Rail Trail to Liverpool

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Yesterday we decided to continue on our discovery of the Western suburbs of Sydney. We have discovered that the best way to do this is on bicycle. Surprizingly enough, despite the prodomince of the private motor car in Sydney's sprawling Western suburbs, the area is well served by various bike tracks.

We set off from Granville, and for the first kilometre or so, it seemed like the idea to take the bike path was a bad one. The 'track' for the first few hundred metres was the footpath running alongside the polluted and gray Parramatta road. The smell of exhaust fumes spewing out from the traffic was almost too much for my lungs. Addditionally, seemingly every few metres we would have to stop ast traffic lights to cross the road.

However, once we passed the entrance to the M5, we entered some quite surburban streets and it turned into quite a lesiurely ride. The first section passed through the streets of Granville/Merrylands until the path met up with the rail line. The bike ride is actually called a 'rail trail' as it follows parrallel to the rail line for most of its length.

The first setion past Merryland and Guilford was mainly houses and other surburban streets. We came accross an information board in this section where we noticed a range of bike tracks spurring out in various directions. We decided to stick on the route to Liverpool.

Yennona was next which is mainly industrial and been a Saturday it was quite deserted. The path follows along side many of the factories. In one section it passes down a long allayway jammed between the rail line and a factory wall. I can imagine this section would be quite scary in the evening time.

After Yennora, the ride passes more suburbs and houses. It is quite uneventfulk until it vears towards the East just before Cabramatta into a nice Sydney Water park. There is a Buddist temple on the hill of the park and it makes for quite a spectacular view. Just like been back in China. Having seem more than my fair share of temples in both China and Thailand we didn't stop and look, but it seems like quite a large complex. The trail through the park passes over some small creeks and is actually surprizingly sedate.

The next stop was Cabramatta, aka drug capital of Sydney. Downtown Cabramatta did not look too threatening on a sunny Saturday. However, we did notice the quality of the concrete path we had been riding on was reduced to pot-holed bitumen in this section.

We arrived in Liverpool quite quickly from Cabramatta as it was a downhill run. We set ourselves up in a park in the city centre and had some lunch and relaxed.

All in all, a good, easy ride. There is no serious uphill or downhill sections. The route is well marked, and other than the inital section leading from Granville it issurprizingly free from traffic.

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