3rd may 2009
Riders: Janine, Lou & Annette.
Our ride meandered past Mt Penang Gardens, taking in the scenery with horses, lots of greenery and sculptures on the far side of the gardens. Everyone managed to cross the cattle grids in the road without coming off… The garden section of the ride ended with a spot of weight-lifting, as we had to lift our bikes over the gate at the bottom of the road.
Next section was the cruisy Kangoo Road, past the industrial estate and a greyhound farm (thankfully the greyhounds were in ‘non-chase’ mode) leading up to Debenham road in Somersby.
By now Lou had had the gear-chat and was successfully clicking through the gears like a pro, gaining speed by the minute.
It was a bumpy ride down Debenham road (massive potholes) and more industrial area for visual entertainment, before we reached the round-about and swung onto Wisemans ferry road.
Janine stuck true to her motto: When on a hill – Don’t stop! Just keep on peddling past the top!
The downhill reward to Somersby falls was a thrill-seekers dream (check brakes first) where we had a rest-stop and gourmet snacks brought by Lou.
Re-hydrated, snacked up and ready to push off!
By now, ideas of going the distance (100km plus) were flying around in delight! – Easy peasy baby!
The next leg of our ride took us up Somersby falls road. Despite a chain coming off and someone else peddling for dear life because of a barking dog, we all made it to the top & cruised on over to the Pacific highway via Piles Road.
Point of interest: work in progress on the section of the Pacific highway that collapsed in the storms a few years back, although there's not really much to see other than road-blocks...
We continued along the pacific highway (towards Sydney, although we weren’t planning to go that far just yet…) after a few hills we arrived at the freeway overpass, which marked our "HOMEWARD BOUND POINT" (heaps noisier than I remember from riding there on my own – possibly because I’ve never had to carry out a conversation on the bridge before) :)
This section of the road is a measly 60k per hour, but obviously you can’t expect everyone to follow that. A particularly hurried driver almost collected the camera (and our extended extremities: arms, heads, feet – that sort of thing) as he WHOOOSHED past our photo opportunity…
The Stats (partly taken from test-pilot Lou's heart monitor)
- Maximum heart rate reached – A massive 207 BPM (though there is some suspicion that this occurred when some irresponsible person suggested to our test-pilot that we'd sneak across the pacific hwy 'short-cut' and not during actual riding expenditure)
- Calories burnt – 730
- Distance cycled – 26km
- Active cycling time - ~ 1 hour 45 min
Stay tuned for the next one :)
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