34 km ride to Umina

 Here's a Monday bunny ride penned by bunny Noelle - enjoy :)

Amanda and I (Noelle) went on a 34km bike ride today from Gosford swimming pool to Umina beach the dog end. The one word that describes this ride is WINDY, verrrrry windy. Surprisingly, I started out quite fresh, full of optimism and I was looking forward to this ride. So off we go. All is well except it looks like it’s going to bucket down any minute. The thought of turning back never crosses our minds. When we hit the Brisbane Waters bit, it is so windy that we feel as though we are almost at a standstill, even though we are pedalling hard. To make matters worse, the wind is coming at us sideways. So anyway, riding, riding, windy, windy, you get the idea. Finally, after looking at each other many times and saying "man" we reach Woy Woy and Amanda looks at me and says "shall we ride onto Umina", I say without a moments hesitation "lets do it".

Off we go again around the water bit. The wind get windier if that’s possible and it gets cold too and whips us around the ears a fair bit. I’m getting a wee bit tired at this point but I’m determined to get to our destination. We arrive at the dog end and rest up for 5 mins and then head back to Woy Woy. Five workmen eye us off. God knows why, as we do not kid ourselves into thinking we are 20 something babes. In fact, my shorts are too tight so my fat is rolling over the top of them and my shorts are too short so I’m sure they are copping a fair wack of cellulite on the back of my thighs. Maybe they were captivated by the site of Amanda’s hell bunny legs??? I’ll leave it up to your imagination.

So we're 3/4 of the way back and we start getting very hungry and we’re thinking about food and coffee yummmmmm. I might just add a little breakfast tip here. Eat eggs on toast for breakfast and you do not get hungry. Needless to say, I did not have eggs for breakfast this morning. Note to self. Eat eggs for breakfast. We finish the ride thank God because my enthusiasm is waning fast. With renewed enthusiasm we arrange to meet at the café at East Gosford (my fav bit of the ride). We decide we must eat so we both order coffee and croissants. Little piggy me wolfs it down whilst little birdie (Amanda) eats it a little more delicately. I have a strange yea but no Little Britain moment and we share our first laugh of the day. Now I am content and well pleased at having done the ride even though my arse is sore. Nothing terribly exciting or hilarious happened but it was well worth the effort. :)

Noelle :)

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 :)