The Ride Stats
Bunnies on board - Lou, Amanda and Annette
Meeting place - Gosford gallery
Set off time - ~9:35 am
Weather - Cloudy, hot and muggy
Distance cycled - 55 km
Active riding time - 4 hours and 25 minutes
Calories burnt ~ 1650
Heart rate - 120 (average) 170 (max)
Today's biker-bunny ride had three die-hard bunnies panting with exhaustion and delirious hallucinations at the end of what turned out to be a 55km ride. We pushed off from our meeting place at the gallery after a somewhat delayed start (caused by Annette's ongoing confusion with bag zippers and straps, and also Lou's complimentary first-aid kit demonstration show ;) ).
Grinding sounds and a rear view of Lou's frantic pedalling (trying but failing to get into 3rd gear) caused us to stop off at the bikeshop in West Gosford for an emergency bike fix. However, as it was miss "shopper" Lou's bike in dire need of attention, she somehow managed to get a super-cool basket with a rack fitted to her bike as well as the gear problem sorted!
So while Lou kept popping her head out "Only a few more minutes" Amanda and I degressed into pure silliness outside, even discovering the lost Lilliputians in the shop window!
Finally we were on our way again and Lou's spanking new basket proved to be a fabulous addition all round. (it could take anything - except rubbish as Amanda found out the hard way :) )
We cycled up Manns road and cruised all the way up along Narara Valley road to the end where we had one last steep bit to get onto the Pacificy Hwy at Lisarow. Just before this hill Amanda confided that she was feeling a little 'flat' today *cough* little did we know that this bunny was pushing herself up hills in a 3:2 gear setting (the sort of gear you'd normally use on a FLAT) - "Oh but I'm trying to get fitter" she explained innocently... Thus, 'flat' can mean different things when on a bike :)
Clouds were hanging low in the sky above, but it was a hot, muggy day and our water supplies were already running low, so we stopped off at a servo in Ourimbah for a top up and a giggle.
Roadworks through Ourimbah had us initially cruising along the brand new shared pathway; oh such a breezy, smooth, lovely, wide and inviting path.... until the unfinished pathway came to an abrupt end in gravel and fenced off terrain! Oh dear! As we looked around we realized that we were in fact stranded; the pathway, which had seemed so safe and sensible, travelled to the side of the main road and we were now separated from this same road by a wide stretch of dug up road filled with prime movers, road flatteners and all sorts of other fancy machinery.... oh and roadworkers with their way-cool walkie-talkies ;)
The dude closest to us must have felt some sort of affinity with us (Amanda's bright orange flouro vest no doubt helped), because as Lou approached him with her "Oh dear we're a tad tangled up here and we need to get over THERE" he quickly got on his walkie-talkie "Biker Bunnies coming through.... pave the way..... yep.... over.... righti'o..... yep...... all clear" And we got escorted all the way up to the crossing by heavy road machinery, feeling very special indeed :)
A Saddle with a View (Amanda)
I must say up to this point it had been pretty cruisey really and yes I was feeling a tad flat as lack of sleep and worry had kept me up the night before.
We had covered most terrains on the ride thus far and paving our way through dirt certainly did not help but the lovely workmen were most accommodating. It was then onto our favourite part of the ride – Enterprise Drive where I must admit I felt a tad incompetent this time. For all those virgin bunnies out there – do not go on a hell bike ride with Lou and Annette as they do not rest and their legs pedal at the most amazing speed which I could not match – I was constantly at least 1km behind Annette and 1/2km behind Lou – this led me to talk to myself rather a lot and imagine various scenarios where it always ended in me disappearing. As Lou now had all of my equipment including my phone (in her new basket) I knew I had to keep up with them as there was no other way to reach them. We cruised along Enterprise Drive with absolutely no mishaps – no doubt the speed was indicative of the fact that we knew we would be stopping for a sugar snack at the end!
I led the way (surprise surprise) along the cycle track at Chittaway Bay to the sounds of Lou cooing "oh isn't this lovely – I never knew this existed" and we found a lovely little shed with a picnic table for our much earned rest stop. Just as we had all dismounted and biker Lou is stuffing her face with a banana we see a group of children cycle towards us and dismount in our very spot – panic set in as we realized that this dangerous ‘bikie gang’ as one little chappy excitedly called them grew into rather a large class load of primary school students. Lou approached one of them and asked what they were doing and was told that they intended to stop here for lunch ‘right’ she said ‘we have left our children at school so I think we will love you and leave you’ – we jumped on our bikes and cycled off into the sunset looking for another peaceful spot – which we found further down the path but it did have a little bit of dog poo – which Annette kept trying to dodge. "My son plays drinking games where they have to do push ups over dog poo" I piped up – "loverly" was the response.
It was at this stage that Lou decided to try out her new quick release basket and do a couple of laps posing as a shopping basket model – Lou pose No I hear you say – yes indeed she did. We got a rare glimpse into the modeling career of Lou the biker bunny with the shopping basket. We then had to go on a toilet search as the model needed to relieve herself – she even talked about going in the bushes! Poor bushes I thought.
Now, by now we had been cycling for at least two and a half to three hours and as usual Annette and I lost the plot when we discovered that we had driven over and killed lots of Polynesians who were going to befriend the Lilliputians (from our previous rides). Polynesians I hear you say – what the hell are you going on about Amanda? Annette asked me if there were raindrops on the ground and I replied "not at all – it’s just pollen" which then developed into little Polynesian people who not only had been crushed by us but were also going to die when the ocean rose and drowned the entire race – YOU HAD TO BE THERE as Annette and I laughed hysterically – although saying that Lou was there and she didn’t laugh hysterically. Too busy thinking about her next wee stop I suppose!
Everything was going swimmingly until I realized that the worst part of the ride was yet to come – Terrigal Drive and Karalta Rd – the two biggest hills on the planet. Weary legs, weary brain and lack of food did not help matters. (especially as we had somehow lost our last bag of energy along the way) As usual Annette powered up, followed by Lou who turned the corner and left me talking to myself half way up the hill. I past the church with Jesus advertising on the billboard and asked him for help but didn’t get any – so I stopped pedaling and lay my head on my bike – F**** what am I doing – keep going you can do it and do it I did – wind in my hair saw me power down Terrigal Drive only to reach the very last steep hill of the day – at the back of Erina Fair. Lou sprouted angel wings at this point and I was convinced something was growing on her shoulders for about 10 minutes until I caught up to her and realized it was her pigtails and not some beautiful white set of feathers.
Need sugar to get up those last hills!Cruising along into Gosford I waited for the traffic as I tried to cross the road – there was a little old lady looking at me with her mouth open wide in panic and I am looking at her thinking I am a human on a bike get over it when I suddenly got swooped by a bloody blackbird and then I looked at her with my mouth open wide thinking you could have warned me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By now even Annette was hallucinating:
"On the home run there was definitely an element of exhaustion creeping in to the mix, by now we'd clocked up close to 55km and our legs were oh so feeling it. As we cruised around the last bend on York Street I was watching the bright light on the pathway.... and suddenly the path sort of lifted above the rest of the surroundings (stairway to heaven here we come....) with the cars and all the rest fading into oblivion..."
Not even a cup of coffee at the end of the two fearless leaders raced off to be with their children leaving me crying at the gallery
Annette and Amanda :)
Looking forward to our next adventure bunnies!
The Map
My goodness! That was some ride! You should all give yourselves a big pat on the back. I am glad that you found some nice helpful workmen - I mean, it would have been dreadful if you had had to 'back-track'!!!
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