Epilogue

Thursday July 16, 2009, 4 km (2 miles) - Total so far: 1,013 km (629 miles)

We ended up going back to Melbourne the next day on the 3pm bus. It took 17 hrs and was probably the least comfortable travel experience I've ever had! I was mightily impressed by those lucky few who managed to get to sleep.

I've already slotted back into 'normal life', getting ready for the start of university in two days. Bike touring is definitely on my mind though. Two weeks wasn't very long at all, and I've become very excited about my plan to ride up through Asia and around Europe (possibly with a few flights in there to cut out the politically unstable parts). It's still a few years off, but in the mean time I'd like to see a lot more of Australia and probably New Zealand. The other guys seem keen too, so hopefully we can make it a tradition of getting away for a few weeks every uni holidays.

I'm going to have to do something about my touring set up though. I've become very frustrated with my pannier rack breaking and ruining things for me. It's very tempting to give up on panniers completely and purchase a bike trailer. James and Jono had no problems at all with their trailers and they were able to take at least as much stuff than me while seemingly being less affected by the weight they were carrying. On the other hand, I have invested in top of the line panniers (Ortlieb), so it does make sense to continue using them. Maybe I just need to buy a really good rack. The braze ons on my mountain bike are basically destroyed though, so I'm going to need to get someone to retap the thread for me so that a rack can actually stay on without having to go through the derailleur hanger.

Day twelve: Mittagong to Sydney

Thursday July 16, 2009, 150 km (93 miles) - Total so far: 1,013 km (629 miles)

With the elevation profile showing a downhill route all the way to Sydney, there were no complaints when I woke everyone up at 5:30 AM for a 7:30 departure. For the first 70km to Campbelltown, it was everything we'd hoped for. Whoosh, we sped down the Hume, averaging something ridiculous like 28kph.

Things did level out a bit after Campbelltown, but before we rode any further, we had a delicious and very cheap lunch at a Lebonese bakery. The $1.40 oregano pizza was absolutely divine with half an avocado spread on top (I bought two).

Our maps ran out a little bit past Mittagong, and unfortunately that meant we were stuck at the mercy of the highway direction signs. This meant that we had to make a horrible detour when we encountered a 'no bikes' sign on the overpass that would have connected us to the M4 motorway leading to Sydney. I really did not understand the logic of it considering that bikes were actually allowed on the motorway itself. We ended up having to ride an extra 6km in the other direction until we could get off and ride up an exit ramp that took us to the correct side of the M4. Quite annoyed by this, we had a stop at Macdonalds before tackling the remainder of the ride into Sydney.

For twenty km, we rode down the M4, getting heart breakingly close to Sydney before another sign summarily kicked us off. Matt M was all for ignoring the signs, but after my tangles with police for doing exactly that in Spain, I wasn't keen to try our luck and followed the directions to take the bike path. The path wasn't all that great with far too many crossings at busy roads where we had to wait ages for the traffic to clear, but I still would have preferred to stay on it rather than ride down Parramatta rd as Matt M convinced us to do. It was awful. The road was barely wide enough for three lanes of busy traffic, let alone a bike lane, so we were stuck in the mix of it with cars whizzing past with just centimetres to spare. To top it off, the road was very hilly and obviously hadn't been maintained very well.

I hadn't had enough to drink and was getting quite whoozy, having to really concentrate hard to avoid making an error of judgement that could result in me getting mown down and I really just wanted it to be over. When we got to the CBD things got even more hectic as we struggled to work out exactly how to the Opera house. Sydney was far too busy for my liking with an incredible amount of traffic both in cars and on foot.

Eventually we did get there and got some nice British tourists to take this snap in front of the opera house (which I must point out is far more yellow than I expected)

Rating: (0)

I was feeling utterly drained and got separated from the guys at one stage as we tried to find a tourist information centre. Luckily I still had a bit of charge left in my mobile phone and found them again before we made our way down George street on foot (which wasn't a pleasant experience for us or for the crowds of pedestrians) and into a youth hostel.

