Road Trip - Goulb > Canberra + Canberra > Canberra

What a weekend - it was great to head out on a roadie trip. The routes were set, the cyclists were all looking forward to doing some ‘big’ K’s and before you knew it we had departed Sydney and had arrived in Goulburn. After a coffee at the Green Grocer Cafe it was time to head out into the cool autumn day, heading to Canberra. 

The back way to Canberra really is a great ride, rolling hills and some wonderful scenery. The ‘crew‘ arrived into Lake Bathurst an hour after leaving Goulburn, setting a decent pace of 30kph. Lake Bathurst is one of those towns with popular trees aligning the main street, at this time of the year it is a beautiful sight. Next stop, after our one and only flat of the weekend, we were in Targo and up rolling through the undulating hills of the area. Coffee in Bungendore was well deserved and sitting in the sun added to the great morning. 

There is a nice hill out of Bungendore heading up towards Macs Reef Road but it didn’t even register on the cyclists legs. Before they knew it, after some more rolling hills, they were on the down hill stretch to the Nations Capital, Canberra. 

Lunch was at Tilleys in Lyneham a regular haunt for many Canberra-ites and it was such a glorious day to be sitting outside and reminiscing about the time just spent in the saddle.

It was time to check into the Australian Institute of Sport and relax, the pool was open and massages had been booked. We put the heater on, had time to read the paper and also a few cycle related magazines. 

‘All you can eat dinner’ can never come quick enough after cyclists have done 115k. Saturday night at the AIS is ‘fat night’ --- ice-cream and a few other treats to recharge the athletes stores after a week of hard work ... including cyclists!

We usually head to the pub on Saturday night but this time we had no takers, back to a warm room, a little TV, magazines and dark chocolate. It was not long offer before lights were out. 

The weather report for Sunday morning was for a chance of rain, they must have got the wrong day. Breakfast of bircher muesli and anything else you would like was consumed eagerly. Before you know it we were headed down the hill from the AIS and through a sparsely populated Canberra. 

The Cotter loop is a famous one if you are a cyclist from Canberra, not many cars, some rolling hills and some steep ones too. There was an option to head out to Corrin Dam (+50k) but we decided to head out to the Space Station instead (+10k). Out there we had a chance to tell some stories about the universe, the riders were all highly intelligent - aren’t they always? - then they were off to complete what they had started. The ride out of Cotter Dam was a long haul but a few other cyclists were on the road to make it that much more of a ‘race’. There was also an option to climb to the top of Mt Stromlo but we had no takers, “maybe next time” was the answer by one rider. On the last major hill of the day there was an unofficial KOM, congratulations to Caroline of taking the honours.  

Time for a Turkish coffee in the sun in Turner then back to the AIS for a shower before a big lunch. All up that days ride was 105k. 

On the drive home we usually have everyone asleep by Lake George, this time we had a great time of regaling the adventures they had just had. 

It really was a great weekend, thanks to the riders who provided many smiles and laughs. Looking forward to doing it all again sometime in the near future.