Ride/Review of the trip to O'Reilly's Retreat

[Kiz_]

Hey everyone, I've been wanting to take the bike for a trip up to O'Reilly's retreat for some time now. I finally got to do it today

Starting from home I headed out towards Beaudesert, then over through some wonderful places like 'Wonglepong' and 'Boyland' to Canungra. A quick $6.20 top up and we're off to the mountains.

The roads before the ascent aren't too bad. Some nice variations make the trip a little less boring but there are a couple of sections where only the centre of the road is sealed and any oncoming traffic means you have to go on the gravel.

Once you reach the bottom there are cow paddies EVERYWHERE! Nasty, smelly, slippery piles all over the place. Going through in a group would have everyone flailing their legs to warn riders behind of all the crap. There are a few cattle grids in the MIDDLE of corners... any lean angle while going over them makes for a slippery sideways experience, oops.

The ascent is fairly average. There's not much chance to really go hard since you are constantly giving way and looking out for traffic coming through the one lane sections. There are so, so many one lane sections. I had decided to take the trip up after lunchtime so there were quite a few cars and coaches making the descent. The road surface isn't crash hot either and safety barriers rarely appear betwee you and the edge of the road which drops off immediately. Lots of blind, one-lane corners and tight, slow corners which leave you with a sense of achievement every time you come out of one.

There are some long sections of dense rainforest which, when coupled with the overcast conditions, meant I couldn't see without taking my sunglasses off These sections are so cool and green, I love them! On my trip up they had recently completed trimming back the vines and trees from the road so the surface was covered in sticks, branches, vines, leave nd debris that make for a rather annoying obstacle course.

The final section of rainforest before you reach the end of the road is a narrow, twisted, dark road. The entire section is one lane and if you encounter anything coming in the opposite direction then one party must squeeze themselves off to the side so the other can move past. There are some short parts through here that you can see a straight line to take on the bike and actually have some fun whereas a car would have to twist and turn to avoid the trees blocking the road everywere.

The carpark at O'Reilly's on a weekend is normally packed full but today there were but a few visitors to the place. At this stage I was happy to have made it safely without major incident (other than a coach taking a nice wide berth coming the other way around a blind corner). I would say the trip thus far was certainly challenging but when done with care it was not necessarily dangerous or risky.

A few minutes wandering around the carpark taking photos and I was ready to get going again. The return trip was much easier as I was used to the conditions and knew what to expect from the bike and how it would react to the surface and conditions. I didn't hold back as much now and everything seemed a whole lot smoother and faster and left me with an even bigger sense of achievement.

A stop at the lookout on the way down meant some more nice photos were taken and then we were off again.

I only encountered 1 car on the way down who courteously moved over when they could and let me past.

I'd say I was going at about 75-80% of what I could do on the way down. 100% being going full-ball to the maximum of my abilities but I wasn't prepared to do that as the risk of hitting a stick or stone and sliding over or falling off the edge were too great and I wanted to enjoy myself, not have another scary run I would be glad to see the end of.

The descent from O'Reilly's was the best run I've ever had on the bike, ever; fast sprints, hard braking, sharp and tight corners, a pretty tame angle of descent and a whole lot of confidence with no hiccups whatsoever.

Back through Canungra, then the usual route to Yatala and up the M1 home.

Yes, it was the best riding experience I've had yet

Photos:

Enjoy