Dog Trap road in the rain

With all sorts of funny weather forecasts (patchy rain, gael force wind warning & storms, showers, sunny spells and temperatures up to 29 degrees), we set off on our Saturday morning ride PREPARED :) With raincoats, sunscreen, water bottles and the compulsory puncture-kit on board, we felt brave enough to embark on a new adventure.

The Ride
29th August 2009

Bunnies on board: Janine and Annette
Meeting place: Kariong Shell servo
Meeting time: 8:00am

Skies were a mixture of greys and drizzle as we cruised down the highway towards Kangoo road. Suited up in our raincoats, our main concern was the slippery road surface... Wet shiny roads made for some precarious riding, especially going down-hill :) By the time we got to the bumpy F3 underpass on Gindurra road, we were well and truly awake; dodging potholes, puddles, rocks and passing cars - using equal measures of skill, fear and swearing!

We climbed quite a few hills & sailed past the RSPCA turn-off (no little kittens coming home today). The rain was holding off, and being out in the country we had lots of greenery to look at (all shapes and sizes, though no Lilliputians to report...). Along Wisemans Ferry road we stopped for a photo-shoot next to these huge red flowers, now known as Guinea Lillies. Thanks Janine for planting one in my head :)

All went to map plan until we hit Dog Trap road... somehow I had forgotten that this road takes you on a distinct downward slope (supposedly the 'all-bark-and-no-trousers-dogs' from the time Lou & I rode here, managed to erase any 'terrain observations' I might have had), so as we're cruising down the slopes Janine is getting distinctly worried about the return hike back up the hill... The further down the road we got, the more elaborate bunny-Janine's alternate plans became; Kariong hill was mentioned, calling a Taxi was high on the list... then she came across a chain lying by the side of the road & devised a brilliant plan involving the chain, my bike and a great ride to the top of the hill ;)

All of a sudden our minds moved away from the sloping road & up in the trees, as Janine spotted 2 black cockatoos flying out of a tree! We stopped and got off our bikes to look. There were a whole 'group' (or do you call them a flock?) of them hooting and flying about & it was all very exciting. I'd never seen a black cockatoo before, so it felt quite special :). Some say the black ones only come out when there's a storm brewing. Managed to take some photos of the majestic looking birds and they even followed us for a while as we continued on down the road.

We reached our 'half-way-point'; the bridge over the F3 freeway, where we stopped for some water and a few silly happy photos. Deciding that the climb back up Dog Trap road would be a warm one, we took off our rain coats (it wasn't raining), and set off.

On cue, the rain started coming down, not super-heavy, but we did get wet as pedaled on towards the top :) It actually didn't feel all that bad at all, there seemed to be quite a bit of undulation (not a constant gruelling climb) and all Janine's alternate plans and worries about the return up Dog Trap road turned out to be pure 'fluff' - She conquered it in style :)

The rest of the way went smoothly with the rain holding off and the air warming up. We made it back to Kariong servo clocking in at 3 hours and 10 minutes with happy faces and well-worked legs :)

Thanks for a lovely country ride and plenty of laughs!

The Photos



The Stats

Distance covered: 36km
Riding time: 3 hours 10 minutes (less about 30 min for stops)
Heart rate: 113 (average) 169 (max)
Calories burnt: 1042

The Map

35km bunny adventure

Today finally proved beyond doubt, that when bunny-Amanda and I go bike-riding - hysterics will follow in our trail as certain as the sun shining on our padded bums... Flouro-vests and incessant laughing make us an easy duo to spot along the Central Coast roads (give THOSE ones a WIDE berth!!). :)

The Ride
27th August 2009

Bunnies on Bikes: Amanda and Annette
Meeting point: Radjhani's restaurant on Ocean View Rd
Set-off time: ~9:30am
Accessories: padded bike-pants, map, camera, phones & flouro-vests

First up - Amanda's delightful riding account:

Sadly there were no little people binding me up and carrying me into the woods today or wild boars chasing me through the forest with men in tights trying to save this fair maiden. But there were cement trucks trying to cement Annette into the road and ute drivers being pains in the derriere)!!! AND HILLS!!!!!!! And once again lots of them. I am learning to embrace my new love of hills and try my hardest to reach the top because if I don’t I will always be at the bottom!

Today was not like every other day – I was actually looking forward to the challenge and it was an early challenge followed by a cruisey straight flat ride home.

Funnily enough both Annette and I (and I blame it on the fact that it came up so quickly) had to walk up our first hill, which was at the end of Ocean View Drive, obviously Annette walked up less than I did but nonetheless that is the first time I have seen it happen.

