Buying a coke at a 711 in Brunswick |
On the pier at Cowes |
On the pier at Cowes |
The bus departed at 12:00, and we arrived at Phillip Island by 14:30. We didn't fill up much of the sports field with our tents (we were only 2 busloads of early arrivals), but that will probably changce tomorrow. I noticed a tenpin bowling alley on the way in that I didn't know existed, so of course I had to try my luck. 133-146-123 is pretty poor, but it has been a year...
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Buying a coke at a 711 in Brunswick |
On the pier at Cowes |
On the pier at Cowes |
I met Thorin in the afternoon, unsurprisingly in the bar.
It's been a little dull so far, but that's to be expected since the ride hasn't actually started yet.
Moike and John arrived at 19:00, we went and had dinner then walked into Cowes for a gelato. Returned to camp and turned in early, in anticipation of a big day tomorrow.
Unloading bikes from a cattle truck |
The campsite at Phillip Island |
The last of his tribe! |
I packed my bike and dodged the lengthy queues for toilets and breakfast by the simple expediant of walking into town. I reckoned that I'd have had my fill of queues by the end of the trip, anyway.
Headed off at 09:00, for some inexplicable reason there was a stop for lunch a mere 17km down the road. I surprised myself a little by finishing the 54km first day in 2:15. I also managed to set a new highest speed on this bike of 57km/h coming down the hill into the town of Archie's Creek.
Both Moike and John broke a rear wheel spoke, and when we went into town to buy replacements I picked up a raer-axle-mounted sidestand, which works much better with the panniers. I left the original "midships" mounted one fitted, for the whole "belt and suspenders" effect.
I'm feeling much more confident about tomorrow now, and I'm starting to have evil thoughts about a round-Australia trip in a few years. Time will tell.
John caught syphoning somebody's water tank |
Watching the cricket at lunchtime |
John and Moike limbering up for the next stage |
A landmark so that I could find my tent at Wonthaggi |
View from my tent door |
I felt good up until the lunch stop (60km), but was getting weak and weary over the last 24km. I still managed to cover the day's distance in 3:45, making a reasonably respectable average speed of 23km/h (that's average speed based on saddle time of course, not elapsed).
I arrived in Foster at about 12:30, Moike and John turned up an hour later and a bit sunburnt, since it had been overcast until about 12:00 and none of us had thought to apply sunscreen. We wandered the streets of Foster spending money freely for a while, then prepared for a quiet night. I was out like a light by 21:00, I must have been properly tired.
Coastal view |
Looking up the hill |
Looking down the hill |
John and Moike talking shop, and a mechanic named Dave |
Planning on another early night, and a 05:30 start to the day.
No camping |
John |
Me. Remember, I have to look at this face in the mirror every day |
we departed at 07:00, and rode back to Fish Creek and on to Meeniyan via the rail trail, since we had already ridden the Fish Creek - Foster road on Sunday. It was a good surface, probably very much like the Barry Way will be, although narrower and not nearly as steep or winding.
The hill starting at the 44km mark was an absolute bastard, especially when I was unable to change gears onto my smallest front chainring. I fixed that after the first steep bit tapered off, but still spent quite a bit of time in low-low gear. We also spent the entire day grinding our way through a ~25km/h headwind.
I paced myself much better today than I did on Sunday, so in spite of covering a much more difficult leg of the trip I arrived feeling relatively fresh after 4:35 of saddle time.
John suffered a grinding bottom-bracket bearing all day long, apparently this is the second time it's failed on his bike. He's dropped it off with the mechanics overnight to be fixed, and he's been quoted about the same as the bike cost him in the first place ($70, it's a "free" GVBR bike from last year). That might seem like over-capitalising a bit, but the only bike we've seen for sale has lots of carbon fibre bits and a $4900 pricetag.
Planning on another quiet night tonight, because tomorrow's route includes a brutal 450m climb over 30km.
I'm packed, John's packed, we're waiting for Moike to finish faffing around. |
Rest stop. Apparently those shorts of John's were half price. Can't imagine why... ;-) |
Personal Rest Stop |
The hills began with a particularly nasty one at about the 10km mark that just seemed to loom up like a cliff. I managed to get about halfway up before even my mighty pride proved inadequate and I had to walk the rest of the way. It was still only about 07:45 by the time I reached the crest, but I was sweating bullets. The other side of the hill saw me rocketing down at about 50km/h, and so chilled from the evaporating sweat that my teeth were chattering.
After a large number of grinding low-low gear hills with disappointingly short descents down their back sides, I arrived at the lunch stop 10km from the finish. Moike and John where 5 minutes behind, and as we ate our lunch our aching bodies stiffened up some more. The first couple of km climbing out of erica was pretty nasty, but knowing that I only had 10km to go I committed all my reserves and powered to the finish at my best possible speed (~15km/h). Total daily saddle time was 3:47.
