Sydney bike ride
Yesterday - to celebrate the start of autumn - Clive and I set the alarm for 7am (not easy after a dinner party with friends the night before and a lively house party nearby that only quietened down at 4am!) and crawled out of bed to drive to Manly with our bikes in time to catch the 8.20am ferry to Sydney. This was for our 4th ride with the Northern Beaches Bikers, and each has been very enjoyable, exploring cycling routes that we hadn't done before.
Today’s ride started at Circular Quay at 9am and the 30 minute ferry ride was a real treat, showing off the harbour in the early Sunday morning and the 2 cruise liners resting there, at their best in the morning sunshine. There were 13 of us on the ride, mostly veterans of the group, but a new girl from Bondi was joining us for the first time so Clive and I weren’t the only ones not in the 'group uniform' of bright yellow polo shirts!
Cycling away from the Quay, we headed for Sydney Harbour Bridge to cross back over the harbour. There is a dedicated cycle track on one side of the bridge (the walking track is on the opposite side with 6 lanes for traffic and a railway line in between) and we rode over in single file, trying to enjoy the view without crashing into the railings!
From there we meandered into North Sydney and Cammeray, where we stopped at St Thomas’ Rest Park, the first burial ground on the north shore. It’s a beautiful oasis of calm just set back from a major road and contains the remains of some of the first residents of Sydney, many of whom developed the surrounding suburbs – there were members of the Woolstonecraft family, the Blues family, and even the graves of a James Cook and a Florence Nightingale! In the centre is a Pyramid-shaped tomb containing the Berry family, the first white owners of the land (after the Aborigines, of course).
After Cammeray we headed to the north of Cremorne, Mosman and Balmoral, riding along quiet residential streets and cycle paths and stopping for a welcome drink at a cafe overlooking Middle Harbour at Spit Bridge. It was then just a long gentle (!) climb up the hill the other side of the bridge and then a leisurely downhill glide back to Manly. We had travelled about 35kms but still made it home for lunch, which was great! Looking forward to the next ride already!
Today’s ride started at Circular Quay at 9am and the 30 minute ferry ride was a real treat, showing off the harbour in the early Sunday morning and the 2 cruise liners resting there, at their best in the morning sunshine. There were 13 of us on the ride, mostly veterans of the group, but a new girl from Bondi was joining us for the first time so Clive and I weren’t the only ones not in the 'group uniform' of bright yellow polo shirts!
Cycling away from the Quay, we headed for Sydney Harbour Bridge to cross back over the harbour. There is a dedicated cycle track on one side of the bridge (the walking track is on the opposite side with 6 lanes for traffic and a railway line in between) and we rode over in single file, trying to enjoy the view without crashing into the railings!
From there we meandered into North Sydney and Cammeray, where we stopped at St Thomas’ Rest Park, the first burial ground on the north shore. It’s a beautiful oasis of calm just set back from a major road and contains the remains of some of the first residents of Sydney, many of whom developed the surrounding suburbs – there were members of the Woolstonecraft family, the Blues family, and even the graves of a James Cook and a Florence Nightingale! In the centre is a Pyramid-shaped tomb containing the Berry family, the first white owners of the land (after the Aborigines, of course).
After Cammeray we headed to the north of Cremorne, Mosman and Balmoral, riding along quiet residential streets and cycle paths and stopping for a welcome drink at a cafe overlooking Middle Harbour at Spit Bridge. It was then just a long gentle (!) climb up the hill the other side of the bridge and then a leisurely downhill glide back to Manly. We had travelled about 35kms but still made it home for lunch, which was great! Looking forward to the next ride already!
posted by Hawkins Family @ 8:08 am
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