Day 30

Date:- 13 April 2010
Distance:- 61.21 Km
Distance to Date:- 1339.5 Km
Start:- Emu Plains
Finish:- Mount Colah
Comment:- Up at 7am and on the road by 9am. Back to Penrith. Walked About 3 km to get through Penrith. As I said yesterday Penrith is not sa very bike friendly town.

Sun shining and a nice light SW wind. Forecast was for 24 degrees - a nice day.

Followed the Great Western Highway through St Marys and Mount Druitt before turning onto M7 Freeway. Signs pointed to a dedicated bike path which I took. The bike path ran parallel to the highway. Fully sealed, Street type lighting, road signs and line markings. I was told it ran for about 32 km.

Ran into a surveyor on the path and we had a chat as you would. He was quite interested in my challenge. A bit further down the path some maintenance men were checking the street lights.

I left the bike path prematurely, I took a left turn which lead over the freeway but then lead me onto the breakdown lane on then M7 . No problems. The M7 changed to the M2 and it wasn’t long before I turned left onto Pennant Hills Road which should take me to Hornsby.

Pennant Hills road turned out to be very busy. With no bike lane and three lanes of traffic I took to the footpath by foot. I reckon I must have walked another 5 or 6 km. I got it wrong this time, let me out into the country.

I arrived in Hornsby about 4.30 and went looking for the caravan park but to no avail so I kept heading out the Pacific Highway. By this time it was getting dark, so tea at the convenient golden arches before I set off to find somewhere to camp. It didn’t take long, a nice grassy lawn behind the local Uniting Church in Mount Colah.