We cruised along the shared footpath along the Entrance Rd until we crossed onto Tumbi Rd where I think all in all there are about 5 hills and guess what; I cycled up every single one of them! I did nearly vomit on the first one but soldiered on and managed to keep going for another 2.5 hours. The road is not too bad, there is a cycle path along some of the road and one has to be careful of stopping on posh people's driveways (yes even I think they are posh Noelle), especially when they are trying to get out. We discovered that Prado drivers cannot turn on a square but need a perfect arch into which they can maneouvre themselves onto the rd as one lady asked us to move further down the road – we were on HER turning circle – years of worn out bitumen and she simply couldn't veer of her traditional approach to coming out of her drive.

Water stop at Mingara petrol station where Annette lost the plot pretty early and bought herself not one but two waters, and she was already carrying a spare – what had I let myself into – was she going to kidnap me and is this why she had purchased unnecessarily large amounts of water – NO she had just had a brain freeze!

Following Tor's advice we went down Tumbi Creek Rd to try and find the lake track and I nearly ran into a grumpy old bag pushing a pram across the road – strange people in this world – she seemed pissed off that she had to wait to cross the road for a bicycle and decided to try and go it alone – but I was too fast for her and she got stuck on the kerb! :D

Then at the end of what we thought was the bike track we turned into the village idiots as we ate our sesame snaps and laughed incessantly at how out of place we looked in suburbia.

No further accidents or incidents to report until Annette with her divine love of taking photographs at every single stop said "Can you take one of me with the water in the background" and proceeded to hand me the camera forgetting that she had her bike in the other hand CRASH BANG OH MY GOD HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER STOP LOOKING AT US SERGEANT MAJOR – you get the picture. Lucky I had my bike pants on to soak up the... Only joking!

As we drove past Tor's house Annette waved and I wished the girls luck on their walk. Nearing the end of our road I got beeped by a P plater who had no idea that the road was not hers alone. Coffee break at the iBar where Annette made me pose in my workman's vest beside a road digger – do you think I look the part?

Oh home and happy!

Amanda :)


& here's my (Annette's) view from the saddle:

This 35km bike-ride started by taking on Ocean View Rd (pushing bikes, huffing and puffing up to the roundabout), & then meandering down the shared path to the Tumbi Rd roundabout (in a most elegant fashion needless to say). Sun was out and the day was indeed a beautiful one for a ride... What could possibly cause these biker-bunnies to go off the rails...?

We struck the hills of Tumbi road, but with happy undulation we got plenty of free rides too :) Our encounter with the 'posh' Prado driving lady at our first 'water stop' is probably in hindsight, what set us up for further laughs and hysterics along the way...
You have to picture this; You have just wrenched your lungs inside out to get to the top of a hill on a bicycle, adrenaline is pumping and your breathing is still that of an asthmatic horse. You wheel your bike to a stop, well off the road, plenty of room, metres and metres to the road and the driveway behind you... Then down the driveway, loud and vivacious (non-diva I might add), comes the PRADO lady. You look up and smile (as you do...), then you see her performing strange hand-signals from the driver seat... Waving? No not waving.... Drowning? hmmm nope shouldn't be... OH!! Wants me to mooooovve! Right! 20 metres isn't quite enough to steer this beast out onto Tumbi Rd, sure I get it :) Hobble Hobble (that's you moving your bike with water bottle in one hand), followed by the roar of the Prado finally making the near impossible turn onto the main road... Witness this and you're bound to lose the plot!

After the Mingara water stop, the ride took us along the bike path up towards Tuggerah with alcoholic drink inspired street names... we pedaled (drank) our way up to Kalua, before heading back down the bike path towards Long Jetty & the Entrance Rd *wave to Tor as we pass her street* completing the ride back down to the end of Ocean View Rd in Terrigal.

It is fair to say that we went from bad to worse - but we had an absolute ball :)

• At the water-buying stop, I lost my brain arriving out of the shop with 3 bottles of water (one for Amanda) not having thought where to store them... subliminal kidnap plans no doubt.
• Then the kerb-crashing grump threw us into fits of laughter, the look on this lady's face was pretty priceless as she steered her child occupied stroller BANG into the kerb with a look of complete indignation aimed at Amanda.
• The village-idiot-convention became reality as I decided to take a photo of both of us 'poised' on a log; instead the camera captured me side-swiping Amanda's sesame snap into the grass looking as though I'm either walloping her or trying to push her off the log...
• As we left the 'convention' we cycled past a suspicious man kneeling in his front lawn... in front of a very rectangular coffin-shaped hole! We instantly thought 'six feet under' and All is NOT what it seems in the 'burbs! With a few nervous giggles we quickened our pace, throwing a few looks over our shoulder ...
  
