St Albans bike ride
A couple of months ago, I met a lady through my Monday morning tennis group who is a keen cyclist. I mentioned this to Clive and before you knew it, the two of us had agreed to join the Northern Beaches Bikers on a 45km ride alongside the MacDonald River, north west of Sydney. Given I had never ridden a bike further than about 20km in my life, this was causing me a little concern. However, the fact that photos of the group indicated that they were all ‘in the prime years of life’ gave me some hope for survival – surely they couldn’t be that much fitter than me?
The forecast wasn’t good. After a few hot days, Sydney had produced the expected thunder storms and Sunday’s weather was due to be ‘cool and showery’. We didn’t sleep well the night before, not helped by the fact that the clocks were going forwards. At 7am, the last thing I felt like was going for a bike ride, but we hauled ourselves out of bed and I pulled on my new cycling trousers (I thought I’d better look the part and, more to the point, not have any excuses for whinging). We packed our waterproof jackets, left the sunscreen at home and set off through the drizzle.
It took an hour and a half to reach Wisemans Ferry, our meeting point. The area’s name comes from the convict Solomon Wiseman who was granted 200 acres there in 1817. It doesn’t consist of much – a pub, a few touristy shops and two access points for the ferry which transports cars, bikes and people across the Hawkesbury. Soon after we’d said ‘hello’ to our fellow cyclists, the heavens opened and we took shelter where we could. At this point, I would have gone home (a couple of people did) but being our first ride, we didn’t feel we could exercise that privilege! Luckily, after a few minutes of rain the weather cleared and stayed dry for the rest of the day, which was great – not too hot, not too cold, perfect cycling weather.
There were 12 of us altogether and they were a very friendly bunch. Clive and I were almost the youngest, but certainly not the fittest! Despite my lady friend telling me they ‘didn’t race’, I found I had to pedal at full speed the whole time just to keep up! (I blame my bike of course!)
After crossing the river by the ferry, the route followed a quiet lane along the river valley, passing fields of vines, a few crops and some cattle. The peace of the area was total - few cars, no planes, a few birds and apart from that, silence.
We stopped for the odd breather and reached the second-oldest pub in NSW by about midday, nestling in the small settlement of St. Albans. Not totally incident-free though – one lady had come a cropper riding over a cable and had a nasty cut face, arm and knees. She was half-way round though, so had little choice but to continue with us, poor thing. We’d also had to contend with around 20 loose dogs and a herd of goats, but luckily, these didn’t cause any accidents!
The pub is called the Settlers Arms Inn and is just like an old English pub - not surprisingly really, as it was built by some of the first convicts in the area. We had a drink there and then went just down the road for lunch in a restaurant called ‘The Fickle Wombat’.
After that, it was back on the bikes for the home stretch. Houses were few and far between and there were no amenities – had to imagine who would be really happy living in such an isolated community, but it was certainly beautiful, even on a dull day.
We came across a small, old cemetery with some very interesting tombstones, one of which was for Peter Hibbs who was born in 1757 and who travelled to Australia with Captain Cook in 1770 and Captain Phillip in 1788. Unfortunately, somehow, we missed his tombstone - we’ll just have to go back one day!
We crossed the river again, cycled the last few metres up the hill to the pub and downed a great-tasting beer before heading for home to watch the NRL Grand Final (rugby league) match between 'our' local team, Manly Sea Eagles, and Melbourne Storm. The two teams had met for the final last year and Manly had lost badly, but this time, they thrashed Melbourne 40-0 in front of 80,000 fans! What a comeback and very entertaining!
We really enjoyed the day - the distance wasn’t as bad as I’d expected (although left to my own devices, I’d have taken an hour longer to get round!) and we think we’ll give the bikers another go! Oh, and the padded trousers worked a treat!
The forecast wasn’t good. After a few hot days, Sydney had produced the expected thunder storms and Sunday’s weather was due to be ‘cool and showery’. We didn’t sleep well the night before, not helped by the fact that the clocks were going forwards. At 7am, the last thing I felt like was going for a bike ride, but we hauled ourselves out of bed and I pulled on my new cycling trousers (I thought I’d better look the part and, more to the point, not have any excuses for whinging). We packed our waterproof jackets, left the sunscreen at home and set off through the drizzle.
It took an hour and a half to reach Wisemans Ferry, our meeting point. The area’s name comes from the convict Solomon Wiseman who was granted 200 acres there in 1817. It doesn’t consist of much – a pub, a few touristy shops and two access points for the ferry which transports cars, bikes and people across the Hawkesbury. Soon after we’d said ‘hello’ to our fellow cyclists, the heavens opened and we took shelter where we could. At this point, I would have gone home (a couple of people did) but being our first ride, we didn’t feel we could exercise that privilege! Luckily, after a few minutes of rain the weather cleared and stayed dry for the rest of the day, which was great – not too hot, not too cold, perfect cycling weather.
There were 12 of us altogether and they were a very friendly bunch. Clive and I were almost the youngest, but certainly not the fittest! Despite my lady friend telling me they ‘didn’t race’, I found I had to pedal at full speed the whole time just to keep up! (I blame my bike of course!)
After crossing the river by the ferry, the route followed a quiet lane along the river valley, passing fields of vines, a few crops and some cattle. The peace of the area was total - few cars, no planes, a few birds and apart from that, silence.
We stopped for the odd breather and reached the second-oldest pub in NSW by about midday, nestling in the small settlement of St. Albans. Not totally incident-free though – one lady had come a cropper riding over a cable and had a nasty cut face, arm and knees. She was half-way round though, so had little choice but to continue with us, poor thing. We’d also had to contend with around 20 loose dogs and a herd of goats, but luckily, these didn’t cause any accidents!
The pub is called the Settlers Arms Inn and is just like an old English pub - not surprisingly really, as it was built by some of the first convicts in the area. We had a drink there and then went just down the road for lunch in a restaurant called ‘The Fickle Wombat’.After that, it was back on the bikes for the home stretch. Houses were few and far between and there were no amenities – had to imagine who would be really happy living in such an isolated community, but it was certainly beautiful, even on a dull day.
We came across a small, old cemetery with some very interesting tombstones, one of which was for Peter Hibbs who was born in 1757 and who travelled to Australia with Captain Cook in 1770 and Captain Phillip in 1788. Unfortunately, somehow, we missed his tombstone - we’ll just have to go back one day!We crossed the river again, cycled the last few metres up the hill to the pub and downed a great-tasting beer before heading for home to watch the NRL Grand Final (rugby league) match between 'our' local team, Manly Sea Eagles, and Melbourne Storm. The two teams had met for the final last year and Manly had lost badly, but this time, they thrashed Melbourne 40-0 in front of 80,000 fans! What a comeback and very entertaining!
We really enjoyed the day - the distance wasn’t as bad as I’d expected (although left to my own devices, I’d have taken an hour longer to get round!) and we think we’ll give the bikers another go! Oh, and the padded trousers worked a treat!
posted by Hawkins Family @ 6:40 pm
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