Colac, Victoria

Set off today to Colac. Not a very famous place but it does have a nice lake and a couple of campsites nearby with water.

It's a hot day but I won't have to do much cycling. Train from Woodend to Sunbury, metro from Sunbury to Albion, cycle through the city to Footscray about 6 moles, then another train to Colac.
(The complicated route is due to rail engineering works.)

I was due to be in Tasmania today but delayed it by a week for a few reasons. I so I will stay in the surf coast corridor for a week.

DAY 21 - WOODEND - MELBOURNE 44.4M

Today's ride into Melbourne was certainly very different from any other on this trip as it was mostly (30 miles) along a freeway - Australia's Motorways, that do allow cyclists.

Generally Freeway riding is straightforward. You go like a bullet along the stopping lane, taking care at intersections (where you are supposed to stop and cross on the slip road rather than taking your life into your hands by going straight on!)

There's also the nice benefit of getting wind draft from the lorries piling past. That and the downhill gradient helped me to 21.0 mph average at the 30 mile mark (when leaving the freeway). That's the quickest I've ever had over a distance.

So in essence, it's a quick ride but uneventful and not that scenic, and in the heat you melt. Today was 35C in the shade, and a lot hotter in the sun, where I was suffering. There's no shade along the freeway.

The worst problem was my 2x1 Litre bottles of squash were like piping hot Beacham's after 3o mins of riding, certainly hotter than body temperature and quite useless to drink! Maybe they sell Thermos bottles for bikes here?

After the freeway the 15 mile ride into the city was a lot slower due to traffic, lights, trams, pedestrians and so on. There are a lot of dangers if you are not used to it, you have to pay attention to the lanes, watch out for getting your wheels stuck in tram lines and pay very close attention to the traffic lights that pop out seemingly everywhere.

I passed through real Kath and Kim territory in the suburbs: Keilor, Essendon, Moonie Ponds, Travancore, Flemington, North Melbourne and finally into the CBD (central business district) and to the main railway station to get back to Woodend, Southern Cross.

All in all it was 44.4 Miles, Average 17.5 mph.

DAY 19 - WOODEND - LANCEFIELD - COBAW 32.4M

I needed a rest day after the Bendigo slog, and relaxed at the MCG watching the boxing day test match between Australia and Pakistan. I definitely took the train to Melbourne, no chance of cycling there!

So it was time to rectify the missing ride I had back on day 4 when mechanical troubles cut short the Lancefield ride.

Lancefield is a small town but was once considered for the capital city of Australia! Canberra won out in the end, but there are still signs of governmental buildings and other clues of Lancefield's illustrious past.

The ride out is quite undulating and there was a severe wind from the side. The route is pretty and tree-lined in most places giving protection from the sun. Going back via Cobaw is a much quieter road and has a steady but shallow climb for the most part. 32.4 Miles later and in 2 hrs 10 I was back in Woodend, at the slow average of 14.8 mph.

DAY 17 - WOODEND - BENDIGO 51.3M

Today I went for what will probably be the longest ride of this trip with a 1-way to Bendigo, which is Victoria's 2nd largest city behind Melbourne, and is a good hotspot for shopping. Making it to Bendigo was one of the aims of this trip, now with this and Mt Macedon out of the way, the only major hurdle remaining is Woodend to Melbourne.

The route was published by a fellow cyclist at bikely.com and appeared to be suitable for road bikes. You can go to Bendigo using the Freeway but this route takes back roads and I thought it would be a lot more interesting. (Besides, on the Freeway you would melt on a hot day like this as there is no tree coverage to give you some much needed shade. Today was 28C in Bendigo).

The first 20 miles was fine and very quick. The scenery reminded me a lot of "Far Cry 2" a computer game set in Africa. If you see the photos and have played the game, you'll understand!

When I got to Metcalfe, the road swung round to the left and there was a turn off to a dirt track on the right. I followed the road to the left up quite a tough hill and at the top, realised I'd left the predefined "track" on the SatNav. Oops! Time to go back and correct. The SatNav (Garmin 60csx) beeps at you to warn you of turnings but sometimes when the turn isn't sharp, you get no warning.

Anyway, the turn I missed was the dirt track. Unfortunately the directions I inherited from Bikely has dirt tracks in it. It didn't look too bad to begin with so I headed down there. Not much choice really as replanning the route is very hard on the portable unit (I can do this on the PC easily enough but never just with the unit).

Things got tougher as the track went on, and it was very remote, no sign of houses or farms. The dirt track went very rough and the severe juddering on the bike (and me) meant only very slow speeds were possible.

Then for some reason, the SatNav stopped giving me instructions on where to go next! I was about halfway to Bendigo in the middle of nowhere.

I should explain that the way I use the SatNav is not quite like when you program a SatNav in a car (which uses routing information). Instead on a bike it is more convenient to use "Tracks" which are really just lots of GPS locations (track points) joined up by lines, overlaid on the map screen so you can follow them to your destination.

The advantage of tracks over routes is that you can follow smaller roads and even off road if you want to. You can design a predefined track that you follow exactly to the destination. Routes tend to favour cars rather than bikes and are more dynamic (most SatNavs can recalculate routes on the fly if you stray off course). Cyclists don't like dynamic routes in case it takes them on a busy road, or along some adversely hilly terrain.

Later on I discovered the Garmin unit has a maximum of 500 track points per track, and I had uploaded one with nearly 1000 points from the PC to the unit, which had decided to truncate the track after 500 points about halfway, exactly where I now was in fact!

