Esperance, Australia

It seemed like a fantastic idea at the time. One of us saw an advert for bicycle hire in Esperance and given there are 15 or 20 kilometres of walking/bicycle trail along the coast it was only natural that we’d think that we should all hire bikes.

I’m not so sure but I think it’s probably been 30 years since I rode a bike further than about 500 meters…

We fronted up to Dempster Sports and hired five fancy bikes with a million gears and bouncy suspension. How good is this? The bike paths are all bitumen and just across from the shop there is a beautiful beach, this is going to be great. Sue, the shop’s owner assured us that we’d be right, it’s “a little bit up and down” and that getting out to the Surf Club at Twilight Beach “should take about an hour”.

Off we went, gee with 21 gears to choose from there should be nothing that will stand in our way. We cruised along the Esplanade, getting a feel for the bikes and making sure that our middle-aged centre of gravity didn’t make us fall over. Well, the flat bit was easy enough but unfortunately Sue’s “a little bit up and down” really meant there are “some blood vessel bursting mountain climbs”.

I have to say, the bike ride was hard. None of us were able to ride up the hills (Matthew did his best and generally made it almost all the way) and we walked and puffed our way along, riding on the downhill sections and the flat bits.

The beach views were unbelievable. Blue, turquoise, azure, all of these colours together with pristine white beaches. We rode past several beaches on our way to Twilight and whilst I didn’t time it, I’m sure it took longer than an hour. We spent some time having a snack and watching a pod of dolphins chasing fish about at one beach. Gee, where else can you do this, it’s terrific.

Hot sweaty and aching we started the return journey. Clearly, the 500 mtr practice I’d done several years ago wasn’t sufficient as the 22 kilometre return trip was pretty tough. I think we’d all found a second wind and were managing the ups and downs OK but our backsides weren’t faring very well and we were all happy to see the flat Esplanade track into town again.

Bikes returned, showered and clean, we relaxed for the afternoon, playing some games and having a drink whilst complaining endlessly about our aches and pains. Goodness knows what we’ll all feel like tomorrow?….