Since taking up fatbiking I've had two things on my Bucket List and today I had an epic adventure that saw them ticked off.
This is easily my favorite non- surfing beach at Shoal Bay. I had a notion to get my fatbike on it and ride right along it. Well, today I did just that! And I didn't even need the smaller front cog and I saw mermaid. Just as I stopped riding at the far end, I look over and there on a rock is a stunning woman with long shiny black hair and she's combing her tresses with her fingers. As I retrieved my phone to capture where I had just ridden, she disappeared before I could prove her existence!. Out of my league anyhow. ...
On a side trip to Zenith Beach searching for a trail south to Fingal Beach all I succeeded in doing was kicking sand into my chain. I went to an amenities block about 500m away and flushed iit under a tap. Just then an old guy, hobbling along with his wife in a walker frame, turned or to be the human find of the day. He enthused about the potential to ride on the sand and was stoked when I told him I just rode SBB. He then suggested I could ride to Fingal Bay Spit and I told him I was heading there directly. He beamed in pure joy, as did his wife. Great couple, and nudging 90 years of age, or more.
The trail to FBS was a hiking trail.
This is the hiking trail. Quite steep, but rutted out by rain. But it was My first sighting of wattle since Wattle Day, 1 August.
Some of the downhills were madly steep and my normally noisy disk brakes were squealing in stereo. There was no chance I could sneak up on any wildlife. I amazed myself with the courage of my riding considering how weak and cautious i was just a few months back.
The last 50m to the dunes behind FBS was almost impassable. It was a sand slope and required; push bike ahead, apply brakes, take two dolly steps, repeat. But the view over the top was a good reward.
As you can see, the spit over top the island is under water, so there's no chance of me riding across to the island today. After this It was no small matter of ride along soft sand to Fingal Bay's beach's southern end. It would have been different had the ride been or though.
Here I came among people again, the first some Zenith Beach. I flushed the chain and gears with water, refilled my water bottle, chomped a muesli bar and headed back to my truck via cycle paths and roads. My legs were still working in circles but they had little power.
Overall, we were out for 4 hours for a rough 40 k's in total and most of that time was spent riding on cycle paths, beaches and trails as well as a washed out hiking track. The fatbike configuration is ideal for this combination of surfaces. I caught a mtb rider filming me as i went effortlessly along the beach. An FB is the only bike that could have done this today. Down the dunes to the spit, it went well on the washed out track and cruised along the paved parts. But mostly it opened up the landscape and took me to places few people can go. No $100 000 twin turbo, for wheeler, and no carbon mountain bike, could have come close to navigating this circuit. On the way back, rolling down a narrow path over a cliff edge by the bay, under the shade of towing gums, an older Indian lady in a sari said it best: "That's a nice bike". Indeed darling. N
amaste.
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