Australia Day - Rowville Riders.

Australia Day is almost over... no doubt many of us have clocked up a massive amount of time on the bike over the last few days... Brendan Edwards was invited along for the Rowville Rider's Annual Australia Day Ride.

Words and Images - Brendan Edwards

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I'm always travelling
I love being free
And so I keep leaving the sun and the sea
But my heart lies waiting over the foam
I still call Australia home

Peter Allen - lyrics to “I still call Australia home”

WHAT DOES AUSTRALIA DAY MEAN TO YOU?

Australia Day is one of my favourite Public holidays.  I love how we can come together as a nation to celebrate what's great about Australia and being Australian. It’s a day where we are proud to fly the Australian flag, and to celebrate it in the best possible fashion.

TO GET OUT AND RIDE YOUR BIKE

Australia Day is celebrated annually on 26 January, and marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of at Port Jackson in New South Wales.  Nowadays we tend to celebrate in the good ole fashioned Aussie tradition of chucking a shrimp on the barbie and celebrating with a beer……. and for the lucky ones, a sneaky pre-B.B.Q ride to work up an appetite.

RIDE

I was excited to be invited to join the Rowville Riders on their annual Australia Day Bean Run to Port Melbourne.  It was a good sized group of around 30 riders and we were lucky to have a tail wind pushing us towards the beach.   

Cycling in Melbourne is getting more popular by the year and it was great to see so many people out and about on their bikes, and being a public holiday there weren’t many cars on the roads.

COFFEE

Coffee and riding go hand in hand, and my favorite part of the ride was the coffee stop in Port Melbourne.  Personally I only managed 4 hours sleep last night I was relieved to get a Caffeine fix, as I was stifling down many a yawn.

I spent the return trip chatting with Chris Balis who had such an amazing story to tell.  He told me how much cycling changed his life. I was inspired listening to how he has used cycling to lose weight and over a relatively short space of time has really become healthy and quite fit. His passion for cycling has led him to ride with groups like the Rowville Riders and to get out and explore to experience as much as he can. 

It reminded me of what I love about cycling, and just makes me want to ride more.

What a great day to be out on your bike.  Australia Day may only come once a year, but Australia lives in our hearts 365 days of the year. 

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi!!!! 

GUIDES.