Today I dared to venture out into the winter air again and decided instead of going to the Laverda club bike show (Brisbane’s biggest bike show) I would do a tour of my own around Springbrook mountain inspired by the mystery of Google map showing a ghost road. The show would have been good, I saw many bikes heading north on the M1 as I rode down to Mudgeeraba, but some days I just like getting out and riding.
After a brisk trip up the mountain I continued past Pine creek rd, where I would usually turn off, to the end of the road. There I confirmed that no road down the other side exists yet despite Google map (and some GPS mapping) showing a major road existing.
I stopped off for a coffee at the English Gardens Cafe, this is adjacent the national park walking tracks at the end of the road, where I semi warm up, then retraced back to the Canyon Lookout which of all the lookouts is the one I had somehow missed before now. Wow! probably one of the best views from the range and had passed it by all this time. Photo only captures some of what the eye can see, which includes Gold Coast highrise buildings and the ocean in distance and waterfall over cliff face opposite.
After that I decided to revisit the straight forward named ‘Best lookout of them all’ which is very good also with views of all the Tweed valley to the ocean. I head down the mountain after this thinking I would get some lunch at the Valley View Cafe in Numinbah however yet again I found this cafe to have way too many people for the staff to cope with and orders were banked up 30 minutes+ so I left and made a mental note to cross this off my list as this is 3rd time I have encountered same there.
I went to Chillingham just over the border and having seen many bikes stop at the general store decided it was about time I did the same. They didn’t have much in the way of food I ended up with just a pie and coffee – the pie was good the coffee was lacking despite the sign claiming it was award winning beans (of which I have never heard of) Anyway good position on the road to stop for a rest and watch the passing parade of motorbikes.
I continued my circle around Springbrook then by finishing off the Numinbah-Murwillumbah road finding the new section of road after Nobby’s creek alot of fun (I usually turn off onto the North Arm road) then riding over Currumbin range which was a top ride as usual.
For the life of me I can’t figure why people continue to only ride the northern Brisbane roads – this was mid afternoon, I never left home till 10.00am and I still had virtually no other traffic to spoil the riding, (nor any police) the north is choked with cars most Sundays by 10.30am and has alot less good roads and always has some police anti bike action.
Come ride the south its really wonderful.
Anyway I then tried to follow the Google map ghost road from the other side. To do so I went over the Tullebugera connection road and left into Tullebugera Creek Road. This road ended 16 km after that at a dead end near the base of Springbrook so again the road doesn’t exist however that 16 km was a nice find – a new great bike road which I will dedicate a full post to after this!
