Great Victorian Bike Ride 2007

Sunday 2 December 2007 - 80km

When I learned about their decidedly non-hearty breakfast I insisted that they should feed up properly before we headed off, while I fitted the new chain that they had brought for me. In a moment of brain fade, I neglected to take the bike for a test ride immediately afterwards. That proved to be a bad mistake. I put the old chain in a plastic bag with the gear I was leaving in the car, so that I could analyse the wear a bit when I got home. That was another mistake.

Shortly after the car departed (carrying my old chain, in case you didn't notice that bit) I discovered that I'd left my chain replacement far too late, and the new chain would only work in 1st, 5th and 6th gear. We hurried back to the GVBR campsite and after a suitable amount of grovelling I managed to get a 7-speed "MegaRange" freesheel from one of the mechanics for$30. Even though he broke my good shifting spanner whilst removing it from the donor bike, he refused to entertain my suggestions of a discount. I attempted to break his shifting spanner to even up the deal, but was unsuccessful.

Finally underway at 09:00 (2 hours later than planned) we commenced our long day of grinding up enormous hills and teraing down their other sides at dizzying speed. After about 5km we caught up with a lady from Parkes. She and her similarly middle-aged friend had cycled from parked to Phillip Island (~850km) and were now on their way home to Parkes via Jindabyne (~650km). They had been joined by a third rider and her husband, who was driving the support car and carrying their luggage, so their trip home was likely to be easier than their unsupported trip to Phillip Island in the first place. They were also planning to take 3 days to get to Jindabyne, which in hindsight would have been far more sensible. ;-)

We made it to Seldom Seen roadhouse at about 15:00. We had a good chat and a coke with David, then headed off to Suggan Buggan. After a lot of grinding hills we finally started the magnificent 10km descent along the narrow, rought, dirt, non-guard-rail-equipped road down the mountain. Lemmiwinks immediately (and predicatbly!) went haring off into the distance. I made Lazyfoot stop for a couple of photos against the dramatic backdrop, then held backa bit longer to get some phtoos of the lads from across the valley. I then commenced my own descent, and was having a fantastic time until the 71km mark when 2 spokes broke in my rear wheel (this was unsurprising to me given the roughness of the road, the overloaded state of my bike, and the silly speeds I was doing). I decided to press on at a lower speed, since the lads were by now a good distance ahead, but at 74km another 2 spokes failed and made the bike unrideable (the rear tyre was now rubbing on the chainstays). This was probably just as well, as my front brakes were getting pretty hot (I stopped using the rears once the wheel went out-of-true). I spent 20 minutes replacing the broken spokes with Z-spokes and roughly trueing up the wheel, working as fast as I could since I suspected that the lads were getting a bit concernaed at my long absence (there's no mobile phone coverage there).

when I got back underway I found that they'd reached Suggan Buggan, waited for a while, then started walking back up the road to find me. I apologised profusely, and they assured me that the 2km walk up the hill and back again had been an excellent way to wind down. We pitched camp, swam in the river, ate a hearty dinner and slept well.

Sunrise over the Buchan campsite	Wow, what a view!	Can't you find somewhere less conspicuous to do that?
What Lemmiwinks was looking at	What I was looking at	Pioneer memorial
Rest stop	Our comrades from Parkes, with their support vehicle	Lazyfoot's flat tyre (the only one on the trip)
Lazyfoot and Lemmiwinks, saying how much they prefer their bikes over mine	Me at the start of the Alpine National Park	Lazyfoot on the road descending into Suggan Buggan
The descent	That's them on the other side of the valley. Those two tiny dots in the middle of the frame	My tent, and Lemmiwinks trying to work out how his goes together
My tent, and Lazyfoot trying to work out how his goes together	Dinner	Lemmiwinks tending the fire

Monday 3 December 2007 - 90km

Teh 20km or so that we spent tarvelling alongside the Snowy River wasn't as level as I'd remembered from 6 weeks before (I'd been riding a motorcycle at the time), with a lot of side trips going up 50m or more into the adjacent hills for no readily apparent reason.

I fought my way through the bullrushes, drifwood and blackberries to the river at one point to refill our empty water bottles, but since there had been heavy rains int he catchment area recently its water was quite muddy and we decided to only use it as our emergency reserve. About 10km further on we crossed the Pinch River, whose water turned out to be much cooler, clearer and tastier, so my effort was wasted after all. ;-)

We took 45 minutes for lunch and rest at the Halfway Flat campsite, then left the Snowy River valley at Jacob's River and started a real death march of a climb up and out of Kosciuskzo National Park. It just went on and on and on for a dozen of the toughest kilometres that any of us had ever cycled. we hoped it was over when we eventually reached the Wallace Craigie lookout, but sadly it was not to be. We were kept going by willpower and jelly beans for a few more km, at which point Lemmiwinks and Lazyfoot were in need of a significant rest. Since our recovery vehicle was due to leave Jindabyne and head in our direction within a half hour (so at worst it should be 90 minutes away) I left them with the last of the food and water and headed off alone, hoping to at least get to the edge of the park before getting recused by the car.

I was rather startled to discover that the end of the park was only about 500m from where I had abandoned parted company with the boys, so I pushed on to the bitumen. I made one stop to refill my water bottles from a nice clear free-flowing creek (there had clearly been some significant rainfall in the last few days). I found my second (possibly third or fourth) wind at about the 70km mark, and powered off toward the finish at 20km/h. I eventually caught up with our sag wagon at 82km, asked them to carry on and pick up the lads first, then pushed hard to the finish. The final 50km/h descent into Jindabyne was one of the most satisfying moments of the whole trip, second only to arriving home to my beautiful wife after my 12-day absence.

The End

Camp at Suggan Buggan	The road we came in by	The road we left by
Be careful of that gap in the bridge decking...	Suggan Buggan river	A typical bit of road
Rest stop at Sandy Creek Road	No flies on me, mate!	Looking at the Snowy River
Lazyfoot descending a hill	Lazyfoot and Lemmiwinks at the border marker	Me at the border marker (nobody brought a camera tripod)
What's left of the formerly mighty Snowy River	Lemmiwinks was thinking of checking if the keys were still in this bus, as an alternative to riding the rest of the way	34km to go (which actually turned out to be 38km)
...but we're back on a tar road, at last!	Buying a coke at Jindabyne (it's sitting just in front of the bike)

Part 1 - Phillip Island to Buchan
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