After digging into (some would say 'stealing and eating') two tins of home brand baked beans left in the room, I felt a lot better and enjoyed our celebratory dinner (well kind of, it was fairly mediocre food) and drinks at a nearby Chinese restaurant. I nearly fell asleep at a quiet drinks session that followed, but somehow regained enough energy to go for an exploratory tour of Kings cross and Oxford street with James while the others slept (losers:P).

Day eleven: Goulburn to Mittagong

Wednesday July 15, 2009, 92 km (57 miles) - Total so far: 859 km (534 miles)

This was probably the best day of the whole tour. We decided to ride on the Hume highway to make it easier to negotiate the Dividing range and discovered that contrary to what people had warned us, the Hume is actually quite nice to ride on. The road has a massive shoulder so you never feel in danger of being hit by the passing traffic, and there are trees the whole way, which creates a bit of a wind tunnel effect. Luckily for us, the wind was blowing towards Sydney, so we got a massive boost. I had it better than anyone else with the massive extra cross sectional area from my panniers, so for once I found myself beating everyone up the climbs!

It was feeling so good that that when we went past the '160km til Sydney' marker, I started very optimistically thinking that we could make it that night. Surprisingly, almost everyone else supported the idea, even though it would have meant riding until at least 10pm. In hindsight, Jono's flat out refusal to go any further when we got to our planned stop in Mittagong was a very wise move. We finished still feeling elated without having endangered our lives or smashed up our legs going further than we needed to.

Day ten: Getting the bike fixed in Goulburn

Tuesday July 14, 2009, 5 km (3 miles) - Total so far: 767 km (477 miles)

I woke up still in quite a lot of pain having dark thoughts about getting my bike fixed but still being unable to ride on to Sydney. Before that could happen I needed to actually get my bike fixed though, so I dragged myself out of bed and scouted around for a decent bike shop. 'The Greengrocer' (which was actually a combination greengrocer-bike shop) had been recommended to me by the motel manager, so I went and spoke to the mechanic there. He had a replacement derailleur hanger, so I wheeled my bike up, quite hopeful that everything could be fixed.

It took a while, but after he put a new derailleur in and put the bike back together, things were looking rosy again. In fact the bike rode better than ever. I guess it was just a $140 lesson to take better care of my bike (he agreed that the incident was probably due to the dry chain).

For the rest of the day, I mooched around, eating junk food and using the free internet at the tourist info office, while still feeling very unwell. The guys made it into town at about 4pm and I rode up to meet them at the caravan park. I was quite relieved to find that cycling didn't give me any pain. It sounded like they'd had quite a trouble free ride despite leaving very late without my nagging to get them going:P

Day nine: Cootamundra to Harden: Disaster strikes

Monday July 13, 2009, 38 km (24 miles) - Total so far: 762 km (474 miles)

Much refreshed after the rest day, I felt ready to have a big day and was looking forward to getting all the way to Yass. I obviously wasn't fully recovered though because as usual I found it hard to keep up at the start. Things did seem to improve after we hit the hills though, and the descents which followed made for a fun ride at a decent pace.

I couldn't help noticing though that my chain was squeaking quite a lot. It had rained the previous night and the little lube that was on my chain to start off with (hadn't lubed it in about 500k) had obviously been washed off. I wasn't too concerned though, so it came as quite a surprise when I switched down a chain ring to go up a hill and my derailleur had what I will euphemistically call a 'hissy fit'..Things went crunch in a very, very unpleasing way. Close inspection revealed that my derailleur had managed to force its way into my spokes, bending a few in the process and snapping the derailleur hanger in half. In short, my bike wasn't going anywhere fast. We might possibly have been able to turn it into a single speed and fix the pannier rack on with wire (it had been attached to the derailleur hanger but I'm not 100% sure that this contributed to the problem), but I didn't really trust anyone to do this correctly; didn't think I'd be able to ride all the way to Goulburn (150k with hills) which is where the next bike shop was; and in any case didn't want to hold up the group again after the protracted delay in Benella when my pannier rack broke for the first time.

So with the help of the guys who still had working bikes, I packed my bike into a box and booked myself a seat on the train to Goulburn. An old guy by the name of Nick Rawlin (a christian name passed down for generations in his family for some reason) had come over earlier to see what had happened, and he turned out to be both very helpful and a rather interesting fellow. While he drove up to the station with my stuff; helped me drag it up to the platform and then waited with me until the train came, I learnt a bit about his rather amazing cycling career.

