Manly with Bicycles

Yesterday (after the disappointment at the market) we went to Manly. That’s the Manly in Queensland, not the one 1000km south. Important for route planning, that is. It’s a small town on the shore of Moreton Bay about 15kms east of Brisbane. We liked it. Plan was to go back today.

This morning started with good intentions, but quickly degenerated into full english breakfast. Oh well. It’s only a diet. I can restart one of those any time. After a slight pause for digestion, we threw* the bikes in the enormous truck and headed out. There’s a cycle track all the way around the shoreline of Moreton Bay, and we wanted to have a look. In a moment of inspiration, I suggested mounting one of our myriad small cameras on my handlebars with the GorillaPod. Amazingly, this works.

Owing to delays caused by egg, mushrooms, bacon, beans and sloth we rocked up in Manly (Wynnum, actually, but too much verisimilitude does dreadful things to the flow of these rants, so I won’t mention it here) around noon, just as the temperature was climbing to its peak. Spiffing. Bikes out, and off we go.

20 metres later, the smart one stopped us and suggested we might want to go back to the truck and get (a) the camera, (b) my gloves and (c) her cycling computer. So we did. We’re still fine-tuning this operation. Off we pedaled along the path, dodging sunburn, dogs and demented two-year-olds. Rather than bore you with more verbosity, here are a few of the 109 (yes, really) pictures I took from my bar-mounted camera. The funky angles are all there for Valid Artistic Reasons, and have nothing to do with me mashing the ‘Take Picture’ button with gloved hands on a moving bike. So there.

*As in, placed very, very gently, snuggled into blankets. That’s $4000 of hardware I’ll have you know