The Cooks River trail continues from Wolli Creek down around Muddy Creek and then it arrives at the end of the river at Kyeemagh. This is the start of Lady Robinsons Beach. Its cycleway all the way to way to the Sutherland Shire and is one of the great places to ride a bike in Sydney.  A standout cycle place to cycle in Sutherland Shire is Woronora and Menai.  Here are all the videos we have of the area

Note:  All links to Google MyMaps are shown with a  >>   You will need either a PC or a Google Account to make this work

Brighton le Sands and Botany Bay

Riding from Kendrick Park in Tempe through to the Captain Cook Bridge via Brighton Le Sands is 15km and its dead flat. Except for sunny weekends when there are people to dodge, its a super trail. You probably will not stop at Brighton le Sands, you will likely continue to Sans Souci or just over the Captain Cooks bridge. See the trail on the Sydney Map >> It is important to understand that the connection just after Cahill Park is not perfect yet. Take your time crossing the roads in that area, the roadworks are making drivers really cranky. If you want to skip the airport roads altogether, park near the Arncliffe Fire Station and join the trail there. You can now ride all the way to Shark Park footy oval in Woolooware and back from there without crossing any roads. How good is that ! BTW I love the section from Arncliffe to Botany Bay past the market gardens. Another place to park is near the Kyeemagh Beach Baths which is one of the many Bay Pools on our pools page The 9km each way ride from here to the Captain Cook bridge is great. The trail is rarely near the road and your main issue on the trail is walkers and talkers and the odd kiddie out of control chasing a dog. If you go mid week, you will have no problems and if you go on the weekend you either have to go slow or go early. For a little extra distance, you can head across the Captain Cook bridge and continue on down to Cronulla if your legs desire. When you go back across the Captain Cook bridge, find the track that takes you across on the left hand side. Notes: All bike types, pretty good for older children. Make sure you have a bike bell and pedestrians have right of way on this trail when it is shared path. If you want to train, stations that are nearby are Wolli Creek and Cronulla and Carlton if you like some roads. See photos from Tempe to Captain Cook Bridge  and  from Kyeemagh to Shark Park

Cronulla

Once you leave Captain Cook bridge, you have a nice little trail along the coast of Botany Bay for about 1km. Then you meet a junction, turn left for a brand new fully connected coastal trail that runs most of the way to Cronulla. The initial part of this trail is very scenic with new bridges across and around the mangroves. Its called the Woolooware Bay Shared Pathway. See Cronulla trail >>

Now to ride to Cronulla Beach  After this, you will enjoy lovely mangrove cycling on shared path and wooden bridges till you turn to arrive at Captains Cook Drive. Cross to the other side of the road where the track continues on a double lane concrete trail. Follow that through to the end of Cronulla Golf Course. There is a busy intersection that you need to cross with care. When Captain Cook drive turns North East, you head up Bate Bay Drive which turns into a steep hill past a new housing estate. At the top you will be at Wanda Reserve and Cronulla is south about 3 km on the very wide concrete path. At Wanda Reserve is a kids play ground and a good kids bike track that runs for 500m or so. When you arrive in Cronulla, you are not allowed to continue along the coast according to the signage. You have to go up the roads. So your journey ends here and its a good place to stop. Notes: Cronulla Station is very close so if you have travelled from the Inner West or Strathfield, relax and catch the train home. Another thing to consider is the wind. Train to Cronulla and ride back with a southerly sounds like a plan. See the Botany Bay trails on Google Maps >>  The photos start at Taren Pt and follow through to Cronulla

Kurnell

As Sydney was in yet another heatwave, I struggled to find any places that I wanted to explore. Then I remembered Kurnell because it has a great bay pool that is protected by a large shark net. Its one of the few places you can park almost on the beach. So we headed down to Cronulla, and turned to drive the last section to Kurnell, unloaded the bikes and went for a ride. We headed east along Prince Charles Parade and into the park and Captain Cooks landing place. We stopped at “the meeting place” and then went on the road to Cape Solander Lookout. There are a few cars on the road but there are also a few bikes so given that it is a National Park, riding on the road is fine for a rubbish rider like me. There are a few good spots to stop and take picture of a distant city, a nearby La Perouse and some good cliffs. We then returned to Kurnell and rode around the town, had a great lunch in the Village Store and then went swimming in our bike gear. I always have plenty of plastic in the car for driving wet and that was how we returned back to the Eastern Suburbs. All up its 12 km of riding and if you have never been to Kurnell, you should try it. Note: Large numbers of bike riders head up up Captain Cook Drive with its large and well marked bike verge from Cronulla and finish at Cape Solander Lookout. I personally don’t like roads where trucks can wiz by you at 75km an hour and there are quite a lot of them heading to the desalination plant and other large business like Caltex. See Pictures of Kurnell  and See the cycle roads on the map (green is decent and grey is busy but ok ) >>