He'd been riding all his life (79 years old now) and was still racing until 8 years ago when he broke his collarbone in a nasty crash. He still rides about 50km every day and is incredibly fit. Over the years, he's cycled all over Australia, having crossed the Nullarbor plain five times (and he was talking about doing it again at the end of the year). I was astonished to hear that he'd often forego sleep completely in order to get home faster. On one occasion, he raced another man back from somewhere in Qld, 1030km away. He did it in three days and did not get a wink the whole time (the other guy finished 12 hours behind and he cheated! drafting off his support vehicles for a good 600km). A great many age group records are in his name, including the record for the most distance travelled in 24hr: 560km!

Off the bike as well, he excelled at feats of endurance. He used to work at a flour mill before the days of conveyor belts, and one day managed to haul 4552 bags of wheat, each weighing 87kg. This was and still is (they don't lift the bags by hand anymore for good reason!) a record and let me tell you that Nick is not a big man by any standards - probably 1.60m.

I was deeply impressed by his achievements and ended up in a much lighter mood than I had been after the catastrophic failure of my bike. He helped me lift the stuff on to the train (I didn't feel so concerned about stressing his apparently frail body after hearing the wheat hauling story), and then I bade him goodbye, promising to write him a letter when I got home.

It was a pleasant train ride to Goulburn. The tracks passed through some really beautiful scenery that really changed my perspective of Australia as a place to visit. In the past, I hadn't really regarded the Australian landscape as a particularly aesthetically pleasing one, but on that afternoon, with the sun dipped at just the right angle to illuminate those rolling hills, brooks and gum trees in the most favourable way possible, I had to admit that it really was a gorgeous part of the world. As the other guys cycled along, they later reported to me that they were having a similar experience. It is definitely a place I'd like to visit again.

I felt a bit disconcerted when I got off in Goulburn, having no way to move my voluminous gear around and no idea where I was going to stay that night. A quick scouting trip revealed two supermarket trolleys, and thus my first problem was solved, and a quick conversation with the station master revealed that there were a number of motels just across the road. I managed to convince the manager of the closest motel to give me a $15 discount on the room (the pub next door was advertising $50 rooms and I told him I couldn't afford any more), so I was all set for the night.

[not for the squeamish]
The two Matts and I were planning on running in the Hunter Valley half marathon when we got to Sydney, so I decided to go for a long run that night. It turned out to be a very bad idea. I had obviously eaten far too much in the previous 24hrs and hadn't cleared it out of my system, because I had to make a bee line for the public toilets twice. By the end of the run, I could hardly walk from the pain in my abdomen and when I finally got back to my motel room I was in severe pain and had some kind of fever, which had me wearing all of my jumpers and jackets, sleeping with the heavy bed covers over my sleeping bag with the heater on full blast. It was a very unpleasant night.
[/not for the squeamish]

Day eight: Rest day in Cootamundra

Sunday July 12, 2009

We decided to take one of our three allotted rest days in Cootamundra so that James wouldn't end up finishing the ride in a hospital bed. It was a wise decision, and I was definitely in need of a recovery day too. I went for a few walks around town, but mostly just stayed in the cabin and watched TV and ate.

Anand and the two Matts went to a local rugby match and claim to have enjoyed the experience. I assume they're lying to make themselves feel better about having wasted $7 each:P

Day seven: Junee to Cootamundra

Saturday July 11, 2009, 73 km (45 miles) - Total so far: 724 km (450 miles)

I managed to sleep well that night, but James had a terrible experience, unable to sleep with a raging fever that had him open the windows to let in the sub zero air outside. We were all quite worried about his condition especially as he'd gotten pneumonia not too long ago when he'd pushed his body a bit too far. After another lazy breakfast and slow packing up period, I went with him to the chemist, where he bought some powerful decongestants/anti flu meds that would hopefully get him through the next few days.

