Breakfasted up on Bridge Road after visiting the markets, then hurried home to change and ride down to Port Melbourne to join Evan and Kyllie for a bit of a bike ride. We weren’t sure where we all wanted to go, the only thing we agreed on was avoiding Albert Park and the congestion around the Grand Prix.
Getting to Port Melbourne was a challenge — every road seemed to be bumper to bumper with cars, stationary and fuming — both drivers and cars. Squeezing through the gaps wasn’t too hard, but some motorists were grumpy enough to deliberately try to squeeze us into the gutter and prevent us passing.
We met up a little late, decided to head for Williamstown via the punt. Neither of the other two had ever ridden along the bike paths or caught the punt — the differences between people who cycle for “training rides” and those that do it for “social rides” can be amusing — and vast — as again are the differences from those who just ride for transport.
The ride through the park under the Westgate bridge is surreal, a well landscaped bushland park, but with a concrete freeway arching up way overhead. The punt’s jetty has moved about a kilometre up the river, and apparently did so over a year ago, so it must be a while since I last rode along there. The price hasn’t changed though, $5 still gets a day return over the river.
After a surprisingly cheap coffee in Williamstown we headed on around the bay, just as the clouds turned to rain. Now that we were here we all wanted to continue, so two of four put on their spray jackets, the other two of us just turned up our collars… Down to the time-ball tower and the Southerly wind was strong enough to blow the rain away, and to lend a very unfriendly look to the waves on the bay.
There’s a path from here around the bay and beaches, completely different to the bayside bike-path on the Eastern side of the bay. This part of Melbourne feels more like a coastal town, isolated from the rest of the city. We rode along past wetlands, between industrial sites and drains, around a local cricket ground and past the Kororoit Creek fishing club. Pelicans, cormorants and other waterbirds were everywhere.
After a lap of Cherry Lake in Altona, we decided it was time to start heading homewards — the afternoon of slowly meandering around on the bikes had lead us a surprisingly long way. First retracing our steps to Williamstown, then catching the punt back over the river. Rather than ride back around the bay we headed up along the river through Port Melbourne’s industrial area, nearly everything dead at the weekend. This almost meets up with the bike track through the city, which ends at the Casino, but there’s a block between the casino and the harbour developments containing nothing but the exhibition centre and a major road, today even more crowded with visitors to the motor show. We made it through, pausing to chuckle at the 4WD demonstration where eager mums and dads can check their off-road prowess over hills and through creeks. Hopefully the memories will stay with them next week as they struggle through the city traffic with their daily commute or school-taxi duties.
Four in the afternoon, back in Richmond, and time for a late lunch. A fun ride, it had taken a lot longer than we’d anticipated, but had also taken me to parts of the map that I’d never known existed!
