We had an awesome day today!
Rosie took a sickie (good work!) and we drove to Scarborough leaving at 7:30am (and golly gosh it did hurt a lot). Simon works in Scarborough so we took the opportunity to explore this beautiful seaside town.
After dropping Simon off at work, Jen, Rosie and I went for a long walk along the waterfront of Scarborough. I couldn't stop snapping photos, the place was so picturesque.
At the start of our walk... What a view!
Waves hitting the wall.We sat and had breakfast at a cafe about a quarter of the way along... a good solid English breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausages, tomatoes, mushrooms, baked beans, and toast, with HP sause. Yeah yeah. Well that's what I had. Jen had a cookie and a coffee, and Rosie had a coffee and breathed in the fumes of my feast, which was apparently enough for her.
The waterfront was awesome. It was fronted by a line of colourful entertainment arcades/amusement halls which were full of knick-knacks, games, and kitch. There was a small park with rides and a ferris wheel at the end of the southern bay. All this gave it a theme-park atmosphere, though it was quiet when we walked by as it was early, cold, and not quite summer. Cafes were beginning to nudge their way inbetween the games parlours, and I'm sure they will grow in number.
The waterfront was awesome. It was fronted by a line of colourful entertainment arcades/amusement halls which were full of knick-knacks, games, and kitch. There was a small park with rides and a ferris wheel at the end of the southern bay. All this gave it a theme-park atmosphere, though it was quiet when we walked by as it was early, cold, and not quite summer. Cafes were beginning to nudge their way inbetween the games parlours, and I'm sure they will grow in number.
I like this photo. Jen and Rosie walk ahead while I snap away.
A cool building. It's the big one you can see in the first 2 photos.We kept walking past the awesome ruined castle on the bluff, and got to the northern bay, which was lined with new colourful boat sheds. There were heaps of people walking their dogs on the beach, almost all of them playing fetch using these throwing sticks that I saw for sale for 1 pound in one of the shops we walked past.
After walking up onto the second small bluff, Simon called and said he'd be finished in half an hour... but it took us a whole hour of brisk walking to make our way back to the car! We reckon we walked about 5km in each direction. We popped into Tesco and bought salad roll ingredients and after picking up Simon we drove to a small fishing lake and ate lunch in the car. It was freezing outside!
After lunch we headed to Dalby Forest which is where a purpose-built mountain bike park is situated. There's even a bike shop in the middle of it, and we popped in to ask about bike hire. Unfortunately it was absolutely bucketing down with rain and sleet, and it was freezing cold. We had about 2 hours before the shop closed, so we weren't all that keen on riding. Or rather, I wasn't keen at all; everyone else was keen as mustard. The guy at the shop obviously saw our dilemma, and offered us bike hire at half price. That was the turning point, and I moaned and crumbled to the will of the other three. But it was worth it!
After walking up onto the second small bluff, Simon called and said he'd be finished in half an hour... but it took us a whole hour of brisk walking to make our way back to the car! We reckon we walked about 5km in each direction. We popped into Tesco and bought salad roll ingredients and after picking up Simon we drove to a small fishing lake and ate lunch in the car. It was freezing outside!
After lunch we headed to Dalby Forest which is where a purpose-built mountain bike park is situated. There's even a bike shop in the middle of it, and we popped in to ask about bike hire. Unfortunately it was absolutely bucketing down with rain and sleet, and it was freezing cold. We had about 2 hours before the shop closed, so we weren't all that keen on riding. Or rather, I wasn't keen at all; everyone else was keen as mustard. The guy at the shop obviously saw our dilemma, and offered us bike hire at half price. That was the turning point, and I moaned and crumbled to the will of the other three. But it was worth it!
At the start of the ride... not muddy, yet.
A rare piece of double track. Most of the park was well maintained singletrack.Fortunately for us, as we started riding, the rain stopped, and only started again once we got back. It was fun getting changed in hail... I needed my bike helmet (which I'd unfortunately returned) as the chunks of ice were kinda painful on my noggin.
I was expecting the track to be really muddy and unpleasant, however, it had a good rock base which meant good drainage, so there were puddles, but very little goopy mud. Lots of easy singletrack was to be found, well sign-posted with a map to boot; all in all a good couple of hours of fun!
I was expecting the track to be really muddy and unpleasant, however, it had a good rock base which meant good drainage, so there were puddles, but very little goopy mud. Lots of easy singletrack was to be found, well sign-posted with a map to boot; all in all a good couple of hours of fun!
Rosie carves it up.
Jen near the finish.Unfortunately we couldn't do all the tracks, or even complete a circuit, due to lack of time. But the bit we did was pretty fun. We had to escape onto the road 15 minutes before the shop closed so we could return the bikes. There's apparently more than 50km of trails in the area, from easy family trails to North Shore and downhill tracks. We'll have to come back someday and check it out.
Rosie cooked up a mean chilli con carne for dinner, and I think I smashed about 3 platefuls. Awesome.
More photos can be found in our Third Facebook Album!
Here's another set of links to our First and Second Facebook Albums.
:)
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