Cronulla to Kurnell – this is the path on the edge of the road External Links: Sutherland Shire Council Cycling Page  Walking tracks at Kurnel near Cronulla

Shark Park to Miranda Shops

Look for the purple line from Shark Park on the water to Caringbah Station (which is terrific) and then the decent path from there past the hospital and onto towards Miranda shops.  Map link here

 

Sutherland to Taren Point

I like to ride this 8km trail if there is a south westerly wind or a southerly. It starts at the station, you ride north along Toronta, turn right into Waratah and follow the shared path the Princess Highway. Head north along the west side to Garnet St. Cross the highway and head down (good slope) Garnet on the road (its all road to the bridge). Turn left on Bellingara at a roundabout that is not quite at the bottom of the street. Turn into Box and then into Belgrave Esplanade. At the Tarrent Point Bowling Club, keep going straight on Curtis till the fence at the end, head up the path and follow the road to the bridge. Cross the bridge on the west side. See the Taren Point trail here >>

See pics of trail from Sutherland to Taren Point

You made it to Captain Cook bridge. Cross on the LHS 

External Links: Sutherland Council Map on this trail here   Extensive safe Woronora cycling starts at Sutherland and you can read about this below

Cronulla to Sutherland

Photos from Cronulla to Sutherland via Gymea This trail is important as it now means that the trip around Sydney is longer and harder and complete compared to the Train Section on the original trip that is on the Sydney Bike Trail post

See also   Can you beat the train from Carringbah to Bondi Junction or Sans Souci to Oatley and more   The big shared path ride in the Woronora area is Sutherland to Riverwood thru Menai (20km one way). There is also a detour in Menai to Barden Ridge. The other great riding spot is Como bridge to Oatley Park. From Sutherland you can also make your way to Loftus or the Captain Cooks bridge on reasonable back roads and paths

Woronora

Cycling from Riverwood Station near the Salt Pan Creek trail to Sutherland Station across the Alford Point Bridge and the Woronora Bridge (20kms with hills one way). Menai is a particularly good area for shared path cycling. The following 3 photos are samples of what you might see.

The trail through Illawong and Padstow Heights to Riverwood follow is undulating and mostly cyclepath See Photo album here and see the epic trail on the map >> Trail notes: Study the map on Google around Riverwood before you start. You need to cross the wooden bridge over Salt Pan creek (you need to walk on the old wooden bridges or risk a fine). Head for Tallawarra Ave, Padstow. Then battle your way through some back streets to the corner of Clancy Street and Davies Rd in Padstow. Davies Rd becomes Alford Point Rd and its all shared and separate cycleway all the way to Sutherland Station. There are some good hills to enjoy and take some water. To complete the loop, take a train to Wolli Station and then to either Sutherland Station or Narawee or Riverwood. If you come from Salt Pan Creek and end up at Sutherland and like the train, head down to the Como Railway Bridge and Oatley ParkBardon Ridge to Illawong Bardon Ridge is good because its pretty flat all the way to Menai then Bangor Shopping Center and to the beginning of the hill down to Illawong. The other good thing about Bardon Ridge is that it has a very modern pump track to exhaust the teenagers. Here are the pictures of the ride from Menai.  See trail on map here >>See photos here

Como to Woronora Township This way is all roads to Woronora and steep.  OK on a Sunday.  30 second video

 

Loftus

A safe way to get to Loftus Oval from Sutherland Station is to ride through the cemetery and out the gate at the southern end. Then follow the back road down to the station. To get to Loftus fire tracks, cross the railway at the station and go down behind the Tram Station. Cross the highway using the bike verge and then look for a mtb path in the bush to the left. Head right from there to get to the fire tracks. Ride the fire tracks first to get your bearings before diving into the single tracks. Maybe ask the mtb riders you see which are the best. Watch out for other riders and if you are going uphill, let the downhiller go past. Distance: 9km See the connection to the Loftus fire trails >> Search Instagram and Facebook for biketrail.info © 2020 https://cyclesydney.wiki/2018/09/10/the-gates-to-the-woronora-pipeline/ Two Other Stories from the area follow ebikerdiary.com/woronora-dam/Loftus MTB Area   Search Instagram and Facebook for CycleSydney.wiki