• I dare say it was a good thing that I wasn't on my bike when I haphazardly threw it on the ground (again - caused by a photo opportunity), but the crashing noises and hysterics we brought to the peaceful setting had us scrambling back on our bikes and leaving for the next debacle in less than 5 seconds!

Amanda frequently takes calls from her various family members on each ride - generally these calls appear to follow the line of either "Where are you mum?" or "How far have you ridden now? - aha... that's possible to do in half that time...!" This naturally adds to the excitement (especially when yours truly embarks on a no-brain conversation with Amanda's poor unsuspecting husband, where I was unable to string a sentence together, yet still intent on portraying us as true hell-bunnies, the end-result most definitely confirming that this village-idiot is still on the road :D ). To make matters even more hilarious, Amanda makes a quick call to Tor letting her know that we were now at (not, as would have been just as accurate in terms of location - at the Tumbi Umbi roundabout)... Wamberal Cemetary!

Finally, we cruised on back down Ocean View Rd to a well-deserved coffee, a digger waiting by the side for a last pressing photo opportunity :)

Thanks for all the laughs!

Photos


The Stats

Distance covered: 35km
Riding time: 3 hours 11 minutes (less if you ignore water stops)
Heart rate: 111 (average) 168 (max)
Calories burnt: 1017

The Map

The map doesn't show the bike-path, but generally it's pretty close :)

Big well wishes go to the Toad pole champions Lou and Tor (and Pete & Adrian) doing their 100km Oxfam trailwalk this weekend!
GOOD LUCK!!

42km around Brisbane Waters

Following Amanda's entertaining account of our Friday adventure, here's the same ride viewed from the saddle of Annette :)

The Ride
21st August 2009

bunnies on bikes: Amanda, Lou & Annette
meeting point: BikeworX in Erina
meeting time: 9:30am
attire: sparkling new Biker Bunny t-shirts + new padded bike shorts!
water: not enough
sunscreen: yes

As you'll know from Amanda's post; we all met up at the bike shop to investigate and delve into the world of padded bike shorts. Not sure if we ever had the slightest chance of remaining professional, but if we did, that chance quickly left the building as our very helpful sales guy took us through the various types, showing off the padded inserts (including a lot of technical specs, which floated way above our heads) followed by our hysterical laughter as we took it in turns to try on a range of shorts; waddling about the place and exclaiming things like "paahhhh these give me playdough legs", "whoooo looks like I'm carrying a load here" ... & "Help my bum really DOES look big in these!!".
Somehow (while some of us were still in the throws of selecting shorts), slick Lou managed a detour into the mechanic's area (undoubtedly passing on a few valuable tips to the guys), and as we left the shop, she proudly told us that she sports a 'PINK' saddle-seatbone-size, having had herself officially measured. Naturally bunny-Amanda and I were most impressed :)

So... after a slight delay of around an hour, we finally set off on the riding part of our adventure, wearing our new bike shorts (ahhh they doo feel comfortable!) and with our new Biker Bunny t-shirts we definitely stod out along the road (a laughing team yes, but definitely a team!).

Door-zone hazard (or getting 'doored'), almost became a reality as leading bunny Amanda passed not one, but 3 cars in a row, where the slightly elderly driver (note: different driver different car :D), swung the door open without looking behind! Luckily there was enough room so no damage done, but parked cars can definitely pose a worry... We continued on our merry way, encountering our next hazard (the magpie incident described by Amanda), where we were given proof that wearing a helmet can indeed save the day (and your head).

It was warm, close to hot (summery) for the first half of our ride, and a warm breeze floated around our bareish legs, which more than likely helped our water consumption through the roof. We got to Woy Woy where we stopped for a quick snack - a photo opportunity (Lou you win hands down!) and a visit to the local 'ladies'.

