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Satyam Ghaat

Image: Satyam Ghaat

from jennifermaehamilton, 26.01.10

Bike riding around Sydney is awesome. 
The book "Bike Rides Around Sydney" by Ian Connellan and Neil Irvine is a fantastic resource for anyone who wants to become a tourist in their own city. (Although NEVER try to do a ride in reverse, translating "head north" to "head south" and "turn left" to "turn right" will do your head in early in the day).
The "Southwest Lakelands" ride, which starts and finishes at Liverpool train station, takes you from Liverpool through Cabramatta, Canley Vale, Carramar, south down the Georges River and around Chipping Norton lake and back to Liverpool station where you can pick up some amazing Indian sweet milk cakes for the train ride home. 
The ride took us past Satyam Ghaat, where a bend of the Georges River invokes the spirit of the Ganges: trees are decorated, small flowers float in the water and orange and yellow wool is visible in the bottom of the water. 
The trip around Chipping Norton lake in the late afternoon was a highlight - everyone seemed to be out and about - families picnicing, children playing, men fishing, women talking. 
The rides in this book are for every skill level - from a basic ride like the Southwest Lakelands which is on a mixture of path and quiet road and is mostly flat - to extreme difficult rides on roads in the National Parks that have steep 20km climbs. 
We stopped also in Cabramatta for lunch, a massive bowl of pho and a lemon soda, and while there we were asked what country we were from and how we were enjoying Australia. We took pictures and delighted in the mini-break that cost the price of a return train ticket and lunch.

I might add though, passing for a tourist is not always what happens. On arriving in Liverpool Park a woman who was playing with a small dog called out to us "Hey, are you guys from Newtown" - yes, we replied, surprised that this woman was so spot on - I guess urban identities are easier to read than you think. "What the hell are you doing out here?" she asked. Good question. We chatted for a while and explained we were cycling around the lakelands and rode on. Specuation as to 'how in the hell' she pegged us went no further than my bright red retro sweater - i looked at my sweater, worn with an dash of irony and thought, yeah, i'd think i was from Newtown too.

ADDENDUM: I post this on Australia Day - Survival Day - Invasion Day - when discussions about racism, asylum, immigration, treatment of Indigenous Australians are sidelined for celebration of the Nation State. Talking about local culture and delights that you can find within one city should come with the awareness that while there is delight in such adventure there is politics within it too; politics that crisscross and complicate gender, race and class lines. Potentially the politics of Nationalism. What is the relationship between the Ghaat on the Georges River and the violence against Indian Students in Melbourne? I won't begin to speculate here. I just wanted to make the link - maybe the link should remain tacit in order to allow the discussion of local culture that does not fall into such categories. But, what were the riots in Cronulla if not local's defending what they believed to be their territory? It's the ugly side of living local.

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Derived from

Ian Connellan and Neil Irvine, "Bike Rides Around Sydney: Explorying Sydney by Bike, Ferry and Train" Open Spaces Publishing, Moonee Ponds, 2005

Cross Posted on http://bicycleuser.wordpress.com & livelocal.com.au

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