Aussie Ride 2022

Monday 10 October - had me assembling the bike at the terminal before heading over to Christine's which was a 30+ km ride across Sydney. I didn't want to spend lots of time with getting the bike perfect within the airport terminal so after my speedy exit I pulled up on the cycleway and carried out some refinements to the setup. Although in my haste to exit the terminal I managed to leave my drink bottle and its handlebar caddy in the bike box! A couple of days later I did a ride around the harbour to make  sure all was well with the bike.  Arrived at Christine's in the afternoon and had a very enjoyable five days with her and also managed to catch up with Lynette and Peter as well as Sheryl and Paul.  On Saturday I headed off for the City once again to meet up with Peter who was flying up from Melbourne and it was great to see him after our three years of not being able to ride together. Peter assembled his bike and found we needed a valve tool to make sure the  valv...

  We left the Sydney Central YHA at about  8:00 this morning and as the garage door opened we looked out to a torrential downpour! So we quickly made it to the veranda and waited for the downpour to pass. Our ride 5 of the city in "rush hour" was a non event as there were plenty of cycleways for us to take. In fact for the majority of today's ride we were on cycleways all the way through to Campbelltown. It was 50 km before I saw a "paddock" and pver 60 km's before I saw a cattle beast. Before then we were always within the "City". We rode past Sydney Olympic Park and detoured to check out the Stadium - a huge complex and yet we were virtually the only people there. So it made for a good photo op! Have just seen the weather forecast - not looking good as far as sunshine is concerned! In fact it's looking like we're going to enjjoy some wet weather riding! What fun...

  We left with two possible routes, one of 66 km and one of 77 km. It appeared that the 66 km route was a cycleway close to the Hume Highway however it became apparent that there was not so the route of choice became the 77 km one. The first few km's were backtracking on our ride in to Campbelltown from Narellan and once there we turned left and headed more or less along what was the Old Hume Highway. Again there were good cycleways and then they morphed in to very quiet country roads with only a few km's of highway that had a good shoulder for us to ride. We had two, 2 km sections of gravel road and one with quite a steep hill that we decided it was better to walk up than try to ride. Even with our sturdy treaded tyres the fact that they are still very narrow and inflated to a high pressure means that traction, grip and stability make the ride very unstable, hence the decision to walk not ride. It's been overcast for the whole day with quite black clouds in sky and fortuna...

  The further out of Sydney we travel the more rural it becomes (obviously) hoowever it really wasn't until this afternoon that I saw sheep! Again we were on cycle trails for a bit early on and then on to quiet country roads. Our mapping programme let us down for the first time as it had us head a couple of km"s up to the end of a no exit road! Not only that but between us and where we needed to be was the infamous Hume Highway! So we backtracked to the highway, assessed all our options and decided to cross the highway and then ride alogside of it for about 3 km. Yes it was busy however there was a very wide shoulder to the Highway so we were well away from the the traffic - the worst thing being the noise! It was so good to once again be off the Highway and  back on country roads. It's unbelievable in my book but some people choose to ride the Highway which they are free to do, but I can not see any point in doing so. For the best part of today we were riding through the ...

  Another longer day that avoided any of the rain that had been forecast. We did a wee Tiki Tour of Goulburn that took us past Peter's Great Aunt's home where he used to spend hoidays as a kid. From there it was to the coffee shop that shared premises with the local Cannodale bike shop. As this was the case we decided to wait until the bike shop opened so that we could buy a couple of lights for our helmets  to aid our visibility, So as well as a bright top, a bright orange fluro flap at the back of my helmet, a flashing light at the back of the helmet and my Garmin radar strobe light that flashes as drivers approach as well I also  have the radar let me know a car is approaching that I can then check in my rear view mirror! Yes  Iake this riding safety, seriously. I've seen lots of kangaroos (dead ones) but not a live one yet- hopefully I will get to see one outside of a zoo. The bird life is quite prolific and I enjoy the birdsong of the parrots however just as bac...

  We amended our original route after talkng with the guy from the bike shop as he told us of a far more scenic and quietr route. So off we went at 7:30 AM and happily rode through then out of Canbera in the rain and as we were warned that there would be no coffee shops along the way we drtoured before we left Canberra for Peter's coffee. After that it was back on the trail and out of town - I got to see live kangaroos in the wild this time however that experience was spoilt by the magpie that kept swooping on me and they had another go at me a bit later on as well. It was really good that was until we saw the "River Crossing Closed" sign! Bugger. No we had a good hill to climb back up and head back to where we came from some hours earlier! After another Cafe stop where we re-mapped our route to Yass we headed out once again only to find that there was another road closure on tha route due to flooding, Eventually we left the last suburb of Canberra at about 2:30 PM!  Whil...