President’s Observations
This week’s big wet has been a real dampener across NSW not sparing our activities, with a series of cancellations occurring. Please spare a thought for those who are much worse off.
Just before the cold and wet came I managed my 1st walk to Australia’s highest point thereby I feel, maintaining some credibility as a walker. It certainly reminded me of the opportunity lost by not registering for Robyn Sim’s trip to Thredbo in February just gone. The 40-minute YouTube video of the paddler’s March Murray trip was well worth watching. Our trips are standouts and add to the club’s reputation as an infrastructure influencer when we rock up to a small community with our wide range of vehicles, bikes, kayaks, old boots and odd hats. Next up is Jill Hawkes’ NSW Northern Rivers trip early in June. 32 of us. Keep looking at the bottom of the program to see what is in the pipeline, and book early.
Updating the mention in the last newsletter of Looping Lake Illawarra with a viable walking/cycling shared path, the club has submitted a very comprehensive proposal prepared by Sam Garrett-Jones. View it in the PDF. A number of us as individuals attended consultative sessions on the Lake Illawarra Entrance planning convened by Wollongong and Shellharbour Councils. A resolution to the tidal flow problem is still in progress.
Also, further to the last newsletter, the NSW Government has last week responded to NSW Upper House e-Mobility Inquiry from last October. Observations on the Government’s response are in the newsletter. The Inquiry is very relevant to both Cycling and Walking activities. Resulting from an activity cycling between Gosford and Woy Woy and travelling to and from the Central Coast on the new Mariyong (Emu) trains the club has sought leadership from Bicycle NSW in advocating for more user-friendly bike accommodation on these inter-trains plus the new regional trains in interior design stage. An adaptation of the regional trains is planned for between Wollongong and Bomaderry. Many of our activities have an inter-urban train component and walkers especially will find the new passenger comfort a great improvement.
I thank all our leaders contributing so much to the club by scheduling new activity initiatives or simply offering up old favourites. The programme will lead many of us to donning an extra garment, lapping up a hot coffee and forever learning more about our Rambling friends.
John Groom