As most of the riders will know by now due to my most excellent showing off, I have done the Nudgee Beach loop that I have been threatening to do for ages. Total kms were 69.1 for me. If I had only known that when I got home I would have gone around the block a couple of times to make it up to 70 but the sun was beating down on my phone and I couldn't see anything on it! Anyway I left West End at about 8.30. The ride took me 4 hours and 15 minutes which included quite a few stops. By the time I got home the sun was boiling and I was sweating. While the heat is still around, I would recommend starting this one much earlier!
So: to the route. Start off by doing the Kedron Brook route. Here's the northern part of the route:
So we ride along Kedron Brook and still take a left onto Shaw Road. Then, near where we would loop back to go to the duck pond, we cross the road. The path continues. After that, you need to get to the other side of the brook. There is a bridge just as you emerge through the trees but I took the second bridge. There was a handwritten sign on it saying something like "use this bridge to get to Toombul". As I rode a bit further I realised why...
Must have been from that day when Kedron Brook got slammed with all that water. There are indications all the way along Kedron Brook of how far it reached. It must have been huge. Anyway you meander along through motorway country eventually riding alongside the big shopping centre in Toombul. You cross the road (Widdop Street - important to note for the way back) and suddenly you're on the Moreton Bay Cycleway:
Shortly afterwards, it feels like you are in the countryside. See below. Difficult to make out but that's the airport traffic control tower in the picture below, just to the left of the big tree in the middle...
There is hardly any shade from Toombul all the way to Nudgee. The path is flat and mostly bitumen so you can speed along here. There is a section of boardwalk which goes over wetlands....
Eventually, after a few kms from Toombul, you emerge onto Nudgee Road. There is an option to ride on the pavement for most of the road section if the road is too busy. Eventually, things start getting residential. You chuck a right just before the cafe. Yes cafe! Definitely worth a photo so you can see where we'll be getting our coffee. Hmm just noticed that sign... open 6 days. I wonder which day it's closed.
Good news! I just called them and they are closed on Tuesdays so that shouldn't be an issue for us.
So as I was saying, it's a right hand turn (Fortitude St.) just before the cafe which leads you here:
And here...
And you can sit in the shade, looking out across the bay and have your banana and your water like this:
There are toilets here and a water fountain.
And so to the way back. We go all the way to the Toombul shopping centre and then take a left where we crossed the road on the way in. From here, it's 3.5kms from Kedron Brook to the Brisbane river using this route:
Left onto Widdop (the point I noted earlier), left onto Gelibrand, right onto Zilman which turns into Kitchener, left down McGill (one way), cross Lancaster and down Charlton, Right onto Windermere and left onto Riverview which takes us all the way to Kingsford Smith Drive. Cross over at the lights and ride along the footpath on the river side past Brett's Wharf CityCat:
...and picturesque views of the city...
...eventually crossing Breakfast Creek, riding around Newstead Park and on to the riveriside bikepath. You can ride through the park but you just have to get off and go down some stairs after the bridge...
Don't forget there is a section where you have to come off the river and ride through the new development in Newstead. It takes you onto Skyring Terrace for one block then left onto Commercial Road and Teneriffe CityCat stop. You can see from the red line below that I went off the path in a few places. This was me trying to get water out of 3 seperate water fountains and failing...
The riverside path continues. Don't forget to watch out for the sheep with the handbag!
Then through New Farm, the Story Bridge, Dockside, Kangaroo Point and, because I was feeling on top of the world, I turned left at the Captain Cook Bridge and went home via Park Road and Gladstone Hill YEEHAA Giddyup!
A few tips:
Apply sunscreen before you go and again when you get to Nudgee Beach. There is a big section from Toombul to Nudgee with no shade at all.
Fill up with water at Nudgee. Chances are you will drink a lot more on the way back than you did on the way there. I drank 3 times as much! This was largely due to it being boiling hot by that stage and I had a substantial glow happening.
The only fountain that I could find that worked in between Newstead and New Farm was in New Farm Park. Man, I was thirsty!
This route took me 4 hours and 15 minutes. I had plenty of stops to take photos and search for water fountains and I also hung out at Nudgee for about 20 minutes.
Stretch your muscles at the end before you get in the shower. I did this and I didn't feel anything the next day.
