Last ride and ....best laid plans

Firstly, Saturday's ride was great, although a little "sharper" than I had originally expected. Before the event, I had visions of an easy cruise around the river. However, with only Robert, myself and a new Terry showing up, the group took on a new dynamic. The pace at which Terry took off, despite his protestations of "I hope I don't slow you down too much" (not likely!!) , made me quickly realise that I had better grab the nearest slipstream and hold on for dear life. So the legs got a sharper-than-expected workout on Saturday morning, but very enjoyable.

And so to the best laid plans...

My intention for Sunday morning was to cruise down the freeway to Berrigan Drive, then cut across North Lake Road etc to Fremantle, checking out the roads for traffic and possible alternative routes, then having a look at La Vespa cafe/patisserie in South Freo as a possible destination of gastronomic replenishment.

It all went wrong when I missed Berrigan Drive. Don't ask me how I missed it but I missed it. I went past the yellow things and knew that Berrigan Drive was coming up soon. I kept riding and started to think "I should have seen it by now", and kept riding and thought "what a fool you would be to turn off too early - that's what you usually do", and kept riding and thought "I'm really getting out of town - I don't remember all this bushland".
I eventually turned off at Rowley Road, realising that I MUST have overshot the target, and decided to navigate my way back to Freo by going generally north and west. So, I find myself in Wattleup (for the first time in my life) bumping along rough roads laid down in the 50s (and neglected ever since) with only a few horses for company. The north/west thing worked OK until a dog-leg forced me a few km back to the east ... directly into a new housing estate (Hammond Park, I think) with curvy roads and roundabouts and ... cul-de-sacs. I retraced my way out of a few cul-de-sacs before I eventually found a road that went vaguely northish and westish.
Then I found out that it's a LONG WAY from Wattleup to Freo, especially when you're a bit knackered from the previous day and an unexpected headwind is making life harder than you want it to be. There are plenty of sharpish inclines on the way - no problem if you're fresh, but I was quickly wilting from the effort.

I made it to Freo. I was not a pretty sight. La Vespa is probably quite nice but it looked more suited to well-dressed people with trendy glasses than sweaty bike riders. I opted for L2 (the usual spot) and re-fuelled on florentine slice, coffee and juice. Bliss!!

I struggled home to South Perth with hollow legs.

A later examination of my errors, on Google Maps, revealed that I went about 10km too far on the cycleway. Multiply that by two and add some extra for diversions and cul-de-sacs, and I can see how that proposed 2-hour ride turned into a 3-hour epic.
We all know that "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" and while it was a close call I'm pretty confident I'll live to ride another day. So, watch out next weekend because I WILL BE FLYING. But more importantly, I'll be ready for a nice social ride of modest difficulty.

See you on Saturday.

Paul Kittler