From Calvert to the start of the climb up up and over Mount Beau it was wet roads and scattered showers but the dirt roads seemed to have avoided most of the heavy rain from the morning storms. But as we got further and further along the dirt road it became obvious that it wasn’t going to be an easy ride as we transitioned from a used dirt road to unused dirt roads. The red clay road had dried out from the drought but the recent rains had allowed for the grass to grow through quite thick along with the clay being dried out on top but very loose/muddy underneath which didn’t allow for a lot of traction as it built up on the tread allowing for wheelspin and a quick dismount on 8-15% gradients. 

Eventually we made the way to the top of the climb. After removing the built up clay in the pedals, cleats and shoes we started out descent to the bottom of the valley. However it wasn’t to last very long. On the -10% and at times -15% gradients long ruts had formed and combined with the wet thick/tall grass made spotting them difficult which was made even worse with the slippery red clay. It wasn’t long until Bronwyn had her first couple moments shortly followed by a slow speed stack when she lost the front on some slippery clay. Luke quickly followed in a more dramatic fashion as he lost the front on one bit of slippery clay, into a long rut covered in grass, across the track into another rut and eventually losing the rear as it lost traction with the wet clay and spun around. We both decided to attempt the Mulgowie section another day when it wasn’t as wet on the steeper side. As we made our way back to Grandchester Mount Mort Road it still wasn’t stack free. One one -12% section Luke lost the bike on a soft section of clay when the front dug in and the rear slid out at low speed. Once we got back to the dirt road normal riding was resumed. The only problem we now had was avoiding eye level chunks of clay that were now being flicked off our wheels/bikes which was easily solved by grabbing a low hanging stick from a tree and scraping the clay off while riding. Once we got back onto Grandchester Mount Mort Road heading south it was 85% gravel roads over just about every single ridge line all the way back to Rosewood. You couldn’t see them all but when you got to the crest you knew there was another one just on the other side.

 As we were having a brief lunch break with two friendly horses we could now see the thunderstorm to the north in the distance coming out from behind Mount Walker. We checked the radar and it was yellow/red over Amberley but travelling in a north/west direction so we were quite safe from it. Even though it was just gloomy grey skies to the south what we didn’t realise was that there was a secondary and even worse looking storm brewing behind Boonah/Mount French heading in our direction. So we said goodbye to the horses and told the harvest files to hurry up and jump on as we were now leaving to quickly get back to Rosewood to beat that approaching southern storm.