As if sensing our collective vulnerability, the weather gods once again punished us with a strong head wind. To top it off, the route for today had a decidedly uphill bent to it, and I struggled to keep up with the others, especially Jono who was obviously going for King of the Mountains points (and riding in the big chain ring the whole time too!):P

We stopped at Bethungra for a lunch break at the only shop, which everyone agreed was both overpriced and annoyingly lacking in amenities such as toilets and bins. It was pleasing to hear though that we'd conquered the worst of the hills and would have a significant stretch of downhill to enjoy as we made our way to Cootamundra.

Unfortunately going down one of the descents, we had our first stack of the tour. James went over a road mounted reflector at a bad angle and went down in agonising slow motion just in front of me. Luckily I managed to avoid riding over the top of him (that would have resulted in some pretty serious injuries!), but he was in a bad way, having gashed the palms of his hands quite seriously. Our words of helpful advice were understandably pushed away as he performed the hand jerking dance of a man in shock:P A number of cars stopped to see if they could help (something I found very endearing after some very different experiences in Spain), including a doctor on her way to Queensland, who did a far better job than we would have done in bandaging him up.

In light of the injury and his fragile health, we decided to call it a very early day and stop at Cootamundra. I urged the group to go ahead while I rode the 10km into town very slowly and in significant discomfort, wishing that I'd stopped at the rest area just past the crash site. Obviously I hadn't learned much from my previous attempt to lighten my 1kg load of prunes! (They were $2 for a bag and I couldn't bear to throw them out:P)

After liberating myself (what a relief!), I met up with the others at the information centre. We were trying to find out about accommodation options in the nearby vicinity, but the man behind the counter was incredibly unhelpful. After some time, a much friendlier woman emerged and helped us confirm that Cootamundra would be the best place to stay for the next two nights while James and I recovered.

Somewhat embarrassed by the low daily total, I went out for an afternoon ride with Matt Z back up to the hill where James had crashed. It turned out to be a bad decision because the urge to go hard on the unloaded bike was too great, and I was almost in a coughing fit after 10km.

Day six: Grong Grong to Junee

Friday July 10, 2009, 83 km (51 miles) - Total so far: 651 km (405 miles)

With the fire in the courtyard pouring smoke down my throat all night, I woke up with a nasty cough, feeling shocking. I made a bit of an effort to have breakfast and get my stuff packed, but ended up slinking back into bed to stay warm. This ended up lasting for longer than was ideal because it turned out that my attempts to wake up the others had not been as successful as I thought:P James and Anand were sound asleep while everyone else had had breakfast and gotten themselves ready. A more vigorous wake up call was performed by Matt M and at 10.30, we finally got out of the hotel.

I knew I'd slow the group down if I rode my bike, so I did a swap with Matt Z, and James, who wasn't feeling great either, did the same with Anand. Even with the lighter load, it was still a bit of a struggle against a headwind. This was commented on by a passing train driver, who yelled a warning to watch out for police who might be tempted to book us for speeding:P

After slogging it out for a few hours, we got to Junee. I kind of wanted to keep on riding to keep on schedule, but after calling the only hotel at Bethungra to discover that they were full, we decided to make it an easy day and just stay at the Junee caravan park even though it was only 3pm. The managers were very friendly and offered us the use of their garage to ensure that our bikes weren't pinched by the local kids, who sound like they go in for that kind of thing judging by the fact that the caravan park's golf cart had already been stolen four times!

Day five: Urana to Grong Grong

Thursday July 9, 2009, 107 km (66 miles) - Total so far: 569 km (353 miles)

Perhaps I should have slept in the toilet block after all. I felt allright when I woke up, but after breakfast I began to get a rather nasty sore throat, which got so bad I couldn't talk at all when we started riding. To make matters worse, we were stuck with a massive headwind the whole day. The terrain was pretty flat, but with the headwind, it was like riding uphill the whole day. We were averaging 16kph but working as hard as the day before when we rode at 22kph.

By the time we reached our lunch stop at Comundurah at 12pm, we'd only gone about 35km. I got the maps out and soon realised there was no way we were going to make it to our planned destination of Coolamon, which would've involved a 130km day. Indeed we'd be lucky to make it to Narranderah (90k) before dark.

