On Tuesday 27th he called and asked if I wanted to go for a ride on Bairne Track at Terrey Hills. I thought, yep, it'll be short out-and-back, dry, and with the lower back discomfort I've been trying to resolve that kind of effort would be about right.
Weeellll... it was one of those classic occasions where well-laid plans are not stuck to and it all goes rapidly downhill from there
First, we had to ride in since Hans didn't have his NPWS pass. No big deal.
We took a couple of side loops because road is boring
After admiring the views at the top, and watching a couple of rock wallabies potter about 10 metres away
... we decided to ride down to the water's edge and check out the coastal hamlets in Pittwater on the western side of the bay. There is a spooky abandoned mansion replete with swimming pool that was reportedly built illegally on NPWS land. The entire village can only be reached by boat, or on foot several kilometres from West Head Road. Fortunately there is a regular ferry service operating on a loop around the bay. You "signal for driver" by waving a large red flag that is stored in the shelter on each wharf.
After deciding we really didn't want to ride all the way back up the nasty climb up that particular hill, we had the bright idea of going and seeing if we could find a trail around the bay and hook up with the next hamlet. Our GPS map showed us a road out that would have saved a fair bit of distance.
Afer finding a promising trail, it ended up petering out into nothing in a thicket of fallen trees, although we did come across a lyrebird mound.
Giving up on the trail, Hans decided we were going to wade across the bay to the other side. Supposedly it was dead low tide. Hmm, I wasn't convinced but cheerfully/gleefully said "you first"
Anyway, it was better than sitting around giving the mosquitos a feast
I was expecting him to sink up to his knees in gooey mangrovey mud, and wasn't at all sure what I was going to do to rescue his bike AND mine if we got stuck
... but in the end we got across successfully, if you don't count what happened to our shoes.
A friendly local family let us use their hose to get rid of all the sand and mud out of our shoes and we were soon on our way with the assistance of a helpful young local native guide 
On the way out we detoured to a beautiful 50m waterfall. Unfortunately the photo doesn't do it justice.
After couple of hundred metres of 40% climb, I got off and walked until the incline flattened out to a mere 25%, then fished out my last gel and hopped back on again. I was glad for the couple of gels I'd left in the camelbak from my last big training ride - this 1 hour ride had mysteriusly turned into 4 and I had nothing left. Hans just had what was in his water bottle, and had hit the wall.
Reached West Head Road again, one small climb and then a fun road downhill back to the car. Urrgh, I'm exhausted.
The back was sore afterwards, but was fine a day or so later and even seems to have improved a little since, which is encouraging
Can't wait to do it again!
