You can find it at www.upperhunter.nsw.gov.au under the Sustainable Living Guide, and then Transport.

Yes, a page urging us to “stay fit, focused and firm and help save the world” and to “explore bike paths, cycle groups and ride any blues away.”

A page reminding us that “bicycles are simply the most efficient form of transport” producing “no waste” and improving “our health and wellbeing” and that “if we all used a bike to get to work and visit friends and family or went on cycling holidays instead of road trips, it would have an immediate and profound effect on our fossil fuel use and contribution to climate change” and that “cycling just 10km each way to work once a week instead of driving would save about $926 and 304kg of greenhouse gases each year.”

This is great stuff and music to my ears …

And … to make it all even better and easier to do, did you know that the Upper Hunter Shire

Council has bicycles for hire right now?

Yes there is a new bike hire facility at the Scone Visitor Information and Horse Centre.

Yes here in the Upper Hunter Shire, bicycles are now available for hire seven days a week and are hired out with bicycle helmets (required by law) and hi-vis vests (not required by law but useful for Upper Hunter Shire Council advertising) as well as a free drink bottle and some suggestions where to take your trusty ‘steely steed’ for the duration of your hire time.

So far the hire collection only contains hybrid mountain bike-type bicycles but I am hoping a few upright Dutch bicycles with baskets will be added to the hire facility down the track for potential shopping and picnic trips to complement those ‘chucking-yourself- down-Scone-Mountain’ ones.

This is an enlightened new adventure for our shire, and it is heartening to see that Council recognises the potential this initiative has on so many levels.

For more information on this fabulous project and on how to hire the Council bicycles, do pop into the Scone Visitor Information Centre on the corner of Susan and Kelly Street for a chat or give them a call on (02) 6540 1300 or drop them an email at sconevic@upperhunter.nsw.gov.au .