Long Weekend Ride

On the Monday of the recent long weekend, we decided to have a family outing…on bikes! Despite the slightly cooler conditions, we headed off with a picnic lunch for a lap of Lake Ginninderra. The girls had previously completed a lap of the lake on their bikes, however on that occasion we had driven down and parked at John Knight Park.

The ride to the lake was nice and easily slightly downhill and soon we'd found ourselves heading in an anti-clockwise direction. All smooth going around the eastern side of the lake. Everyone walked the steep pinch up to Ginninderra Drive. Ella expressed her future desire to be able to ride up it next time without stopping.

We opted not to venture around the peninsula as we thought we'd already chewed off enough! A brief stop on the next bridge to discuss the buoys on the lake which had caught the girls attention. Our lunch spot eventually came into view at just the right moment as energy levels were beginning to wane. A play on the flying fox (Ella) and the spider's web (Katy) before devouring our sandwiches, biscuits and fruit. Our stop was cut short by a brief shower and everyone starting to feel the cold.

We were happily travelling along the western side of the lake as Katy decided to stand up to pedal when her foot slipped off the pedal and she came crashing down. Although only having a little scrap on her knee, it was some time before Katy regained her composure enough to start riding again.

Fortunately we could use the cafe Black Pepper and the enticement of a hot chocolate with marshmallows to encourage the girls on! Andy who was on his annual self inflicted one week coffee free break also had to settle on a hot chocolate too!

With bodies thawed out and tummies warm, we pushed on for the final assault home. We were making good progress crossing Belconnen Way where we came across a small jack russell on the bike path. At first we thought it was trotting along behind it's owner however we soon realised it was lost. There was no way we were going to leave it, so luckily Andy managed to use a strap from his bag as a makeshift lead and walked back home with him. Meanwhile all the girls quickly returned home to call the ranger. It soon became apparent that being a public holiday meant that the ranger services were limited and we would need to drop the dog off at the RSPCA which we did.