Lilliputians on the Ridgeway

Today was an adventure to write home about :) this ride is therefore posted by both survivors, to fully illustrate the gruelling and exciting paths we took. The ride started in West Gosford, cruised up to Lisarow, then looping around Gosford, taking in the scenic parts of Holgate (including the hills), East Gosford, Springfield & finally back to the starting point.

The Ride
12th August 2009

Bunnies on bikes - Amanda and Annette
Meeting place - Gosford RSL
Start time - 9:45 am
Attire - 1 bright orange flouro vest & 1 bright yellow bunny vest

First up: bunny Amanda's fabulous ride account - enjoy!

Fear and trepidation were my initial feelings this morning as I rose out of bed. Pack the children off to school, put the washing on the line, load up by bike and off I set – to meet the BIKER BUNNY FROM HELL!

I was ready for a hard ride but not quite this hard – my knees are killing me, by bum and front bum are sore and my back is a tad stiff and I have just had a nanno nap! And it's only 5:15pm!

Anyway I digress, we set off on the ride at around 9:45 (after we finished taking photos and generally being silly) and I was going ok until an alsation decided that it didn't like bikes and tried to maul me – hey I didn't think I looked that scary in my fluoro top but the owner assured me it wasn't me it took offence to but my bike but seeing as I was on the bike I figured that the dog would probably attack me anyway. She managed to pull it away and I asked her which way she was walking so I didn't have to ride past her. Thank God she wasn't going the same way – Annette at this stage was in Niagara Park shops getting water and mistakenly taking a BIKE RIDERS MUST DISMOUNT BEFORE THEY ENTER THE SHOPPING CENTRE to read BIKE RIDERS MUST DISMOUNT ONCE THEY ENTER THE SHOPPING CENTRE. That would explain why 6 security guards tackled her to the ground – only joking!

Anyway we had actually ridden, what I was later to discover, the easy part! Ridgeway shocked my senses into a profound lack of energy – the hills were oh so steep and long! At one point Annette had cycled off into the distance and left me to the sounds of the birds and nothing else. I began to panic and had visions of wild boars running out of the wilderness to attack me and then being taken by scores of Liiliputians and tied up. Annette would never find me – I had no energy to cycle faster so I just had to pray that there was nothing sinister in the woods. (yes by this stage, my brain had been starved off oxygen and I was going mad).

I even had to get off my bike and walk up one of these god-damn awful hills – I am a loser!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We meandered our way through Matcham and Holgate and stopped outside the Grammar school where we laughed incessantly over really stupid things. A poor guy stopped to get something out of his boot and Annette and I watched him carefully afraid that he might get a hacksaw and come and chop us up and chuck us in his boot. Then Annette made me nearly wet my pants laughing by creating this vision of this poor chap walking towards us and pulling a map out to ask for directions and we both ran off screaming – by this stage both of us were mad and salivating!!

INTERRUPTION – I just had a phone call from a market research company asking for peoples views on, well this is what I thought he said – how people choose to fold their bike but he actually said how people choose the food they buy! - I am turning into a bike fanatic – everywhere I look there are bikes!!!!

We then cycled up the Entrance Road towards Springfield and once again my little fat legs gave way and I had to walk – hill number 2.

I then had to walk up hill number 3 at Springfield and then we stopped for coffee at Café Jam and my legs by now were nearly jam – I had gone past the jelly stage.

A couple more giggles and then we cycled all the way back and collapsed – well I did anyway

posted by Amanda :)


Bunny Annette's view from the saddle:

First up: bunny Amanda is NOT a loser! She's conquered every hill on this ride without hailing a taxi or disolving in tears - that's star bunny quality and determination :)

After a hectic morning of aiming to get out the door on time (failed), bike, kids and myself walked up to the school... slightly aware that I was running close to the wind - I pushed on with the obligatory "COME ON" calls, which prompted one of the mums near the school to dub me the pacer in "the Keirin" (oh dear, that bad is it? ;) ) left 2 panting but kissed kids at school and raced down to the RSL (for a couple of quick middies - NOT ;) ). Bunny Amanda had her bike out of car and ready to go, but before we took off she had to endure the photo session, with the RSL in the background... There was the 'almost temptation' that we'd plonk ourselves in the RSL for some pokies and beers (and maybe some Bingo), but as the sun was shining and we'd got THIS far, we cruised out on to the highway.

Manns Rd has a nice wide shoulder, so despite the reasonably heavy traffic, we cruised past the industrial area and Bunnings at a happy pace. Due to the hectic morning I'd forgotten my water bottle, discovering this after our first hill... a shop stop was planned to fix this minor hiccough. Niagara Park provided a small shopping complex (with confusing signage described in Amanda's post), & with water back on board, we cruised on towards Lisarow.

Getting across the Pacific hwy threw in a slightly stressfull moment when bunny Amanda suddenly became 'boot-camp-Amanda', yelling GOGOGOGOGOGOOOOOOOOO! causing me to half-freeze (halfway across the hwy) thinking I'd missed something coming fast our way (being short-sighted et all) ... All good and well, we swung onto the quieter McDonalds Rd, which led to.... The Ridgeway...!

There were some hills (as described in detail above), but once we'd conquered these and met up outside the grammar school - I found out that the Lilliputians were on the prowl today! This distubing bit of news sent us on a mind-detour, which not only created a monster of a lost man in a car, but also conjured up images of poor hill-climbing bunny Amanda being dragged off into the bush by a mob of Lilliputians, with NO ONE there to save her! We laughed so much that it was quite a feat we managed to get back on our bikes (not that a Lilliputian kidnap is joking material, but exhaustion and oxygen deficiancy has a habit of doing strange things to the brain ;) ).

We encountered a slight detour before finding the right path to East Gosford and the much talked about coffee stop. There were 2 girls just leaving a nice sunny table and we had a quick chat with them before sending them on their way and plonking ourselves ready to absorb caffeine and a well-deserved short break. These girls told us they sometimes did a bikeride around the Rumbalara (we both decided this was NOT a good time to mention the Lilliputians...), we smiled and waved and ENJOYED our coffee!

The last leg back to the RSL was covered in sunshine and with our caffeine boost - we finished the home run in no time :) A 28km ride, but with all the hills and variation - this is definitely a good training ride... Any ride that prompts bunnies to seriously consider the prospect of shopping for the 'padded' bikeshorts, has to rate in the 'hell-bunny' category!

Thanks for all the laughs and look forward to our next ride! :)



The Stats

Active riding time - 2 hours 30 minutes
Distance covered - 28km
Heartrate - 130 (average) 177 (max)
Calories burnt - 1049
Dogs - 1 with lots of teeth and an anti-bike attitude
Lilliputians - countless and hidden

The Map