The riding did get a bit better after lunch, when the monotonous wheat fields were replaced with wind sheltering bushland and a rolling hill or two. Everyone was struggling, me especially, and the group fragmented at a time when it would really have been best for us to stick together and fight the wind as a team. That said, the small shoulder meant that it was unsafe to ride two abreast. The trucks roaring past seemed incredibly unsafe. At one point when we'd pulled over to fix Jono's trailer, two trucks powered up the hill, taking up both lanes as one attempted to overtake the other. He just avoided hitting us, and if there had been any other traffic on the road, there would have been lives lost for sure (there was no way he could have seen the road ahead before he'd already pulled level with the other truck, leaving no room to manoeuvre).

It was quite a relief when we got to Narrenderah and off the awful Newell Highway. There was a caravan park in town, but I was keen to keep going if there was anywhere we could get to before darkness. The lady at the tourism office suggested Grong Grong, which was 22k up the road and which had a hotel we could stay at. Everyone agreed to keep going, so we did a quick supermarket shop and then gunned it for an hour, enjoying the lack of the headwind which had finally died off.

The hotel was a bit of a dump, but it was fairly cheap and felt like an authentic bush pub with a clientele of farmers and labourers who gave us tips on which route to take. Unfortunately for my lungs, there was a fire in the courtyard, which sent smoke into my room all night, with the result that I developed a nasty cough.

Day four: Wangaratta to Urana

Wednesday July 8, 2009, 128 km (79 miles) - Total so far: 462 km (287 miles)

I was up early for a pre-arranged interval training session with Justin and Matt Z around the local athletics track in sub-zero temperatures. The aim was to leave early, so by the time we got back, the others were up and porridge and coffee were being served: a perfect start to the day. Sharon and Justin just kept up the generosity, Justin arranging to post my useless tent and a pair of shoes (both left-footed, doh!) that I'd brought for Matt Z, back home for me and Sharon offering to lead us to the NSW border where there was apparently a tricky turn.

We left at 8:30 - a record for us, but Justin still thought we'd lagged around a bit:P Sharon paced us along perfectly, getting us to Corowa in excellent time. We had an early lunch break there that ended up stretching out for quite a while and I felt bad for making her wait so long, but she didn't seem to mind. After the turnoff to Urana, Sharon turned back with our sincerest thanks and we were on our own. The road was very flat, and it was quite a nice ride, but the sheer monotony of the wheat fields, which were all we could see in every direction, began to get to us, and we struggled to stay focused.

At one point, the lane markers vanished and seeing as we hadn't seen a car in hours, we decided to have some fun and ride six-abreast. Heehee.

Rating: (0)

Finally, after just under 6hrs, we made it to Urana, which was actually a bigger town than I was expecting. Google maps hadn't shown any real accommodation there, but it turned out to have a caravan park there. Score!

We set up camp, and then first went to the supermarket for expensive provisions and then for expensive beers at the only pub, which had a rather depressing interior and clientele. As we cooked dinner at the barbecue area of the 'aquatic centre' (consisting of a lake with no water), the slightly inebriated proprietoress of the caravan park, Marion ('Robin's girlfriend') approached with a CD player and a CD produced to commemorate Urana's recent 150th year anniversary. For a good 45 minutes we were regaled with stories about Urana's past and given an insight into the town Marion wanted Urana to become (a haven for disabled children who would come to see the somehow-replenished lake and vivid shearing/droving demonstrations). She charged us with the responsibility of spreading the word about Urana in all of our future university assignments ('Don't you dare forget Urana when you become academics!').

Before she left, she offered to set up the toilet block with a heater for us to sleep in. Only James was game enough to brave the (very well disguised but still present) toilet aroma despite the -2C night.

Day three: Shepparton to Wangaratta

Tuesday July 7, 2009, 107 km (67 miles) - Total so far: 334 km (208 miles)

I slept quite poorly in the small Woolworths tent but managed to drag myself and the others up at a reasonable hour. James and I ate breakfast together at the caravan park while the others went to Maccers for coffee, and in hindsight, we both made errors of judgement. James burnt his tongue on some hot porridge and I, eager to use up all of my bananas, cooked myself a mash of bananas, dates and prunes, that would come back to haunt me.

