Mike O'Connor
For many cyclists, exploring a new city means following a familiar loop or ticking off a well-known climb. But Sydney-based YouTuber Josh Kwan has come up with a different way to see the city by bike: a cycling scavenger hunt involving 15 destinations, 15 stamps and a specially designed passport.
The Sydney Cycling Scavenger Hunt sends riders across Sydney, with locations divided into three categories: Parks, Cycleways and Destinations.
The Parks category includes Centennial Park, Lane Cove National Park, Sydney Olympic Park, Parramatta Park and Western Sydney Parklands. The Cycleways include the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney Gateway, Greenway, M7 Cycleway and M12 Cycleway, while the Destinations category takes riders to La Perouse, North Head, Bobbin Head, Bundeena and Razorback.
The objective is simple: ride to each location, find the stamp and add it to your passport.
For Kwan, the idea came partly from the stamp-collecting culture he encountered in Japan and Korea, as well as an alleycat-style scavenger hunt he took part in about a year ago.
“I saw these more community orientated cycling events and wished there was more of them to do in Sydney,” he says. “After questioning why there wasn’t as many of them to do here locally I realised I could be the person organising one myself.”
Ride it your way
Rather than prescribing a single route or turning it into a conventional cycling challenge, Kwan deliberately made the scavenger hunt flexible.
“You didn’t need to ride a road bike, have lycra or be able to ride hundreds of kilometres,” he says.
Riders can create their own routes and decide how difficult they want to make the challenge. There is no time limit and no requirement to complete all 15 locations in one go.
“My overarching goal was to get people to explore new places,” says Kwan.
The locations themselves came from Kwan’s own experiences riding around Sydney. He picked places he considers personal favourites or destinations he would recommend to someone discovering the city for the first time.
“There’s some locations on there which are definitely more challenging to get to, but some of the best places to ride are the ones which aren’t the easiest to cycle to either,” he says.
Once he had plotted his favourites on a map, he tweaked the locations to create a better spread across the city.
No entry fee, no finish line
Taking part is deliberately straightforward. Riders can use the online guide to find each location and its instructions, then simply turn up with something to collect the stamps in.
Kwan sells an official Sydney Cycling Passport to support the project, but there is no requirement to buy one. He has also made the passport design available as a free download so riders can print and make their own.
“I’ve seen a few people make their own scrapbooks which I absolutely love,” he says.
There is also no prescribed starting point. Riders can leave from home, drive to a meeting point and begin there, or incorporate the stamps into their normal rides.
For Kwan, the scavenger hunt is ultimately about giving people another reason to ride.
“Cycling is an incredible sport,” he says. “Over the past six years it has taken me to so many new places. I’ve gone on so many awesome adventures and also made so many friends.”
He hopes the scavenger hunt can help other riders experience some of the same sense of discovery.
“I hope by making this scavenger hunt I can give people an extra reason to get out there, explore new places and make stories of their own.”
The response so far suggests the idea has struck a chord.
Kwan says one rider headed out at almost midnight immediately after discovering the challenge, while others have helped maintain the stamp boxes around the city. Perhaps most importantly, he has seen people collecting stamps with their children and friends.
For something that began with a simple question, why aren’t there more community-focused cycling events in Sydney? The answer has become a city-wide treasure hunt, encouraging riders to explore places they might otherwise never visit.
And there are 15 stamps waiting to be collected.
Mike O’Connor – A keen cyclist, runner and photographer, Mike O’Connor is the Editor of Bicycling Australia. He manages the BA website and social media, and loves promoting the achievements of Australian cyclists.
