More hills, more hills! Time to ride up some more hills… Richmond to The Basin along Canterbury road, then off through the forest along the Basin-Olinda road, a dirt road that winds peacefully up through the hills before popping out in the midst of Sunday tourist mayhem.

There was more traffic today than I’ve met on previous rides up that road — some days I haven’t seen anyone else during the whole six kilometres, today there was traffic in both directions, slippin’ and slidin’ on the slick clay road. One patch of road so sticky that both Jo and I thought that our tyres were going flat, the mud wasn’t deep, but it really seemed to stick us to the road. In the pauses between the traffic all we could hear were the bird sounds and the distant whine of motorbikes on Mountain highway. Kookaburras, parrots, and numerous small unidentifiable forest birds keeping us company on the way up the hill.

Eternal optimism meant that we stopped at a café in Olinda for lunch, something I really should give up doing. There must be one of Murphy’s Laws that says something about competence and tourist areas… A very harried looking owner, a long delay to order, “sorry, we’ve none of them,” a changed order, a long wait… Why aren’t there hobo-like chalk signs on the road or building, letting us know that some places just can’t cope?

Three o’clock and time to leave if we want to make it home by dark. Zip up the spray jackets, warm up the legs. Off down the main tourist road to Sassafras, just one part of a long queue of traffic. Despite their “soothing drive in the country,” many of the motorists seemed to be highly stressed on the drive down, turning off onto Mountain highway and away from all the traffic was a relief.

Twenty minutes or less of effortless swooping descent through the trees, only two cars pass before we’re back at The Basin. Part way down, a manic young mountain biker with knobby tyres roaring and t-shirt flapping tears past, then heads off up a fire-trail and off into the scrub. The road’s been widened at a corner where once I nearly ran off into a bus shelter, new lines and warning signs too.

From The Basin back to Richmond is another two hours on the bikes, Sunday afternoon traffic, everyone wanting to get home from their day out in the countryside. Rolling up and down the hills of Mountain highway, Burwood highway, Toorak and Camberwell roads, and finally back onto Swan street for the last half suburb. The concrete expansion gaps in Toorak road feel like riding on train tracks, ka-thump, ka-thump, ka-thump…

Change of pace for the evening, yesterday’s newspaper had thoughtfully included a discount voucher for the new cinemas up the road in the Concrete Monstrosity Shopping Mall (oops, Victoria Gardens). A quick check shows that Terminator 3 is on — definitely a night for a bit of mindless action. The movie was everything expected, Arnie and explosions and a wafer-thin plot. An added bonus was the shorts for nearly every other action movie to be shown in the next six months — I’d heard of some of them, but a few were new, all looked hilarious…