Braving the chilly air, we packed up our tents and hit the road. It was very pleasant with the sun shining benevolently down on us and the little traffic there was sharing the road very amicably. As we rode past a farm, this cute little pony came sprinting towards us, seemingly intent on jumping the fence and bowling us over in its excitement. Luckily for all of us, it stopped just shy of the fence, and while we gave its neck a pat, the owner came out and had a friendly chat. This incident epitomised country life for me. People were actually interested in what we were doing (though they were all disappointed to hear we weren't raising money for a charity or anything like that), and were eager to talk about it and offer us help.

Sadly, the enjoyable atmosphere was shattered when the bolt connecting my pannier rack to the frame sheared off for about the seventh time. I was very annoyed and concerned, because the fix up job I did with wire really didn't look that stable. We rode on to Benella, hoping there would be a bike shop there. It was difficult to find, but there was one. The grumpy, old guy behind the counter didn't seem very confident at all that he could fix it, but eventually managed to get a new pannier rack to attach to the bike, complaining all the time about these men invading his bike shop and scaring the customers away (yeah right). By the time it was all fixed, it was 4.30pm and we still had 40km to go.

There was a tail wind behind us, but we were still a good 20k away from Wangaratta when it became necessary to turn our lights on. I further delayed us with a rush for the rest rooms from what I shall politely call a 'fibre overload' incident. Needless to say, the others were a little bit miffed and talk of beer-reparations was rife (I bought a six pack and a round of icypoles the next day:P). Still, it wasn't all bad, because about 20 minutes later, we met up with Justin, whose house we were going to be staying at that night.

Matt Morris and I only knew him vaguely from the running website coolrunning.com.au but he turned out to be the most welcoming, generous and friendly person any of us had ever met. He and his wife Sharon gave us the run of the house and served us a fantastic dinner of pasta bake and salad with golden syrup dumplings for dessert. Over dinner, he and Sharon awed us with their tales of ultra-running (Justin ran 182km in 24hrs two weeks before we arrived and Sharon is likely to be selected for the national Ultra running squad) and cycling (Sharon had just completed a 1500k ride up to Qld in 7 days!).

It was exactly the kind of experience we needed to forget what hadn't been the best of days.

Day two: Seymour to Shepparton

Monday July 6, 2009, 92 km (57 miles) - Total so far: 227 km (141 miles)

Invigorated by my sleep in my 'tent', I rose early and went for a (heckle-free) run. The others were much slower to emerge from their sleeping bags, and it was past 10AM by the time we headed off. Still, we had a much easier day ahead of us, so it didn't particularly matter. The road was flat, the weather was nice and everything went well. There was a bit of an issue at about the 40k mark when Anand and Jono took off in a sprint just as I was starting to flag, meaning that the group, and the wind block it represented, disintegrated. When I caught up, I was hot, both from the exertion and from my righteous anger (:P) and cooled off by eating 8 oranges and an avocado (we'd passed a sign for the fruit fly exclusion zone saying 'Eat it or bin it' and I chose the former option:P).

Feeling rather full, I followed behind as we rode all together at a much more manageable pace. I say manageable, but we still averaged just under 25kph for the day, which in my touring experience is INCREDIBLE! The best I'd ever done in Spain was around 19.5kph and that was with a 50km stretch of downhill and a tailwind. I was very impressed and I think everyone else was too. That and relieved that it hadn't been anywhere near as hard as the first day.

The early finish meant we still had heaps of daylight left..so Matt Z and I headed off for the artificial light of the supermarket, while the others went to a dingey pub to watch the footy:P

Dinner that night was epic, with 2.5kg of stir fry vegetables consumed by Matt Z and I alone.

Day one: Melbourne to Seymour

Sunday July 5, 2009, 135 km (84 miles) - Total so far: 135 km (84 miles)

The big day had finally come. After weeks of planning and organising, we were finally ready to leave the familiar roads of Melbourne for the (not so) great unknown of country Victoria, NSW and that behemoth of Australian cities, which despite being bigger than our humble town, could not possibly come close to comparing (but we had to visit just to check): Sydney.

