Buffalo Soldier - Bright, Australia
Bright, Australia
Peak 1, Mt Buffalo, is done! After driving for nearly eight hours yesterday (Saturday) from Point Clare on the NSW Central Coast to Bright, Victoria, then having to call the RACV because my car wouldn't start when I got here (which turned out to be a stuck fuel pump fixed by hitting the fuel tank with a hammer!), setting up the camper and annexe, then going food shopping, the last thing I felt like doing was a 23 km uphill slog the next day. While 23 km doesn't sound like much, after riding up Mt Buller this time last year which was 16 km of continuous uphill, I knew this was going to be tough. Plus it was 1,119 metres straight up! Sunday morning was a sunny and fine morning after getting cold overnight. After driving for about 15 minutes to the Eurobin Creek picnic area at the base of Mt Buffalo, it was game on. I knew I was in for a hell of a climb when I pulled up into the car bark and there was an elite athlete looking girl with her personal trainer, cycling on rollers warming up (I'm 90% sure the trainer is either a former Olympic track cyclist or pro tour rider. Very recognisable but could't put a name to him - I will have to Google it later and update the blog when I find out his name). Anyway, I had a chat with him, pretended I knew something about cycling, and started the first pedal stroke of my 7 Peaks challenge adventure. The first three km were hell. My lungs were immediately burning - I think I should have done a warm up ride first. After four km, I couldn't believe how high I had climbed already. Amazing views. The down side was that the higher I climbed the stronger the mountain wind was getting. Almost felt gale force at times when I rounded some corners. I knew I was starting to climb above the snow line when the road line markings changed form white to yellow. I thought ice was forming in places until I worked out it was just reflective sparkles in the yellow paint! From about the four km mark to the 14 km mark, I had found my rhythm and was feeling good and dare I say it, enjoying myself. The last nine km felt like they were dragging and I could feel my body tiring. About three quarters of the way up I noticed from the shadows that I was being drafted for quite a while. It turned out to be the girl on the rollers I had seen warming up, being closely followed in the car by her trainer. She eventually overtook me (I put it down to her having a rest drafting me, nothing to do with her superior ability and probably being 30 years younger). Eventually I arrived at Lake Catani where it flattened off a bit before the final last three km to the finish at Dingo Dell. While I was ecstatic to have made it, the cafe was a bit dull and a bit anti-climactic (compared to Mt Buller where you finish at the ski resort which has a buzz about it). I went inside the Dingo Dell cafe and got my 7 Peaks passport stamped and started the descent straight away. While it's pretty much all downhill (an uphill section at Lake Catani which hurt the legs), it was fun descending at speed although it still took just over half an hour to get down the mountain, and quite ******* the hands braking and mentally fatiguing concentrating on some very tight bends. Eventually I arrived back at the car park where I had started. A hard first peak but none of them are easy. It's off to Mount Beauty tomorrow for the 31 km ride up to Falls Creek.