Thursday, July 25, 2013

Chasing the Sunrise - Frosty Trail Treats


I’m not quite sure how this happened, but I have become a morning rider… The thought of straddling my bike for a hard couple of hours of riding in the cold at the end of a work day is enough to have me sitting on the floor, facing into a corner slowly rocking backwards and forwards. This means, inevitably, that during the Winter months, I am out in the forest well before sunrise, and well before the frost has had the chance to settle on the trails for the morning. It is stunning… And it’s addictive… And it doesn’t seem to matter how many times I see the sunrise from my favourite spot at the top of Katore Road, I never seem to tire of it. The stunning beauty of the dawn of each day seems to have its own unique DNA that makes it different from every other morning.

There are few things like the crunch of your tires on the frozen trails, leaving bite-sized dimples imprinted in the ice from the tread. Wallabies and rabbits scatter and disappear into the darkness on the side of the trail. The first thing that changes is always the sky… If you look up through the trees, it turns from a black blanket sprinkled with stars to a dull blue, then as the sun creeps over the horizon, it throws an array of blues, pinks, purples and oranges across the white, frosty landscape. It’s so cold that my breath makes patterns in the air in front of my face, but my body is toasty warm beneath layer upon layer of clothing.

I understand it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s such a special time of morning that I feel obligated to share it, so following is a collection of stunning photos from my adventures over Winter so far (mixed in with a couple of sneaky sunset shots!)… I know it takes some convincing for most people, but it really is worth braving the cold to experience this stuff firsthand!