Hell-bunnies and a Road Angel

The Ride Stats
Bunnies on board - Lou and Annette
Intended distance - 65 km from Awaba to Broke
Covered distance - 27 km (Lou) 45km (Annette)
Water consumed - HEAPS (5-6 litres)
Heart rate - average 123 max 182
Time - including stops - 6 hours 10 min (Annette)
Calories burnt - 2483 (Annette)

Weather forecasts were predicting record heatwave temperatures, but these two hell-bunnies decided to be undeterred by nature and conquer the hell-ride we'd creatively thought up months ago.
So with our spouses declaring us barking MAD – we arranged to set off from Gosford train station early Friday morning, for a leisurely train ride to Awaba; start-point of the ride.

Both bunnies arrived well on time for the train, but with one bunny waiting at the front of the station and the other at the back entrance... there was little time left once we realized our debacle. Frantic running up and down stairs, buying tickets in a flurry and dashing down to the platform, only to realise we were on the wrong platform! We tore back up the stairs and had a fabulous view of OUR train leaving... Unfortunately this event unleashed a (somewhat embarrassing) tantrum from yours truly; foot-stamping, yelling, unruly language et all...

We missed the train tantrum...

Oh noooo...

RUN Lou RUN!!!


Luckily tanti-time was short-lived and we consoled ourselves with prep and pep talk while waiting for the next train to arrive. Lou-bunny was suffering a slight hang-over (Berocca cure on board), but kept her spirits up as we ate our breakfast on the train.

We got off the train at Awaba and stepped out into an already HOT day at 8:30 in the morning. Braving the initial heat shock, we saddled up and left the station. The first part of the ride took us up to Cessnock road and on to Palmers road where we crossed the bridge over the F3 freeway. A few short stops to consult our many maps (we definitely didn't want to get lost on this ride), making sure we were on the right track (which luckily we were :) ), we then continued on towards Freemans drive.

This is where we covered the HILLY part of the ride! There were quite a few hills thrown at us, the biggest of them being very similar to Kariong hill... It just kept going UP and UP and UP, with the demoralising feeling of trucks passing and SLOWING down past the bend in front of us... informing us that it was going to get even steeper before we reached the top. We got there though, and realised that our water supplies would need topping up soon with the temperature quickly creeping up towards 40 degrees. We stopped at a servo near Brunkerville and took on board several fresh bottles of water. Lou's handy-dandy bicycle basket proved (yet again) to be a fantastic receptacle for all sorts of on-board luggage; 4 water bottles and her backpack sitting nicely in the basket with room to spare! Where my own bag-strapping contraption proved (as always) to be a slightly hazardous companion, purely due to my failure to remember closing zips and fastening straps after each stop...

Posing bunny on our first stop

2 MAD and HOT hell-bunnies

Stopping for water in Brunkerville


By the time we passed Mt Vincent and headed onto Lake Rd, poor bunny Lou started to hit the proverbial WALL... She had been feeling slightly off-colour since the start of the ride, and with the relentless heat things quickly went from bad to worse. Her heart rate monitor was threatening to pack things in and go home (if Lou didn't), shade was playing hide-and-seek, water didn't seem to help... and finally Lou stopped, got off her bike and wandered aimlessly into the trees on the side of the road looking for SHADE!!! Naturally I was worried (this is not hell-bunny Lou's normal behaviour), and tried to establish how bad things were (ambulance, helicopter air-lift, taxi, food???); we rested for a while and Lou decided she was right to go again, although she said she wasn't quite tip-top... We ventured a bit further along the long HOT road with Lou's heart rate climbing way too fast for comfort. In an almost dazed state she crossed the road to flop down in a shady spot under some trees announcing that the heat had beaten her. We then sent an emergency message to Road-Angel Amanda, requesting immediate pick-up!

Freemans Drive with heavy traffic

It's getting harder and hotter...

Ouch! an ant BIT me!!

Little shade and 40+ degrees!

Brave bunny-Lou soldiers on


As Amanda bunny was driving to our destination (a frivolous girls' weekend in the Hunter Valley) she would be passing our way in a few hours time and would be able to pick up heat-struck bunny number 1. After some food and more water, Lou decided she'd try to make it into Cessnock (roughly 15km from where we were), and we tentatively set off again with Lou leading the way. SUN, HEAT, more HEAT and finally a long slow climbing hill to Kearsley (about 10km from Cessnock)... Poor bunny Lou looked as if she would faint!! We stopped at a servo with lovely people who quickly got Lou sat down with ice water, splice ice-cream and more water "No no don't pay now – OHH you do look PALE! In this HEAT...!!! Sit down here love..." After a short bunny-conference, we decided that Lou would be well looked after with cups of tea and a well-deserved rest; waiting in air-conditioned comfort for Amanda to arrive, and I would continue the ride...