When we arrived at camp I fixed my broken spokes (turned out to be 2 of them) and tuned my brakes in preparation for tomorrow's long descents.
The rest of the day was over flat to undulating terain, with the mist slowly fading and being replaced by our old friend the headwind.
We stopped for lunch at the 66km mark at Heyfield, then rapidly got back on the road again because rain was threatening and we thought that we might as well get wet while making miles on the road as sitting in the park.
After a tough slog against the wind to Maffra (during which I was unwittingly conscripted into a "drafting team" to help an elderly fellow complete the day's ride) I found that there was nobody standing at the "turn this way to the campsite" sign, and subsequently quite a few people were not seeing it and missing the turn. Since I had nothing better to do until Moike and John arrived, I volunteered myself to the task of Route Marshall until a proper volunteer turned up to relieve me an hour or so later. I made my way to the Volunteer Services tent to see if I could beg a T-shirt for my trouble, and they seemed happy enough to give me one. I feel so needed now! ;-)
Woke at 05:20 again (this is becoming a habit), and after breakfast we headed of at 07:00 for our extended trip to Paynesville (the trip was extended because a recent flood had washed away a rather crucial bit of road).
The day was pretty uneventful and, dare I say it, a little dull! I saw Thorin again at the first rest stop, but I don't think he noticed me. I borrowed a spanner from one of the mechanics at the same stop and gave my bottom bracket bearings a slight tightening, which eliminated an irritating wobble-induced noise. Well, mostly eliminated it - I think I need a new chain.
I saw a crash among one of the excessively tightly bunched school groups a few km before Paynesville, It rapidly became one of those boiling masses of downed and/or dodging riders that oen sees on the TdF. Nobody was seriously hurt, thugh.
Once we arrived in town I headed off to buy some food for the Buchan-Jindabyne leg of the trip, since Buchan is too small to boast a supermarket. On the way to the shops I discovered a small vintage car show in the park.
I'm quite surprised at how much my quads have expanded over this past week. It just goes to show what riding an excessively heavy bike can do! ;-)
Tomorrow I'm going to let the truck carry a few excess kg of luggage for me (the food alone weighs about 4kg). I think I've earned it, and I want to be fresh for Sunday's ride. 4:17 for the day.
There were quite a few nasty steep climbs on the road to Buchan, but we overcame them and I arrived in town at 13:40 after 5:15 in the saddle. I was getting a little worried about Moike and John when they still hadn't arrived by 14:30, but they showed up shortly afterward. Apparently they'd fallen asleep while resting after lunch! ;-)
Tonight I'll be culling as many uneccessary items as possible from my kit, and replacing them with food. I'm hoping to be able to keep the weight about the same (~15kg), but I suspect that it will go up a bit. I'm also planning to enjoy the concert at the caves tonight.
Rest stop congestion
The start of a nice downhill stretch
My 4 broken spokes for the day
Trueing up my rear wheel
Thursday 29 November 2007 - 88km
Managed to sleep in until 05:20 this morning. Once on the road we enjoyed 22km of short climbs and long descents, bringing us back down to an altitude of 300m (from 500m). After a rest stop, we hit the most glorious descent of the ride so far: 150m of vertical drop over 6km. It would have been improved with weather other than the sleety, misty drizzle that we were riding in, but not by much. ;-)
Downhill through the misty forest
Road and hayfield
A power pole growing from my bike
John's, mine, and Moike's bikes at a rest stop
Friday 30 November 2007 - 90km
They came good with that T-shirt, too!
John crossing a bridge
He was swamped by this bunch shortly afterward
A lake. It was thick with mosquitoes
Flies!
Another hayfield
Running water through the railing around the sports field. Nice thinking.
The Paynesville campsite
Uh oh...
A Model A Ford that overtook me on the way into town. Oh, the humiliation!
Mystery car
Fiat 500
Citroen 2CV
WW2 Australian army staff car, which saw service in the middle east
WW2 BSA bicycle
Recently-constructed wooden speedboat, build to a 1920s design.
Saturday 1 December 2007 - 105km
What a big, long day! After the usual 05:20 start and breakfast we headed off to Buchan by way of the Rail Trail alternate route. Getting to the start of the rail trail took almost as many km as the trail itself was long, but we managed. I arrived in Bruthen in quite good time (somewhere around 10:00) after covering 50km according to my optimistic speedometer. Leavy Bruthen we headed into a scary monster of a climb, but I've learned my lesson on this ride and shifted down early to chug my way up the hills at 10km/h.
School group entering a rail trail road underpass
Campground at Buchan
At the concert
Part 2 - Buchan to Jindabyne
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