15th May 2011
The day was cold and cloudy, but thankfully, following the week of heavy rain, the paths were dry. The cyclists began arriving at the library, all rugged up against the cold. Eventually, six adults and six children were ready to leave on the adventure. Despite the sealed paths being dry, it was decided to detour around the few short dirt tracks on the route to avoid muddy sections.
We departed the library, riding along the newly sealed path in Craigieburn Gardens down to Aitken Creek. At Hothlyn Drive, we detoured to Mitford Crescent and worked our way through the residential roads and short path sections to the pipeline boundary of Craigieburn and Roxburgh Park suburbs, at Zambezi Court to avoid the first dirt section. At this point, we rode along the path that follows the railway line to near Roxburgh Park Station.
There was another dirt section at the station that we detoured around, and we rode behind the Roxburgh Park Shopping Centre to Reservoir Drive. It was not busy, being a Sunday morning, so we rode on road to Shankland Boulevard where we came upon the Shankland-Tarcoola Reserve. This has a narrow asphalt path bordered with bricks, which we followed down past Meadow Heights Primary School to Meadow Heights Shopping Centre.
We made our way past the new playground at the soon-to-be-named Resologlu Reserve, and had some difficulty crossing Malmsbury Drive due to the parked vehicles of church-attendees. Considerate drivers gave way to us, allowing us to cross the road and proceed to Buchan Street Reserve, which has a Community Centre, playground and skate park. A wide path commences here proceeding all the way to Broadmeadows Valley Park, passing Bethal Primary School and crossing Barry Rd with a pedestrian refuge.
It was an easy ride down to Yuroke Creek, but the ride up to Erinbank Crescent on the other side was a big challenge for the children. Most of the cyclists therefore walked up the hill, along the Erinbank Crescent footpath to the top of the hill. After a short on-road section, we entered the Attwood Creek Path which led us to Moonee Ponds Creek near the Westmeadows Bakery. We arrived safely, after having ridden 15 km in just under one and a half hours.
At the bakery, we relaxed drinking our coffees and dining on our sweets, and relieving ourselves of a liquid load. One of the cyclists decided to leave from here, but as we were heading in the same direction, down the Moonee Ponds Creek Path for nearly a kilometre, we all left together.
Jacana Reserve was the start of the Broadmeadows Valley Path, which we were to follow all the way to Craigieburn. It was a hard ride for some of the children, being generally a slight uphill ride, and the group soon parted: two quicker riders made their way out in front, while the rest ambled along. At Shankland Boulevard playground, the main group stopped for 10 minutes to give the children a breather. We had travelled 7.2 km in just over half an hour.
Continuing on, we had a short hard climb, with a few minutes rest at the top of the hill at The Shankland Reserve just over Somerton Rd. We again mounted our bikes and continued.
We rode through the tunnel under Donald Cameron Drive to the St Clair Reserve Lake and, lo and behold, the two quicker cyclists were sitting on the grass waiting patiently for us to catch up to them. They were turning off here, so we said our goodbyes and continued towards Craigieburn.
At Fairways Boulevard, beside the Craigieburn Golf Course, an adult rider with two children parted ways. The other two adults and 4 children continued to Aitken Creek, across Bridgewater Rd to Craigieburn Gardens and up to Craigieburn Library. The third leg had been 9.2 km in just over one hour.
All up, the BUG had travelled 31.4 km in three hours, with ¾ hour time at the bakery and ten minutes at the playground. The ride to Westmeadows was described as "interesting" which is an interesting way of describing it. Many drivers were very considerate of the group. However, there were some sections that had lots of broken glass on the path.
nd the other four working feverishly to calculate each share of the bill. With one more leaving, the party was down to three, and it was decided to return along Moonee Ponds Creek Trail until Bell Street, where we would ride on-road alongside the railway line. We made a quick pace with the wind at our backs, and before long, Kevin took over the navigational duties from Greg and lead them over the creek and up past Pascoe Vale Station. With the gentle inclines of the smooth road, it was with minimal effort we arrived at Jacana Station and bade our farewells to each other.