Smack into the proverbial wall

Crawling towards Kearsley

Lou coming up the hill into Kearsley


So... pig-headed bunny number 1 continued her ride... Initially I felt fine (even made the mistake of comparing myself to a lizard when earlier telling Lou that "the heat doesn't really affect me"), it was hot but I got through Cessnock and out onto Wine Country road without any trouble. By now the temperature had just past 43 degrees and the HOT westerly wind was blowing straight in my face and I was slowly starting to wonder what on earth I was doing...!!! I drank plenty of water and even crossed the road to stand under a sprinkler to cool down. Stops were definitely becoming more frequent as I would eye the road ahead looking for SHADE, any SHADE (which incidentally there was very little of...)! By the time I reached Pokolbin I was feeling so exhausted I parked myself on a verandah at a wine, cheese, café and mixed shop complex with two 1 ½ litre bottles of water and a splice ice-cream (somehow firmly planted in my mind as REALLY GOOD STUFF by Lou :) ). As I sat there with sweat, ice-cream and grime pouring down my face and arms, a Dutch student of sports medicine came up and said hello. He was kind enough to not comment on my outward appearance, instead choosing the ultimate pep comment: "Respect man!" (this can also be translated to "You are friggin Barking MAD" which I naturally chose not to hear :) ). After resting, I continued on to Broke Road, although by now I was really starting to feel pure exhaustion taking over; my arms felt COLD – not hot... and my vision was sorely focussed on seeking out shade ahead. Road Angel Amanda could not have passed me at a better moment: A beep from behind and there she was, with Lou-bunny safely on board, packed in with Tor and Lou Hopley! "Do you want a lift?" Oh Thank you! :)

An exhausted bunny

A pretty tired bike too...


With 45 km completed on the hottest day ever in November, it was time to call it a day and thank my lucky stars that Road Angel Amanda arrived when she did :) The last 20km of the journey were completed in air-conditioned comfort watching the bumpy hilly road ahead thinking "There's NO WAY I could have ridden this now" It was an adventure, and I'm glad we did it – even if we didn't complete the full distance. This ride feels like a good lesson in learning to hear when the body is yelling "ENOUGH", and I'm glad we had the help to stop when we needed to.

So... after a shower, a jump in the pool and a nap, it was time to enjoy our wonderful weekend in the Hunter Valley.

Thanks for an impressive effort bunny-Lou and thanks for saving us bunny-Amanda!!

Looking forward to our next (less hot) adventure already!

The Map

Annette :)

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 :)

A hell-bunny birthday ride :)

An absolutely gorgeous morning (despite wet weather forecast) allowed 2 bunnies to go on an adventure in birthday celebration mode for one lucky journo-bunny :)

The Ride
26th June 2009
Bunny-riders - Lou and Annette
Meeting place - Kariong
Ride start point - Kerta Street Kincumber
Ride end point - Lou's place Copacabana

Lou-bunny arrived at Annette's place, where we loaded bike, bags, helmet and selves into car & zipped over to Kincumber. Car mechanics (due to service Lou's car, but currently minding her bunny-bike 'Silver') watched vehicle swap and donning of bunny vests as we got ready to embark on our trip.

Added excitement was that we had 2 heart-rate monitors on this journey! Maiden voyage for Annette's birthday monitor and lots of yelling out stats along the way... "I'm on 123 WHAT ARE YOU ON?????" "I'm on the saaaaaaaaaaaaame!!!" Once we worked out the interference factor (picking up each others monitor reading), we did end up on slightly different,
heart rates (quite similar though) - but kept yelling out statisitcs for the mere fun of it :)

Our first stop was at the bike shop in Kincumber - browsing for helmet and comfy girly seat. This brought a happy surprise rendez-vouz with bunny-Janine, who was in the shop picking up a puncture repair kit.

Avoca Drive through Kincumber and Green Point, was a lovely cruisy part of the ride - the sun was shining and the road was bliss to ride :) Actually the cruisy bit continued all the way around, down Serpentine road (bit bumpy along the edges in parts - but otherwise quite nice), and down Terrigal Drive to the foot of Charles Kay drive....

This is where the hell-bunny bit began!

Going up Charles Kay drive was hard and relentless, there is simply no panning out along the way - the hill just goes UP from the bottom to the very top, and it's #$% steep :) Close to the top I was going over options in my head:
1. Lean sideways and fall (ungracefully) in a heap on the side of the road and wait for the tow-truck to pick me up...
2. Stop pedalling and roll backwards (not a good idea...)
Then... there's a roar behind me: "WHAAAAHHHH YOU CAN DOOO IT!!!!" Lou saved the day with a well-timed pep talk! It's amazing what encouragement does when you're in dire need! Kept pedalling against all odds and... we made it to the top!

Our reward was a meandering down-hill ride towards Avoca, bellbirds singing in the trees and the sun beaming on our happy faces. A short phone stop along Avoca Drive (involving some car-mechanical issues) and a reasonably flat ride into Avoca.

We glimpsed the beach as we swung through the roundabout, and then... it was all uphill again to the top of Cape three point road. Along the same level as the massive hill we'd just done (and to quote Janine: "My car finds it hard getting up that hill"), we made it - though to say 'in style' would possibly be a slight exaggeration, unless you count scaring elderly flower-picking couple by the side of the road as we slowly huffed and puffed our way past them...

Past the water tower there was a definite sense of "Hooraaay", we'd climbed the hills and were on the homebound stretch for a nice cup of coffee and lunch at Lou's. We even allowed ourselves a shortcut through Noey-bunny's backyard to save ourselves riding up any more hills. Lifting bikes over fence and steps we ran into Noey just having returned from her Woy Woy ride :)

It was a truly fabulous ride - and as Lou said: "on the bunny scale this one would rate a 2 bunny ride up to Charles Kay drive, where it becomes one hell-bunny ride :D"

Thank you so much for a fun ride & looking forward to the next one :)




The Stats

Riding distance - 24.5km
Active riding time - 2 hours
Calories - 920 (Lou's monitor says a little less but that may be because Annette forgot to pause for about 8 minutes... ;) )
Heartrate - Max 172
Heartrate - Average 127

The Map