Wednesday 13 May 2015

COASTAL ESCAPE CYCLING TOUR - Day 7 - Huskisson to Berry, NSW

Huskisson to Berry via Nowra, NSW
For an embedded "Ride with GPS" map please open http://ridewithgps.com/routes/7869518

One of our group expressing her feelings on Hyam's Beach

Bye! bye! Huski, it has been a wonderful couple of days. I had really hit the peak of relaxation and could easily have stayed another couple of days. What with an excellent place to stay, a hotel with tremendous views, fine food and music, glorious beaches and good cycling.The Dolphin Wild cruise on Jervis Bay was excellent with a skipper who had superb local knowledge and knew just when to add a little zest with intermittent bursts on the throttle just to wake us out of our complacency. The scenery was a photographer's dream, the dolphins played on cue and the white sand and emerald green water almost unique....... I shall return.

Redlands U3A 'Pedal for Pleasure' group posing near Falls Creek, NSW

Falls Creek, NSW

Today we ride the countryside again as we veer inland to Nowra. Part of the ride entailed riding off road  and fording Falls Creek, a pretty area ideally suited to picknickers. As we hadn't been in the saddle for all that long, we didn't bother to stop and have a snack, just a couple of happy snaps were taken and we were on our way once more.







Our next stop was the Fleet Air Arm Museum www.navy.gov.au › History › Navy Museums approximately 6 to 7 kms south west of Nowra where we managed to spend a couple of hours looking at these magnificent old relics from a bygone era. As the museum had a cafe attached to it, we were able to have a snack and coffee before heading on  to Nowra.




On reaching Nowra, several of us elected to end our cycling tour and take the train the rest of the way to Berry. The reason for making this decision was purely a safety issue as we were now required to ride on the Princess Highway to Berry. Our ride notes fairly informed us that although the Highway had a recently upgraded shoulder to cycle on, there were many little bridges where the shoulder disappeared and as I don't like mixing motor vehicles  with cycling (personal choice) unless I have no other alternative, I made the decision to train it. As it so happened, the cycling group beat us into Berry but the ride on the two carriage diesel train was a complete novelty as I hadn't experienced this type of train travel since my early teens.



A picture of relaxation













Why do older people use fingers instead of thumbs when messaging.



















So there we were on our last night, in the town of Berry. We were met at the Berry Hotel by Emma our hostess who kindly bought us all a drink as a farewell gesture which ensured that we stayed on at the hotel for our farewell dinner.

The coastal escape tour www.australiancyclingholidays.com.au/ was overall extremely good with excellent accommodation, management and choice of routes. The only drawback being that a lot of the bikes could have been serviced better. The Hexagon bike which replaced the one I originally was given was a great bike to ride. It was smooth, responsive and a joy to ride and made the rest of my tour so much more enjoyable.

Would I recommend it? Yes, it is a pleasant way of experiencing up close, the beauty of the Illawarra coastline and further along the south coast of NSW, which cannot be fully appreciated by hurtling along a highway at 100 kph.

AN EVER GROWING LIST OF CYCLING MAPS WITH JIMMY BEE CAN BE FOUND BY OPENING THE FOLLOWING LINK:  http://jimmyb9.blogspot.com.au/

Cheers and safe riding,
  Jimmy Bee  

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