132.40km / 6:36:01 / 984m / 24.0°C
A two-part ride, with two very different parts. First half was the #CycleDindi ride, out from Alexandra to whereever I felt like, back to the lunch, finish up at Yea. Part two had been nagging at me all yesterday afternoon and through the night; do I ride back to Seymour, wait until 7pm and try my luck on a possibly-full V/Line back to Melbourne, or do I try and ride all the way back to Lilydale and Melbourne?
Up nice and early, breakfast and ready and out to the old Alexandra station for the start. No technology here, the QR codes and Google pass tickets ignored as the two volunteers ticked names off on a sheet of paper
Alexandra to Yea with a detour up to Yarck for my day in the #CycleDindi24. Only about eight cyclists left from Alex, and my shortish detour meant I was one of the earliest to the lunch spot, not that I’d intended that – and what a spot! Lovely green corner by the Goulburn River and an historic collapsed bridge. From there its up the hill to the Cheviot tunnel and a coast down to Yea. Not sure if I’d made it to a definite ’end’ as i couldn’t see anyone else around the station so i sat around a bit, checked the maps and decided it was definitely worth adding the 80km back to Lilydale and metro trains rather than 40km to Seymour, a four hour wait and the one VLine train, with a chance I’d be refused carriage
So off I went, back up the GVRT a couple of km, then turn off onto the Murrindindi road and a thoroughly enjoyable ride down along the river valley parallel to the main road further west. Eventually I had to rejoin the Melba highway, but luckily it had a decently wide shoulder most of the way. A brief stop at Glenburn for a second lunch and continue on further south
Just as I was getting fed up with the traffic and the noise and the highway in general I got to the turn off that Google maps had suggested, following the Goulburn Bridge road and Mount Slide road on down to Yarra Glen and it was fantastic, almost as good as the riding to Murrindindi. Sadly, once I got to Yarra Glen there’s a very ugly stretch of shoulder-less highway for a few kilometers before I could escape onto the short section of the Yarra Valley rail-trail to finish the ride down to Lilydale, arriving a mere 10 minutes before a train, some 4 or 5 hours earlier than I’d have got to Melbourne had I ridden to Seymoour!
Clear sky, 11°C, Feels like 10°C, Humidity 76%, Wind 1m/s from E - by Klimat.app
My 1543rd day in a row riding a bike; the last 6 days of 2019, my and all of ‘21, ‘22, ‘23 and 2024 so far…
Garmin / Strava / ridewithgps
