138.88km / 6:55:31 / 2275m / 24.8°C
A first audax permanent, a lovely, though hot, day out and around and over the Dandenongs
A 100km #audax permanent with 30km getting to and from the start… and fumble fingers button trouble not recording 20km of the way home, so that’s the straight line teleport bit
Some light mist and cool riding out along the bike paths to get to The Basin, I’d intended to start from there at 9am to give myself enough time earlier, but with a hot day coming and an earlier than expected wake up I was about 45min ahead of myself, so sat and had a very enjoyable coffee at the 1in20 cafe before riding up the 1in20. Amazing to see the group of 200-300 who turned up for their Saturday morning hill climbs, then quiet as I left five minutes behind them, seeing half a dozen riders on the way up the hill then almost none on the rest of the route
Off through roads I’ve not ridden before, I really should come out here more often! The little Garmin arrow says beep and off I’d turn, a very different experience from having to pay attention to a map and route notes!
Out of the Dandenongs proper and through rolling country from Monbulk to Yellingbo, plenty of motorcyclists out enjoying the good weather, but no other cyclists
Somewhere in the forest before Yellingbo I managed to lose my sunglasses, in and out of shadows with glasses on, glasses off, I’d thought they were in my back pocket but when I got to the roadhouse they were gone. Annoying and a bit uncomfortable for the rest of the day, it made it very glary and I was half tempted to buy a cheap pair when I got in to Gembrook
Sandwich and check in at Yellingbo, then off towards Woori Yallock before the turn off onto Sheep Station road
Sheep Station road quiet and enjoyable, hardly any traffic at all, just me and the parrots
Some long hot climbs and very enjoyable patches of shade, then in to Gembrook and a few interesting little back lanes to get to the middle of town and a bakery stop for a salad roll and a checkin, the find my way to the station for the gravelly rail trail from here back along Puffing Billy’s route. Some erosion from the recent rains, and other parts all dug up for either replacement or installation. Somewhere along here met a pair of bikepackers, off for the weekend in the Bunyip forest
An echidna swaggered across the road in front of me somewhere on the way up to Kallista, I waved and pointed to make sure the 4WD heading towards us went around it… and they did. Plenty of parrots & cockatoos; eastern & crimson rosellas, white cockies, Yellow-tailed black cockies, I heard a few Gang-gangs but didn’t see them, too hot for much else
Other than that, a bit too much roadkill; a snake, parrots, ravens and magpies, a wombat on the way up the 1in20, and on the way down a kangaroo and an incredibly stinky dead and bloated deer, thankfully quickly past
Back out to The Basin at around 2.35, the Garmin very cleverly beeping to tell me “end of course”, but then later when I tried to leave the cafe it kept annoyingly telling me to “do a u-turn” and that the next 7km climb was starting soon, so I think it was trying to send me around again!
Sat around for half an hour with a cold drink, then back home mostly the way I’d come, annoyingly finding out somewhere in Glen Waverely that although I’d told the Garmin to “navigate me home” somehow I’d managed to turn off the recording, so the total recorded is around 140km not the 160km I rode, and there’s a giveway “teleport line” across the map
A hot day out, for once I think I drank enough, adding on the 30km to and from the start certainly made for a big enough ride for me
Few clouds, 14°C, Feels like 14°C, Humidity 90%, Wind 1m/s from NNE - by Klimat.app
My 1074th day in a row riding a bike, including my and following up with all of 2021.
Garmin / Strava / ridewithgps
