Riding the Cooks River

I rode down the Cooks River from Homebush to just shy of the airport today. The route looked vaguely like this. I have no idea what distance I did, since I forgot to set the wheel size on my bike computer when I changed the battery today. It was able to register the elapsed time for the ride, but neither speed nor distance got past zero.

I reckon it was at least 20km from Homebush, plus another 8 each way to get to and from Homebush from home. That makes it somewhere in the vicinity of 50km or more. It took 2hrs 10min, and it bloody near killed me.

I have never done this route before, and all I had to guide me was a totally crap map from the RTA. The CEO recently sent me a stack of maps after I wrote to him to complain about useless or missing signage on the cycle path near Parramatta, and he sent he a nice letter in return along with the maps. I thought I would give the maps a go.

I am too tired tonight to write him a letter, but when I do work up the energy, it is unlikely to be nice. If they weren't so large and shiny, I would hang them in the bathroom and wipe my arse with them.

I was lost from the get-go. I stumbled around the Homebush area for a while, generally heading in the right direction, when another cyclist came up behind me. I asked him if he was heading for Botany Bay, and the reply was "No, but I am going to Tempe". I had no idea where Tempe was, so I figured I would just follow him for as far as I could.

As it turned out, Tempe was the end of the line for both of us, and I was glad to turn around when we got there. He was much skinnier, quite a bit fitter and as a result, about 20% faster in cruise mode. I really had to push it along to keep up with him and chat at the same time. I wasn't working at full capacity by any means, but I was certainly out of my normal comfort zone.

I'm glad I did this ride, but I am in no hurry to do it again. Apparently it is a disaster area on weekends with prams, pedestrians and dogs going in all directions, and the path goes through at least four council areas, so the quality of it varies widely depending on the attitude and resources of each council. In some places it is great. In others, it is a goat track. At one point, we were riding on grass and crossing tree roots. It was a really mixed bag.

What also killed me was the continual transition between riding two abreast and single file. Since the other bloke knew the route, I always let him take the lead. That meant I was constantly braking to drop behind me when we struck pedestrians or prams or just a narrow path, and then I'd have to pick up the pace to catch him.

At least it was reasonably flat. I am just too rooted to write anymore.