Hopkins Creek (7.45am and 0km) - Border Gates (9.00am and 15km) - Cedar Lake (11.00am and 50km) - Canungra (1.00pm and 65km) - Beaudesert (3.15pm and 92km).
Ride time = 6hrs 10 mins
Average Speed = 15 km/h
Max speed = 71 km/h
Tough ride today testing legs and our ability to find somewhere for coffee! Not many shops between these two places.
Headed off from Hopkins Creek down the hill to the Numinbah Road and then straight into the 10 km climb up to the Border Gates to Queensland.
Gentle undulating 25 km of riding from here to the start of the Hinze Dam bypass where it gets quite hilly for 10km or so. Wouldn't have minded a coffee at Natural Bridge Cafe (closed!) and certainly at least a drink at Numinbah Valley cafe (also closed!) but we had to wait until the Cedar Lake Resort at the 50km mark at 11.00am for any sustenance - Gatorade and ice cream. Roads were good with little traffic and decent verge most of the way and great scenery - apparently the traffic situation however is quite different on a weekend.
From here we rode up past the Beechmont turn-off (another time we might do the loop around there) and made a left onto Clagiraba Road and rode over Mt Clagiraba - this has got a couple of decent hill climbs on it but cuts off about 4km than if you went right around to the Canungra turn-off just before Nerang. This road has also been sealed since last time we rode it which has made it easier to ride but it now carries a bit more traffic than I remember.
Turned onto the Gorge Road and rode the final 15km or so into Canungra - this road is again pretty hilly with one hill in particular about 5km out of Canungra just about got us off to walk! We were also starving and having coffee withdrawal symptoms so lunch in Canungra was fantastic. Tania had a Salmon Salad wrap and I had a Greek Salad at the motorbike cafe - excellent service and food with toilet attached.
As the weather started to close in a bit - some mizzling and rain along the 35km to Beaudesert. Took the Wonglepong turn-off (cuts off about 8km) to cut across to the Beaudesert-Beenleigh road - very little traffic, a short (1km) section of good dirt road and get to ride past where my grandfather used to own a farm here at Biddadaba. We used our front and rear lights all the way from here to Beaudesert as it was getting quite dark even though it was only around 3.00pm but the main road was pretty busy. Lots of trucks use both the Gorge Road to Canungra and the road into Beaudesert. At least the road verge isn't too bad.
We were glad to ride into my mum's place at about 3.30pm and get off the road - a great day's ride but pretty tough going at times.
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