30/12/21 The Intrepid Inaugural Sydney Ride.

Having settled in to our house sit, wooed George from under the bed, and caught up with the family over Christmas, I decided that it was time to go for a bicycle ride.  Unfortunately NSW is so rude as to not allow bicycles on footpaths unless one is accompanying someone under the age of 12.  Not having any convenient <12 year olds on hand, I was forced, bitterly complaining all the while, onto the street. Not trusting NSWs hit -and-miss bicycle infrastructure, I had to stick to quiet back streets. On the busy front streets I simply got off my bike and walked, as becomes a country rider in the big smoke.

I think my bike has been stashed out the back of our house sit for far too long.

There was surprisingly little traffic on the streets, due I think to a combination of a) everyone who can has gone to Queensland for the Christmas-New Year break; b) the ones who couldn't go to Queensland are staying at home because of the plague;  and c) the rest of them are sitting somewhere in a mind-bogglingly long queue for Covid tests.

The back streets led to Petersham Park which provided the perfect place to pedal on my way to pastures further afield.

In no time at all we left the streets behind and set off along the greenway beside the unnamed canal that feeds into Iron Cove on the Parramatta River.

And just like that the trees blocked out the houses and muffled the traffic noise.  I could pretend I was in the country.

The path meandered happily along beside the canal, passing parks and sporting fields.  The evidence of Christmas was everywhere: children fell off new scooters, bicycles, and roller blades with astounding regularity while frazzled parents wielded bandaids, encouragement, and tough love in equal measure.

Odd things popped up occasionally, just to keep me paying attention.

We crossed Iron Cove on the (tah dah!!) Iron Cove Bridge.  I can't believe the levels of imagination applied to naming these bridges.

I found my doppelganger!!! We passed her twice as we circumnavigated the cove. By the third pass I had to stop her for a photo.  

 

We complimented each other's hats.  "I've heard about you," she said.  "A couple of walkers told me about a lady with a hat like mine who rides here regularly."  

"That's not me," I said.  "This is my Inaugural Sydney Ride."

And thus I learnt that I have not one, but two doppelgangers.  And I thought I was one of a kind!

Admiring infrastructure from the good old days when pesky meandering creeks were tidied up into neat concrete channels with no messy vegetation or wildlife to bother anyone.

Pretty Petersham Park again.

Having gotten home in one piece I declared the Intrepid Inaugural ride a great success and now consider myself to be a veteran Sydney cyclist, ready to take on the world as long as the traffic is light and I can regularly escape to a park.