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| Bike path around Hen & Chicken bay |
Contrary to the opinions of some, the bike infrastructure around Canada Bay is not too bad. It's not perfect - but then, what is? There's enough paths around the foreshores to keep you moving for days (on foot) or hours (on a bike). The paths go through parks....
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| Hen & Chicken Bay - going north |
....and meander around the water's edge. It's lovely.
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| Oops - where did the road go? |
Except for where the paths disappear for a while. Above is an example - there are a few places where properties go right to the waterline, and the path just stops. It doesn't loop around the front of the houses or follow a side road - it just stops. Dead.
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| Is that a path I spy on yonder shore? |
It does start up again on the other side, which is where those cars in the distance are parked. But how to get from A to B?
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| The missing link |
Or in this case, from F1 to F2 ("F" standing for "where the fuck is the path?"). Out this way, there are lots of headlands jutting out into the harbour. Think of them as fingers extending from a hand. Down the middle of the finger, there are bones - these are the main roads to the end of the headland - the grey bits. Around the edge is the water, and along the water runs the bike paths - the green bits. The main roads are on the whole bad places to be - lots of traffic, bad road surfaces and bike lanes that just disappear from the surface of the Earth in places; like aliens came down and scooped them up.
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| The death ride |
Your only option in one case is to ride out to one main road (to point C1 - as in "Crap! This is awful!"), ride along the road with all the nasty traffic (with drivers going "get off the road, you moron") turn onto another intersecting major road and then find a side street that takes you back to the bike path. There are no side roads that you can take to get between C1 and C2, and amazingly enough, due to the shape of the road system, you actually have to ride partly back in the direction you came to get to the main road. Thanks to about 80 metres of missing path, you have to take a diversion of nearly one kilometre.
Unfortunately, the powers-that-be are completely ignoring missing links like this. It's just too hard.
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| The road to the Gongoloids |
The solution is probably to build a smaller and cheaper version of this, which is the scenic route to
Gongolia. Before the cliff fell in and they built this new road, I used to think it was fun to drive on the old road at night (with a full moon) with the headlights off for part of the distance. You'd get a much better view out over the ocean without the light from those silly headlights getting in the way. If you tried that in a Ford, you'd end up upside down in the ocean. And possibly on fire as well.
8 comments:
Putting shit on Wollongong AND Fords in one blog means that god will get you for that Bigboy.
BTW that bridge is called the Sea Cliff Bridge. It was named by kid who won the naming competition.
My entry was Carr's Road Above Pacific.
"properties go right to the waterline"
That's your problem.
There was a time when the littoral was always public property.
Then someone looked across the Pacific and thought about the almighty dollar...
Given your superior powers of logic, in that you were able to work out and draw the missing links, which caused you some discomfort by having to go on the Big Road (ooooooooww!), you should demand that the land be rebuilt at taxpayers expense so that you can cycle across it without any discomfort, or mental stress.
Gee, sorry Cav - I didn't realise you were a Gongolian. After all, you show signs of being able to read and rite. That fooled me completely.
Too late for an apology now, the boys are on their way as I rite.
Be afraid, be very afraid!
If they're as old and slow as you, I shouldn't have anything to worry about for a few months.
I resemble that remark
I gotta get me a new photo
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