Woy Woy through to the spit bridge was mostly covered along a lovely bike path (which a very helpful elderly gentleman directed us to), showing off the waterfront and a nice easy flat ride.
Once we crossed the bridge, the terrain changed and we embarked on our first big hill of the day.
Despite what bunny-Amanda tells of her efforts, she did extremely well and was never far behind - dubbing her the bunny-battler of the day and well deserving of hell-bunny status indeed! Empire Bay Drive throws some unexpected (and horrific) things at any slightly 'un-co' rider... Several times along the way both Amanda and I almost 'ditched' ourselves when quickly looking back to check on rider behind and finding that in the short 'look-away and swerve a bit' time, the shoulder turned into a ridge with a sheer ditch drop coming at us!!! Somehow we both luckily managed to avoid tangling with the bushes, but it certainly was a tad freaky :)

I tend to believe that the people who design bike lanes (also known as shoulders if they are wide enough :P ) believe that bikes travel at walking pace (i.e. if the lane finishes suddenly (merges into a barricade) then that's fine, because you have plenty of time to do whatever it is you do when a lane ends... Or they simply calculate shoulders and extra lanes for bicycles on a $ per metre system, allocate X amount of $$ for a particular road (maybe it was meant to stretch the full length, but then the weather was bad.. and Johnny left as supervisor.. and Drono said he wanted a payrise and... the lane shrunk! Sorry to whinge, I just think if roads were consistently made more bike friendly, so many more people would ride to work & to school - which would be great for the environment :)

Water running short, and more hills to climb, it was sheer determination from the map-bunny Amanda (no taxi was called, nor did she call the RTA to accuse them of 'changing the road by adding heaps of hills just to stuff her around') which kept her pedalling and cruising on upwards and onwards.

With time starting to creep away (especially for bunny-Lou who'd been given a biker-bunny exit visa to come on the ride and she had to get back in time for her son's presentation and the weekend camping trip) we managed to (not truthfully!) picture bunny-Lou crashing in on her son's presentation in full biker-bunny gear, dropping bike at door (on top of some non-award kid) applauding Oskar while stamping on toes and falling over the kid that threw up at the mothers' day singing feast, while dragging her son off to the weekend camping adventure with a loud "SEE YA!!"... When you've been riding for 2 and a half hours, the above seems hysterically funny - although in a sober frame of mind it most likely seems half silly to say the least ;)

Avoca Drive through Kincumber and Green Point was conquered despite all the road works along the way. As I climbed to the half-way point of one of the last hills (it sort of panned out half way and then rose up the last bit) there were road workers by the side, one guy who was walking along the side smiled at me... :) I stopped & turned around to wait for 2 blazing bunnies, and suddenly realized that the 'now conveniently turned and walking back in my direction road-worker-guy' , thought my silly smile was directed at him. So to complete the picture of an erratic girl on a bike, I jumped back on my bike and pedalled to the top of the hill "DOH" Oh well, most likely he just thought "there goes another biker-bunny, they're like that"...!

We waved good-bye to bunny-Lou at Fountain Plaza in Erina and collapsed at the coffee shop up the road, where conversation circulated around fish tacos (!) and the possibility of never being able to walk again. Coffee was bliss and the ride was a hoot. It truly feels fantastic to cover all those kilometres on a bike, see all the things along the way and do it in the company of special friends!

Thanks for the laughs and the company and lets do it again soon!


Photos (posers riders et all)



The Stats
Riding time - 3 hours 20 min (less about 20 min for stops)
Distance covered - 42km (YEAH!!!)
Heartrate - 113 (average) 166 (max)
Calories burnt - 1116
Evaluation of padded bike shorts - GREAT :)


The Map

42km hell-bunny ride :)

Amanda-bunny's account of our 42km loop around Brisbane waters :)

Oh my good god! What the hell was I thinking when I mapped this ride out! Cars are strange creatures - they make you feel as if every road is flat - cars are now officially the masters of illusion, forget magicians and politicians! In my mind as I mapped this ride I came across one hill, the one coming past St Huberts Island, but the reality was somewhat different!!!!!!!!!!! More on those hills later.


I must admit that the thought of riding with Annette (who is now the master of all cyclists) no longer scared me as I knew that she graciously waited at the top of every hill and rode to my level. But when I found out that Lou was coming I did panic a tad as I know that these two are invincible as they can cycle up Charles Kay...


We met at Bikeworx at Erina at 9:30, but the two gang members were already there laughing and getting the bike pants ready for a trial. Lou looked like Pippi Long Stocking with her cute little plaits and Annette looked like a pro bikey chick!


Our new bike mechanic Jason, told us we were like a bunch of giggling school girls and that made us worse. I will be popping in to see him regularly as he pumped my tyres, fitted my helmut and attached some new handle grips for me and adjusted my gears! After about $700 and nearly an hour later we headed off on our merry way to start what was to become a living nightmare.


Everything was going swimmingly for the first five minutes until Annette got swooped by a magpie. Fearing for our lives we started pedalling very fast to the comforting screeches of Annette "It's alright they like blue helmuts" I had a red one on and 3 seconds later was swooped for the first time in my life - quite scary I may add.


