Blazing Saddle Sore

Nothing could have prepared us for the gruelling regime that was in store for our legs today ... and nothing could prepare me for the curses that were to come out of Darren's mouth in my direction.

Alex and Sarah had suggested that we hire a couple of bikes and cycle over the Golden Gate Bridge. What a romantic notion was my first thought until flash backs of saddle sore came into view and I wondered whether 'biking the bridge' was worth 'sitting the sore' for 12 hours to Auckland.

'You only live once' is the conclusion I finally came to as we tossed caution to the wind (once more) and headed down to Blazing Saddles to pick up 2 of their finest push bikes (Jo- you'd have been proud!).

All was well, the sun was out and as we merrily rode along the harbour front and up onto the bridge, It was clear we'd made the right choice for today.

Sausalito is a stunning little town, North of San Francisco. Once over the bridge, it's all down hill and we got there in about 90mins with a few photo stops. From here you can catch a ferry back to SF.

While still at home, my Dad had suggested that if we got the chance, to go see the Redwood Trees. According to Blazing Saddle's handy map, a forest harbouring Redwoods was a mere 30 minutes from Sausalito and I insisted we take the trip.

30 minutes came and went with a nearby miss of us cycling down the freeway on a wrong turn, and there were no Redwoods to be seen. We took another look at the map when at this point we realised that the last ferry back to SF was in 25minutes.

It's safe to say that neither of us have ever felt cramp like it as we arrived to watch the gang plank of the ferry being removed. Nice Mister Ferry Captain took pity on our desperate hollering and the plank was reinstating and wobbly-legged, we made it onto the boat. Hooray. Good job really, Redwoods were my idea and I hadn't been Darren's favourite person as we cycled a million miles an hour over bumpy concrete to the port.

Bikes returned with 5 minutes before the deadline. Bonus.

Lou x