We saw dawn break on our final day of the ride from our accommodation at Diamond Beach Resort as we prepared to head out to the highway. For safety reasons we had planned to transport the riders from the hotel to Nabiac to start the ride. However road warrior Ian decided to ride anyway!
After loading all of the bikes and riders into vehicles we took the short trip to Nabiac and readied ourselves for another long day on the bikes, which would start with the hills around Coolongoolook which was the longest hill we would face and the Buladelah Mountains. Around 160km!
So we set off from Nabiac and took it easy to get tired legs moving again. Soon enough we were into the hills which started to hurt those who were weary. The group did really well up the Coolongoolook hill which rises up into the distance and goes around a bend and keeps going. A cruel one!
After a good run down hill we then hit the Buladelah Mountains. The new highway is much less steep than the old road but that means the hills are much longer! And they just keep coming!! We finally reached Buladelah for our first rest stop. We couldn’t believe when we arrived that our average speed to that point was 29kmh! Given the mountains, that’s really fast. Our first indication that we were going to be ahead of time for the day.
Back on the road, and it was starting to warm up and we knew it would be very hot later. Again we were just flying along and doing a great job of keeping the team together. Our next stop was ‘the Rock’ for another break. At this stop thoughts were starting to turn toward lunch, and with lots of time up our sleeve a call was made to McDonald’s at Raymond Terrace so see if they would donate lunch to the team, which for the second time in a row they did for us!
The thought of free food must have inspired Mark Lee and Gail Sheil as they jumped on the front and led the team at breakneck speed at times all the way to the Terrace. At times we were riding at 38kmh up hill. But everyone managed to stay together, as the faster we went the sooner we got home (or free food!)
We rolled into McDonald’s at Heatherbrae and true to their word they dedicated a counter to us and 35 people placed orders one by one and the food just came rolling out. The team certainly enjoyed it!
With the warm weather we were running low on water. In steps a complete stranger from 24-7 vending with a huge box of spring water. That went straight into the fridge in the car to cool off and it came in very handy.
We then left Raymond Terrace and headed toward Adamstown and the start of Fernleigh track to join the Olivia’s Ride participants. The pace was a little slower now with the heat, and also the team enjoying their last ride together on the open road. A very enjoyable last 20km.
We made it to Adamstown around 15 mins ahead of schedule, and stopped at the start of the track and re-fuelled with those now cold water bottles!
We did contemplate a visit to Chris C’s house where he promised he had enough cold beer for everyone! But we decided that may not be the best option!
We farewelled the support cars that had looked after us so well and sent them to various points on Fernleigh Track to support the ride, and hit the track for our Olivia’s Ride to begin with everyone getting very excited to see their loved ones, riding and at the finish!
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