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Ride The Talk The RIDE

End of week 4

Yesterday, I went down to Taren Point to pick up some ‘hoardings’ for my trailer. (This I did after a radio appearance on BondiFM – thanks Serena & John.) The round trip clocked up 68km and took 3:19 on the bike – Sydney is a LOT hillier than Melbourne and almost NONE of the streets are straight – this created quite a challenge for this Melburnian cyclist!

I left Sydney this morning for Gosford, twice – I had to go back to Bondi from the city centre to pick up my trailer flag. I knew there had to be a reason I couldn’t find the bike path over the Harbour Bridge!!
On advice from the guys from Bike The Earth, I decided to go via Palm Beach and catch the ferry to Ettalong Beach – a much more picturesque trip. After going down and then up the Spit – big hill that! – I turned left and headed for the Wakehurst Parkway through Frenchs Forest to keep as much as possible off the ‘main drag’.
This turned out to be a great move – once I reached Warringah Rd, the road surface was excellent; the shoulder was reasonable and the downhill from there ended, not with another uphill, with a flat ride back to the highway through lovely countryside. It was then a bit of ‘up and down’ into Palm Beach. This is a beautiful part of the world!
The ferry trip was all of half an hour and then I was back on the bike for the final 20km into Gosford and my sister-in-law Noellene’s place. It’s good to be home – even if it’s someone else’s!
I travelled 93.4km today (including the geographical embarassment in Sydney central looking for the bridge bike path and the return to Bondi) in 4:36 ‘saddle time’ to give an average of 20.2km/h – I recorded a new best maximum of 67.6km/h going down the hill from Warringah Rd!

Sydney to Gosford route map
Sydney to Gosford route map

I left Sydney this morning for Gosford, twice – I had to go back to Bondi from the city centre to pick up my trailer flag. I knew there had to be a reason I couldn’t find the bike path over the Harbour Bridge!! On advice from the guys from Bike The Earth, I decided to go via Palm Beach and catch the ferry to Ettalong Beach – a much more picturesque trip. After going down and then up the Spit, I turned left and headed for the Wakehurst Parkway through Frenchs Forest to keep as much as possible off the ‘main drag’. This turned out to be a great move – once I reached Warringah Rd, the road surface was excellent; the shoulder was reasonable and the downhill from there ended, not with another uphill, with a flat ride back to the highway through lovely countryside. It was then a bit of ‘up and down’ into Palm Beach. This is a beautiful part of the world! The ferry trip was all of half an hour and then I was back on the bike for the final 20km in to Gosford and my sister-in-law Noellene’s place. It’s good to be home

3 replies on “End of week 4”

Sunday 29th August, 2010. You stopped and had a chat with us just after alighting from the Ettalong Ferry. It was nice meeting you and we wish you well in all your travels. It is lovely seeing somebody brave enough to get out there and enjoy our wonderful country and I hope you only meet the pleasant people of our country.

Hi Everyone – we were so very fortunate that John dropped by Newcastle on the way north to share his passion for energy efficiency and climate change, his inspiring stories, and very practical and useful tips for reducing energy usage in the home and our community. Please everyone tell all of your friends and family to come along to his John’s talks on his journey around Australia, to support such an inspired person and cause. Great speaker!

Thanks John for your committment. It was a real pleasure to meet you and help you along your way. Salt of the earth! We will be following your journey and wish you all the very best. Warmest wishes – Patricia, Joanne and Cameron – the Merewether gang!

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