We made it to Woy Woy and through Woy Woy with no major mishaps until we hit Stairway to Hell. This is where I accuse cars of being masters of illusion. I have driven this road so many times and thought there was only steep hill - REALITY CHECK - there are about 5!!! on Empire Drive (of which I cheated on one, or was it two, of them - poor Annette and Lou were at the top cheering me on and I had to tell them that I had walked half of it when they weren't looking.


Just when I thought I was safe from the hills, we turned onto Avoca Drive which had another 3 to go - of which I walked up one and a half - again lagging behind and swearing at how stupid I could have been to map out such a ride!


Thank god for the bike shorts though or I would not be walking today - padding like a gorillas arse but well worth the look!


Lou made it back and rushed off to see Oskar receive an award and Annette and I trundled into a cafe and collapsed over a strong Capaccino and Flat white asking Sunni for an ambulance home.
With brain on a temporary holiday my conversation skills fell into a loop: "Annette the fish tacos are really good here, ... oh but you don't eat fish do you? ... (gazing around to see if coffees are arriving) ... Oh you know the fish tacos here are gorgeous! oh that's right, you don't eat fish... (followed by another gaze out into emptiness) ... Ahh the fish tacos they do here are really good..." This is where I'm interrupted by a laughing bunny Annette who points out I'm going around in circles :)



There was no room for hysterics as we headed our separate ways to the school pick up and then straight home to bed with a cup of tea.


My pants had now become my best friend, but I had to go the movies so I begrudgingly took them off and showered and prepared for my evening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amanda :)

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

Logo update :)

Just a quick note to update you all on the change of banner colours :)
This is to reflect the soon to be donned 'Biker Bunnies' t-shirts, in bright red for visibility:

Happy bunny Sunday to you all :)

Somerby falls on Saturday

The Ride
9th August 2009
Bunnies on bikes - Janine & Annette
Meeting place - Kariong servo
Meeting time - 8:00 am (!)

Bright and early on this sunny, chilly Saturday morning, Janine and I met up at the service station ready for an adventure. One bunny very awake and the other bunny practically asleep... Just before set-off we delved into some serious tyre pushing, discovering that Janine's tyres were soft and cuddly - perhaps not the ideal state for a ride, but still quite cute. So we wheeled bikes over to the air pump and managed to reform her tyres to super-duper hard tyres (close to 60psi), creating a whole new riding experience!

We rode down the main road and turned into Kangoo road, passing the new industrial area and some bushland. The sun was up, but it was still quite cold, so I had gloves and Janine wore a scarf to keep the chill out.

There's a seriously bumpy part of the road that runs off Debenham road, where you go under the F3 dodging a myriad of potholes on a downhill stretch, bit like a washboard with the sunlight playing visual tricks for good measure :) Apart from the bumps, most of the back roads through Somersby are lovely to ride, a few hills here and there - but you get the down hills as well so there's plenty of variation.

By the time we'd climbed a few hills (one biggish one) Janine took off her jumper, which I strapped to my bike... This is where we have a silent minute for the stripey green & black jumper, that went off on its own adventure..., sadly not to be found again. Hopefully it found excitement along the way, and I have made a note to myself to strap adventurous jumpers more securely in the future...

Our ride took us across to Somersby falls, where we had a short break in the sun. By now we'd warmed up properly and Janine excelled in some serious 'standing' hill climbing on the way back up from the falls. We rode back the same way we'd come, thinking we might spot the adventurous jumper & so we had our eyes peeled on the opposite side of the road.

When we got to Kangoo road we sent a car of unlikely brides on a wild-goose-chase looking for "Bridal Collections". Giving directions seems to come with the territory of donning bright yellow flouro-vests. Enthusiastically we did our best even though neither of us had a clue where the brides should be heading :)

We took a detour through Mt Penang gardens, and discovered a very changed place. The grates to keep cows and horses in (or out) were gone, and several new roads had appeared zig-zagging their way across what used to be a grazing area for the animals. It took us some time to find the way out, and a slight hesitation to find that the way out was blocked by a large pad-locked gate. Janine rode up and found a way around the gate, which had big signs (on the other side) warning trespassers to keep out and alerting everyone about guard dogs on the constuction site!! Oh well, as the more level-headed bunny pointed out; if we could wheel our bikes out, the dogs could get out as well, so there wouldn't have been any left :)

The last bit of our happy Saturday tour, took us back up to the service station, completing a nice sunny bike ride :)

Look forward to the next ride and hope you're all well and happy!




The Stats
Distance - 24km
Riding time - 2 hours 20min
Heart rate - 110 (average) 163 (max)
Calories burnt - 738

The Map