I'd set a ridiculously early rendevouz time at my house and was somewhat relieved that the two guys (James and Matt Z) who were meant to be meeting me at 6:20 AM were not there at the appointed hour, because I was running late as always:P I'd left the packing until the night before and hadn't gotten much sleep at all, so I did my best to throw things into my pannier bags and hoped that I hadn't forgotten anything. The other guys seemed better prepared, except for Matt Z who had only the night before discovered that his bike did not have the requisite braze-ons to accommodate the pannier rack he'd purchased. We ended up having to take most of his gear for him, which wasn't optimal, but what-can-ya-do?

The sun was just starting to rise when we set off and the traffic was minimal, so the ride into the city was quite nice. We did go quite slowly, however, and I think that was mainly because of me. I'd forgotten what it feels like to ride with fully loaded panniers!

Having met Jonathan just down the road and Anand on the bike path, the group was almost together, save for Matt Morris, who was dragged into the peloton after a mandatory group shot at Fed Square in the city:

Rating: (0)

Spirits were high as we headed for Plenty rd, eager to get out of the city. So eager was Jono that he managed to get his (two-wheeled) trailer to do a wheelie as he accelerated round a corner. No harm was done, but it looked pretty cool! Matt Morris was the first casualty of the day and headed the customary 'shout for flatting out' beer tally list after getting a flat (although further inspection revealed no actual puncture, just a twisted tube) on the glass riddled streets of Northcote and then having a frayed brake cable snap in the repair process. Luckily there was a bike shop nearby and while half the group attempted to fit a new cable, I sat on a bench and ate my snacks:P 'Too many mechanics spoil the oil cloth' after all;)

The little delay cost us about half an hour, but we set good time after that and were soon out of the trendy inner suburbs and into the McMansion/Bogan zone. I was chastised for riding off the back by a group of five rat-tailed sk8er-bois who high fived everyone else and then mooned me, the little scum bags!

A little way before Whittlesea, we saw a sign for cheap apples and made a spur of the moment decision to pick some up. As far as riding food goes, it's probably not ideal, but my rumbling tummy appreciated the freshly picked Pink Lady apples and pears. Overhead, the sky started to rumble, and it was on with the jackets as we were treated with a sprinkling of rain. It didn't last very long thankfully, but we were careful to avoid any discussion of the weather after that, as there was a shared feeling that a comment along the lines of 'Gee the weather is fantastic today' may have aroused the wrath of the gods.

The testing phase of the day began near Wandong when we were met by a series of climbs. On a road bike they're nothing to worry about, but with our bikes/trailers loaded down we found it hard going and I found myself eyeing off the day's elevation profile a bit too often hoping for the large spike to somehow disappear off the page. It wasn't to be, however, we did find consolation in a food stop at Wandong where we were first berated by the fish and ship owner for leaning our bikes against her glass shop window and then scoffed at by cigarette smoking tweens:P

Just as we left the town, the heavens really opened up and I got quite soaked before I had a chance to put my jacket on. No sooner had I done so when the rain stopped and more hills appeared, causing me to sweat profusely beneath my suddenly too thick clothing. One can hardly complain about sun though and together with a deserted road and lovely bush scenery, it made for very picturesque riding.

We were covering ground at a good rate, but the short day was threatening to end, and our google maps-derived directions had led us to a dead end, so we decided to bite the bullet and get off the scenic road and onto the roar of the Hume highway. It was loud, nasty and brutish (sorry Hobbs), but it led us in the right direction, and the din of trucks abusing their compression brakes really got us moving fast. Just as darkness was beginning to descend, we made the turn off to Seymour and thus completed the day's ride.

Searching for accommodation, we first tried A CErtain caravan park, whose name I will not mention ( ;-) ) and whose proprietors appeared much more interested in the puffs of smoke inside their office than in procuring our custom. The second place we tried was much better and the manageress went to great lengths to make sure we were comfortable. After locking our bikes to her daughter's car port, we began to set up camp and it was at this point I discovered that my rushed packing process had resulted in my leaving something rather important behind: the tent poles....:S Doh! Displaying great ingenuity (I thought), I managed to rig up a structure that somewhat resembled a tent, but whose water-resistant properties were likely non-existent.

