Wednesday 31 December 2008

Epping Road, part whatever

I have decided to have another crack at finding Epping Road this Friday. There are two reasons for that.

First, the forecast is for a max of 23 degrees. Until we started suffering from the ill effects of global warming, I remember it usually being about 40 degrees in summer. Damn that global warming! We're all going to fry.

The second is that I might be able to convince the Chook to undertake this quest with me. For years, Chook has been my cycling guru. He has three times as many bikes as me, and has done lots more serious riding as well. He's even done one of those crazy Iron Man triathlons. He might be able to do another once he's had both his knees replaced.

But the poor old clucker has been working in Canberra for the past year or so, and has been unable to wear out as many tyres as I have in that time. According to his wife, he is now fat and bald - a kind of hen-like Friar Tuck. We've been having the odd yak on the phone lately about doing some rides together, and he must be serious, for apparently he has been riding every day in order to get in shape for a spin with me.

My idea is to ride up to Crows Nest or Artarmon and meet him there (he's a north shore type, living in the lap of the now unemployed merchant bankers and other assorted worthies). Since he lives over that way, and I used to live in Wollstonecraft, I am pretty confident that between the two of us, we will be able to find the start of the Epping Road cycleway. If all else fails, he has a much better GPS in his phone than I do. And I think he knows how to use it, which is more than I can say for mine.

From there, we'll ride up to the end of the cycleway, then cut down into Ryde, where I'll try to find the route that I took the other day which led me to get lost in the suburban wilderness. Next stop will be Homebush, where Chook has done much road racing, and then home to the land of wogs for a beer or three.

You really wouldn't think it would be that hard to find a major motorway, would you?

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