Unashamedly Christian

This Sunday (well the one past) my dad suggested that we go to the pines for a bike ride and invite Joshua to come – sounds cool! And that’s just what we did.

Here we are before heading out on the ride. Left to right: me, Joshua and my dad

The pines are about 35-40km from where we live, and are a pine forest plantation of – I’m guessing – 50,000+ hectares. There’s a river with a large waterfall and swimming hole going through it too, so in summer it’s great fun swimming there (though I have swum there in winter, but that’s another story). We go riding on the logging tracks – which are great as they have water bars (or rollovers) that we get a bit of air on going over on the bikes. This time we did a 7km ride that started with a really steep climb for 1km then dropped down through a tunnel of dense pine trees, followed by a few km’s of easy riding (well almost easy ) then another down hill run with lots of ruts. We then came out to the main road where we left my dad (he had a walk with my mother who also came along), after riding down the road for a few hundred meters, we went down track 300, a great track that’s mostly downhill, and has lots of water bars! At the end of that track is the waterfall where we were meeting my parents (they were driving in from another track). While waiting for them to turn up we were riding around on the large expanse of rocks that are in the river – lots of rock slabs to drop off of! I had a bit of a crash here too – was going over a ledge, and miss-judged my peddle stroke, next thing I found my self going over the handlebars! Wasn’t really hurt (praise God!), just a bit sore – though it gave Joshua a laugh, as normally he’s the one who crashes…

By this time it was starting to get dark and cold, and my parents hadn’t turned up yet. So Joshua and I had the bright idea of lighting a fire. I had a flint/magnesium stick in my camelbak, so we tried to build a fire – if you’ve ever used a flint stick to light a fire in the cold you’ll know what I mean by “try,” and if you haven’t, you should try it! On the 4th attempt – on the third attempt my parents turned up – we had a fire going! Now we could relax around a warm fire while we ate – nice!

Long exposure of us sitting around the fire singing.

After eating we sang a few songs and praised God for the amazing beauty that was all around us – Psalm 148 sums it up really well: “Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights. Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created. He hath also established them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass. Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word: Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl: Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth: Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children: Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven. He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the LORD.”

All up it was lots of fun! Joshua and I had a really good time – he’s a great friend! And it was good to have my parents company too!