Rating: (0)

Matt Z (who was to share the tent) was amazingly non-plussed, but when the opportunity presented itself to buy another tent (at Woolworths of all places), he declined the invitation to overnight in my humble abode. I was too stubborn to join him and despite the significant risk of waking up in a swimming pool, managed to have a decent night's sleep.

Further comedy that night was provided by the following events:
- James basically passing out from exhaustion as soon as he'd set up the tent
- Local lads heckling Matt Z and I when we went for a run in our cycling knicks:
"Youse trainin for footy or somethin?"
- yeah
"Then what's all that spandex for? I just run naked"
- James waking up and attempting to consume 3L worth of powdered milk in one sitting:P

Sydney or Bust!

I had my last exam for the semester today. Such a load off my plate (Quentin Cassidy would love that mixed metaphor)! The next three weeks will hopefully involve very little mental stimulation:P

I promised a write up of the Melbourne to Sydney trip, so here we go:

Sydney or bust:

The motto on our custom jerseys, though now inaccurate, is a good summary of what we're doing:
' 1271km (actually closer to 1100k)
15 days (actually 11)
5 guys (actually 6)
1 mission'

This Saturday,

Jonno

Matt Morris


Myself (Jeremy)


Anand


James

and Matt Z (no pics)

will begin our journey. Loaded down with panniers, trailers, backpacks and overconfidence, we'll escape Melbourne and take the backroads all the way up to Sydney. We'll be living it rough, riding all day and then camping (mostly at caravan parks, but there is one night in Urana where we'll have to stealth camp:P) by night. The route will be mostly flat, but as we get close to Canberra, we'll have to deal with some serious hills.


View Larger Map



Day by day breakdown:
Day 1: Melb to Seymour (flat): 105k = 5.8hrs
Stay at Goulburn river caravan park - 70 Trevan st Seymour

Day 2: Seymour to Shepparton (flat): 85k = 4.7hrs
Stay at Goulburn Valley Motor village - 8047 Goulburn Valley Highway, Shepparton VIC

Day 3: Seymour to Wangaratta (flat): 97k = 5.38hrs
Stay at Justin's house

Day 4: Wang to Urana (stealth camping: flat): 133k = 7.38hrs (leave early that day:P)
Stealth camping

Day 5: Urana to Coolamon (flat): 133k = 7.38hrs (same)
Stay at Coolamon Caravan Park - Bruce St, Coolamon New South Wales 2701

Day 6: Coolamon to Cootamundra (hilly): 97k = 7hrs (^)
Stay at Cootamundra Caravan Park - 55 Mackay St, Cootamundra

Day 7: Coot to Binalong (hilly): 69k = 5hrs
Either stealth camp or stay at a motel (Binalong hotel)

Day 8: Binalong to Canberra (hilly): 85k = 6hrs
Canberra carotel caravan park - Zelling Street Watson ACT

Day 9: Canberra to Goulburn (hilly): 94k = 6.64hrs

Governer's hill caravan park - Sydney Rd, Goulburn

Day 10: Goulburn to Mittagong (up and down): 117k = 7.5hrs
Stay at Mittagong Caravan park

Day 11: Mittagong to Sydney (downhill all the way!): 112k = 7hrs
Stay at Backpackers Central Youth Hostel or Sheralee Caravan Park Rockdale

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It's going to be tough, no doubt about it. We have to get to Sydney by the 18th so Anand can catch his flight back, so that means we can only really take two rest days. One will be in Canberra and the other will kind of be for emergencies.

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My leg's still bothering me, though this time it's my left one. I think it might just have something to do with the height of my seat on my bikes. Matt Z pointed out that it was very low on my road bike during a ride on Saturday and indeed after we raised it, my leg felt a lot better. Riding my crappy commuter to uni today though, I was getting pain behind my left knee and I bet it was because the saddle was fairly low.

I'm really feeling in limbo at the moment. It's a fairly minor injury, but I want to get it fixed up so that I can feel confident about being able to put in some hard weeks without having to take multiple days off afterwards. I've got an appointment with the physio tomorrow, so I'll see what he says. My current thinking is to take the rest of the week off and then shoot for 70kpw during the tour. 5k morning and night shouldn't stress the legs too much I hope. He'll presumably give me some exercises/stretches to do as well.