It would have been nice to get a warning about something like that before it turned into a major inconvenience (or worse), but at least the SatNav allows you to pan in and out of the map to try and figure out where to go, which was how I proceeded from there.

After a few miles the dirt track turned back into a road, but I was now tired because of the pounding terrain, and had to keep stopping to check where I was and where I should be going. Very very inconvenient.

The remainder of the way into Bendigo was no more difficult than the first half (tarmac section!) but my legs were so heavy it felt much harder.

IN the end I arrived at Bendigo station in 2 hrs 57 mins at an average of 17.3 mph. The distance was 51.3 miles. Meeting my wife and mother in law there I got changed and staggered around the shops, struggling to keep my usual high standards of advice on clothing for my wife!

This was a tough ride but you only get fitter by doing these kinds of rides so I will have another go at Bendigo later to see if I can do any better - And this time, the SatNav track will have only 500 points, and there won't be a dirt track in sight!!

DAY 16 - WOODEND - CARLSRUHE LOOP 16.4M

Merry Christmas to all 1 of my followers, and thank you for reading this!

Today's ride was a repeat of the 1st ride I did, up to Carlsruhe and back.

There is a 21mph Killer wind with gusts of 30mph! Mind you the ride out to Carlsruhe was amazing. The temperature had dropped from 35 and 29C on the last 2 days, to only 16C today. So it won't be such a sizzling Australian Christmas dinner as Clive James described:

It was the usual Australian Christmas dinner, taking place in the middle of the day. Despite the temperature being 100ºF. in the shade, there had been the full panoply of ragingly hot food, topped off with a volcanic plum pudding smothered in scalding custard. My mother had naturally spiced the pudding with sixpences and threepenny bits, called zacs and trays respectively. Grandpa had collected one of these in the esophagus. He gave a protracted, strangled gurgle which for a long time we all took to be the beginning of some anecdote. Then Aunt Dot bounded out of her chair and hit him in the back. By some miracle she did not snap his calcified spine. Coated with black crumbs and custard, the zac streaked out of his mouth like a dum-dum and ricocheted off the casserole.

From "Unreliable Memoirs" by Clive James.

DAY 15 - CYCLE REPAIRS AT CASTLEMAINE

I had a day off today, partly to recover from Mt Macedon yesterday, and partly to sort out an annoying creaking sound that drove me nuts when cycling up Macedon.

I thought it was the bottom bracket this time - I've done over 3000 miles on that bracket in 2.5 years since getting it, and it's coming to the end of its life.

Castlemaine

I was recommended the cycling shop at Castlemaine, a medium sized country town about 30 mins drive away that was important during the gold rush of the 1800's. In fact the town has a very olde worlde feel about it, some of the shop fronts look like they are straight out of the wild west. There's a lot of antique shops and a very large 2nd hand book shop. It has a lot of character and when I have a bit more time I'll return there to look at the gold diggings (and maybe do a bit of panning myself!)

Castlemaine Cycles

It was quite a result to get someone to look at this bike on Christmas Eve (with 1 hour's notice) so all credit to them for doing this. The mechanic, whose name is Bruce (yes), set about on the bike with expert hands while me and my wife chatted to the proprietor about cycling.

He told me all about the local challenging hills and in particular, Mt. Alexander, that I now have to add to my list. He recounted stories of his visit to the Tour de France and it was apparent he's a very keen road and MTB cyclist himself, it was so good to hear someone so enthusiastic.

He swears by the Giant TCR carbon road bikes, pulled one down off the pegs for me to have a look. Quite impressive oversizing on the frame, and the best advantage over my planet-X was the stiffness of the frame (mine is prone to rear brake rub on the climbs).

He also told us about how cycle security just isn't an issue around this area and no-one bothers to lock their bikes (or their cars or houses). However if you go into the city you have to lock up of course.

Meanwhile Bruce was pulling the Planet-X apart by now and had eliminated frame crack, bottom bracket, cranks, loose chainring, saddle, seat post and the main part of the wheel (which had just had new hub cups/bearings). The creaking noises were still there and Bruce was starting to get a little puzzled.

Then Bruce remembered he'd once had a bike with similar symptoms caused by a poor rear wheel skewer. So they greased that up and sent me off on a test ride up the hill. Bingo! Everything's good. I would never have guessed it was the skewer. One year's free Karma to Bruce!

So that's another good bike shop on the list, thanks Castlemaine Cycles.

DAY 14 - MT MACEDON CONQUERED! 18.2M

Today I made it to the top of Mt Macedon, which was a major personal goal for this trip.

The temperature was 35C and stifling, which made it all the more challenging. I wasn't trying to do it quickly - In fact averaged 8.5 mph going up - It was a matter of survival to hang in there and make it to the top.

At the top there's a giant cross commemorating the fallen Australians from World War I, next to which I am sitting.


The view from the top looking South East - Melbourne's tall buildings can just be seen in the far right, 45 miles away!


Approaching from the North is the easier climb of the 2 possible ways, a long but steady climb that maxes at around 10%. There's some nasty hook turns with a horrific gradient on the inside. Overall the ascent is 450m from the bottom to the top. At the top the altitude is 1001m above sea level.



So this is much bigger than any hill I have tried to ride before, and the height above sea level is way more than we get in the South of England.

At the top I made a short video immediately after arriving. For some reason I have a northern accent when knackered!



And then for the descent - I just can't describe how good it was. It took me 1 hour to climb the mountain and 19 minutes to descend. It was like a roller coaster ride that lasted 19 minutes, way better than Thorpe Park or Alton Towers! As the descent isn't that steep and I was too tired to pedal most of it, I only hit a little over 40mph.