A group of my cycling friends including myself have often discussed doing a 100 km ride within the Redland Shire, situated on Moreton Bay east of Brisbane, Queensland. We planned to ride off road as much as possible, sticking to shared paths, trails and suburban streets with little traffic and when on busy roads, riding on dedicated cycling lanes.
As we have recently entered our winter season, we thought it would be an ideal time to make the ride as the temperature would be cool and the humidity low. The weather forecast was for possible showers and increasing south to south westerly winds during the day. It proved accurate but we failed to anticipate riding into a headwind increasing to 20 knots along the coast.
We commenced our journey in Cleveland, heading along the coast line to Point Talburpin, 50 km to the south. This is abnormally long as we decided to actually follow the coastline as much as possible.
From our starting point at Cleveland Station, we rode straight to Raby Bay and along the beaches before retracing our path and riding out to Cleveland Point. Part of the reason for doing this is that it makes for a more interesting and scenic ride and of course a more interesting blog topic.
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From Cleveland Point, we made our way to Victoria Point via Thornlands and Point Halloran, where we stopped to take in some refreshment.
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| Raby Bay, Cleveland, Qld. |
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| Victoria Point |
Back in the saddle, we meandered along pathways to Redland Bay and then on to Point Talburpin our halfway point, where we had a snack and water. Although the Redlands is renowned for it's beauty, I feel the coastline between Victoria Point and Point Talburpin which is an attraction to migratory birds, would have to be the jewel in the crown.
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| Point Haloran |
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| Redland Bay |
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| Point Talburpin |
As we ventured back, we tracked more inland, taking paths through parks and nature reserves where we could. As much as I enjoy riding along the shoreline, I equally enjoy taking paths and trails through our nature reserves, forests and park lands. At times, it is almost a symphony with the variety of birdcalls, no other sounds, just bird calls, some raucous, others more flute like.
As we now had the wind to our backs, the riding became much easier and we managed to reach Capalaba on the western boundary of the shire with relative ease, where we ensconced ourselves in MacDonalds for a much earned coffee.
The ride from this point is more on paths meandering through forests, parks and alongside creeks and spring fed streams as we negotiated our way through Alexandra Hills and Birkdale. It wasn't all a breeze however as, as the name Alexandra Hills suggests, there are a number of sharp hills to climb on the way with the ever increasing wind in our faces as we changed direction and alerting our senses to just how weary our legs were at this stage.
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| Alexandra Hills, Qld. |
After passing through Alexandra Hills, the terrain becomes more coastal and the ride back to Cleveland through Birkdale and Wellington Point was a breeze, possibly more so because we could already taste the cold beer awaiting our return back at the Hog's Breath.
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| Birkdale, Qld. |
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| Birkdale, Qld. |
What a contrast, one moment we are riding through the forest and next we are following the coastline again.
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| Birkdale, Qld |
It was all downhill from here as we quickly passed through Wellington Point and Ormiston, down the big hill in Sleath Street, Ormiston gliding all the way to Cleveland Harbour.
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| Sleath Street, Ormiston, Qld. with Cleveland point in the background |
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| Cleveland Harbour, Qld. |
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| Cleveland Harbour, Qld. |
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Cheers and safe riding,
Jimmy Bee
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