Way” to Wirrimbi and Macksville and return following coffee at Macksville. Meet at the BP Urunga at 8am. Wednesday and Friday rides leave as usual at 8am from BP Urunga. Call George Smith for further information, on 6568 2115,