Posted on 2009-01-19 17:00:00
Tags: Cycling in Australia, Cycling in Canberra, Cycling
For the people who know me, Canberra has a magical attraction for me: It's cold in the winter, flat, fully designed and the size a city shouldn't be allowed to grow over. If it wasn't for the rejection of the people of TPG Australia I would be living there now...
This Saturday I had the pleasures of being in Canberra, having to take care of both Dirk and Hanorah and being close to lake Burley Griffin, in other words: a good weekend for cycling around the lake! Again!
Again? Yes, two years ago I did the full trip around the whole lake with Dirk on the back seat, from southern Canberra to the south/west point of the lake, back via the north and then back to south to the starting point. It was cloudy most of the trip, because when the clouds disappeared in the last fifteen minutes I felt like I was being roasted alive.
So this year with the three of us, I in the front and Dirk and Hanorah in a trailer. Hanorah has been on the bicycle a couple of times, but never for longer than 30 minutes. This 16 kilometers / 60-90 minutes trip around the western basin of lake Burley Griffin would be very long for her...
If you are staying close to the northern part of the Commonwealth Avenue bridge, the best place to hire a bicycle is Mr Spokes Bike hire. They have normal bicycles, tandems, with trailers and tag-a-longs. Oh, and pedal cars which I don't want to talk about.
The first five minutes of the trip they both were laughing and having great fun in the back. And from there it went uphill for me and downhill for them: Hanorah didn't like the helmet so I took hers off, Dirkie got bored so he got my cap, my map (you don't need a map to go around the lake, just follow the path), my bottle and my keys. That seemed to entertain them and we kept on going!
My trips with Dirk on the back has trained me to drag extra weight along but the ten extra kilos of Hanorah and the absence of a front gears made it impossible for me to go as fast as I liked, instead I rolled on nicely.
There are three uphill parts: The bridge at the exit to Belconnen, east of Government House and the Commonwealth Avenue bridge. But unless you are dragging a trailer with you, they are really nothing to worry about.
At a little bit less than two hours we came to the Commonwealth Avenue bridge and I wondered if I should do the central basin of the lake too, but a quick peek in the trailer showed that it would be disastrous for Hanorah so I called it a day, returned the bicycle and we went swimming in the pool.
