On a really nice Saturday in January, I headed off to try and find a workable easy way to connect the wonderful Whites Creek Lane bike path in Annandale with the equally wonderful Sydney Park in Erskinville. That meant I would have to ride down to Pyrmont and head over the Anzac bridge and then loop around through Annandale and Stanmore to get to Sydney Park. It was a good ride as the pictures show and I knew it would be best on a Sunday morning when there are no cars around. So the very next day, I took my wife in the opposite direction (clockwise) by first heading through Stanmore. I actually thought that worked better. There was 200m of climbing. Further descriptions follow the pictures.
Pictures start from Chippendale and head around Glebe then Stanmore and Enmore.
Here is the trail on our Eastern Suburbs Maps >> . Look for the suburbs of Chippendale, Enmore, Stanmore and Annandale.
Anticlockwise Description
I pulled the bike from the old Odessey in Green Square and headed down the George St bike path into Redfern and then headed round the corner to Sydney University and down the council paths through Chippendale into Pyrmont. Usually I would go down The Goods Line but today I just rode down Harris St past the Sydney Electric Bike company shop and ended up at Jones Bay in Pyrmont as shown here.
From there I went up and over the bike busy Anzac Bridge and down to the Federal Park and round into Whites Creek Lane and Cohen Park. Here a terrific bike path runs 3 km in a southerly direction to end near Parramatta rd. It only crosses one road of any note and there is generally hardly any traffic. *
At Parramatta Rd I followed the council designated bike roads down to the railway line and up to Stanmore Station. I headed under the railway line where I encountered a set of stairs. Lucky my bike has Walk mode which means the bike can help me lug it up the stairs. This is a really useful feature on heavy eBikes.
From Stanmore my target was Newington College where you can cross the busy Stanmore Rd. I had a great toasted sandwich at Toastetees and headed to Enmore Park where the path crosses others that I have in the Enmore area. I did some more back streets and ended up on King and crossed to Sydney Park. The bike trail back to Zetland from Sydney park is a really good one.
All up it was a comfortable 24km. Its quite a good path for anyone who is bored with Darling Harbour. I rated the south side of Parramatta Rd with a Green Line for commuting grade. Whites Creek Lane gets a Purple for really good. The paths around Sydney Uni and Pyrmont are generally commuting grade but they are pretty good.
Here is the trail I took on RideWithGps. Ride carefully if you do the trail, it does involve a few roads. Garry
* Note: the northern end of this has changed as Anzac Bridge rolls straight into Rozelle Park and then at the other end of the park there is a shared path bridge that goes across the freeway. You can see how this works in these videos
1 Anzac Bridge to Whites Creek Lane
2 Stanmore to Anzac Bridge
A Shorter Loop
Here is a shorter loop that goes through Sydney University and cuts back through Alexandria
On this Strava ride I got off the train at Sydenham Station, the about to be metro station. Then I rode thru Marrickville and headed up to Whites Creek Lane.
Now you may want to read this story as these paths cross….