rhyll: (Default)
rhyll ([personal profile] rhyll) wrote2009-12-16 03:32 pm
Entry tags:

Adventures

Yesterday I went to visit my family, which is one of the last trips I make that usually involves a car. So after some negotiation with my grandparents, it was decided that:
a) I could cycle to the train station from my place, catch the train up to joondalup, then cycle from joondalup station to their place instead of getting picked up, and
b) I was mad.

Family visits were nice, and it was good to meet Visiting Greek Cousin, although my Greek is still not up to conversation. Happily my grandparents are speaking to me in Greek more and more often, so I'm getting better.

Cycling back, I got up to the turn-off for "cycle to Perth" and suddenly decided that I would give it a go.

Highlights:
* I remembered to put on sunscreen!
* Asking directions from some Aimless Youth, one of whom was trying to hide his can of spraypaint behind his back. When I said I was cycling to Perth he was horrified.
* There is a path that mostly goes along the highway, but it takes all these weird deviations through suburban streets. They have a strange, quiet feel to them. I would have started to worry that I was lost, except that people in lycra kept racing past on shiny bicycles. One of these deviations went past an area that still had a few market gardens scattered around, and I ate some figs from an abandoned block full of fruit trees.
* I helped some strangers catch their puppy.
* When I was close to H's house, the next stop on my itinerary, an old Greek woman stopped me to tell me to be careful in the area. I spoke Greek for a bit, which was fun, and she told me that I should come to her house for dinner. (I declined.)
* I saw Lisa!

All in all, I am very proud of myself. After fiddling around with whereis.com a bit I worked out that I cycled around 47.5km yesterday, which seems like a lot. And it was, I felt, unnecessarily windy. And I'm fine today! Now I want to cycle everywhere, even more than I did before.

[identity profile] boxer-the-horse.livejournal.com 2009-12-16 08:40 am (UTC)(link)
Its an impressive effort. Those quiet streets around the freeway are total childhood memory fodder for me. Calming in a slightly alienating way. Ah, the Northern Suburbs.

A tool you might find useful

(Anonymous) 2009-12-16 03:45 pm (UTC)(link)
If you're looking to work out how far you've ridden, you might find http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ handy. It's a mashup of Google Maps that lets you draw routes (it even snaps routes to roads, so you don't have to manually draw lots of straight lines!) and calculates the distance for you :)

Re: A tool you might find useful

[identity profile] alexmoon.livejournal.com 2009-12-16 11:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you, Mysterious Stranger!

[identity profile] lisamax.livejournal.com 2009-12-16 03:49 pm (UTC)(link)
your face was SO red when i saw you. :) hardcore.

[identity profile] mynxii.livejournal.com 2009-12-17 03:06 pm (UTC)(link)
What an awesome adventure!! Yay for sunscreen :) Also yay for getting better with speaking Greek! *squish*