Riding to Rosewood

It was a leisurely start to the day... we by my standards anyway.. exercises.. a jog around the lovely riverside park... yoga .. some breaky and a bit of work before stepping out to join the Ghostriders for our venture down the rail trail. And what a lovely day for it.. mild and sunny with only very light winds! The rail trail is rather new and is in fact the first to be opened in NSW.. the literature bills it as "21 kms of vistas, serenity, gentle gradients and sweeping curves". It is certainly a well put together trail... bitumen surface with good infrastructure (eg signage and toilets (at stations)). It is also well integrated with the local agricultural industry with on trail cattle grids (surprisingly smooth to ride over... particularly with a bit of speed up... I'm sure there is a scientific basis to that), fencing, bridges and underpasses. It took only an hour to get to Rosewood where a coffee was in order at the "Rail Trail Cafe". Not bad coffee either (although they hadn't heard of a "Magic" ... perhaps it's a Melbourne affectation....?) and a complementary mint slice biscuit... how nice. I was a little concerned that the return would be a slog with about a 7km climb to look forward to and being almost (there is one other) the only non e-bike rider in the group I thought I might be slow.. so I headed off a little in advance but surprised myself with the relative ease of the return which took about 1 1/4 hours ... it really is a lovely trail! Back to the motel for a shower, lunch and a meeting with my PHD supervisor .. then it was time to relax (and read a few papers) before dinner at the Union Hotel. A typical "country pub", the seafood "basket" (sans basket???) came with a surfeit of chips and there was a distinct lack of anything approaching a decent dark beer or stout (ok ... I know... I'm fussy) but it was a cheerful place and the company was great... now I think it's time for bed! What a great day.Read more