A slow start, and a cold morning. After breakfast it took forever to get coordinated and underway — last night’s red wine taking its toll. The coffee shops of Yarra Junction beckoned, we’d only just started riding by the time we got there and settled inside to thaw out and apply coffee to aching heads.
Leaving Yarra Junction the local traffic was a bit too obnoxious — as the drivers along here often seem to be.
From Neerim South to Noojee the road climbs steadily up for at least ten kilometres, then climbs more steeply up for another few before swooping down through the forest in wet twisty curves. Magnificent riding, but a little unnerving with the wet leaves and the narrowness of the roads. Inflight discussions between tandem pilot and stoker resulted in the decree that the tandem would travel at a reasonable speed downwards through the forest….
Blessed are the tandem-riders, for they shall manage to ride all day and escape the rain — at least it seemed that way today! A lucky start when we woke in sunlight and with a bit of prodding managed to leap into action and pack the bags and tent before breakfast and more importantly, before the next squall and rain-front came through. Even more impressive was the one after that, not just icy rain, this one had ice in it — a few minutes of hail that caused general mayhem on the campground.
stats. Today 76.0 km Trip 293km The ride from Bacchus Marsh to Melbourne is always a bit of a slog — first there’s the seemingly endless plains of red dirt and rocks, broken only by the great swooping descent into the gorge over the Werribee river, then there’s the interminably mindless eight kilometres along the Western Highway with the mind-numbing roar of the traffic and the ever present danger of the idiot’s towing their caravans and not realising how much wider than the car the ‘van is.
stats. Today 91.2km Trip 217km There are some magnificent swooping descents in the last few kilometres to Bacchus Marsh, ending in a hill into town with a 60km/hr speed limit, a hill where a bicycle can quite easily reach that speed limit! Unfortunately there seems to be some local law in effect in Bacchus Marsh that insists that the local motorists must be abusive, ignorant and stupid, I don’t think I’ve ever ridden into town without someone being yelled at, swerved at, or had something thrown at them — today was no different, halfway down the hill at 62km/hr on the tandem, some ignorant petrol-head pulled out of a side-street straight in front of us and nearly got 150kg of tandem and riders right up his boot.
stats. Today 80.3km Trip 125km It was cold and frosty overnight, for the first time in many years my old sleeping bag seemed to not be enough and I woke up cold. Stepping out of the tent showed frost on the grass and the tents, and fog rising over the lake. A beautiful sight.
Out of Beaufort and south to Snake Valley, lunch at the Snake Valley pub. I had no idea there were places with names like that in Victoria — it sounds like something out of a bad western!
stats. Today 45km Trip 45km Another Good Friday morning, another Deadly Treadly Tour commences! A little too far from Oakleigh to the city to do the car and bike shuffle, so Jo and I hopped on the first train of the day, loaded down with bags and helmets and the tandem. Arrived at Flinders Street station to discover that we had to carry the beast up the stairs, no easy task while wearing a large backpack!
Trouty asked, so here they are! The Deadly Treadly T-shirts from 1995 to 1999 — or at least the ones that I bought, before I decided that there were too many t-shirts in my life. There’s also a whole bunch of old maps and brochures to be scanned, some much worse for wear after four or five days on the road and four or five years in the spare room. 1995 Easter…
Out of the blue — a request to use some of my photos on a website dedicated to the Deadly Treadly Tours. Trouty asked nicely, so I guess its OK so long as he doesn’t give them away any further.
stats. Today ??km Trip km Not just the fourth day of the bike ride — today was our first wedding anniversary! Woohoo, what fun. One year and no divorce, we must be better than all those Hollywood people or international sporting stars…
A couple of friends snuck breakfast-in-bed, the paper, and a bottle of bubbly under the edge of the tent this morning, luckily we opened the door before packing up the sleeping bags, letting us have a somewhat amusing romantic breakfast-in-bed of muesli while sitting in the tent!
stats. Today ??km Trip km The overnight rain had blown away as we packed up this morning — I guess there’s got to be some rain on an Easter Deadly Treadly! In place of the rain we had a strong westerly, straight in our faces on leaving Tarwin lower and for the next hour’s slog towards Inverloch.
Nobody seemed in a very talkative mood on the road; maybe it was the hangovers from last night, maybe it was the headwind, maybe people were still asleep.
stats. Today ??km Trip km A magnificent day’s riding, mostly along peaceful country roads through the Gippsland hills.
At one point we watched as a flock of twenty to thirty black cockatoos flew overhead, creaking mournfully as they called to each other, flying with their characteristic slow, floppy wing beat.
There was a long hard climb after the morning-tea stop at Meeniyan, then magnificent views down towards Wilsons Prom as we headed south to rejoin the Foster to Inverloch road.
stats. Today ??km Trip km Breakfast, finish packing, put the bags in the car and drive down to Alexandra parade to the start of yet another Deadly Treadly… somewhere along the way Jo asks whether I’ve checked that we really are starting from the same place as all the previous rides! We are, and about a hundred people have shown up, quite a few more than the last couple of times.
stats. Today 91.5km Trip 257.0km Final day of the ride, best weather so far! Sticking my head out of the tent at around 6.30 am there was not a breath of wind, the sun was rising and the bay was as flat as a mirror. We left Rye around 10 am, in bright sunshine, but with a chill still in the air.
It always amazes me how much traffic there is on the stretch of road between Sorrento and Mornington, I guess to my subconscious the road doesn’t seem to go anywhere, it just ends at the heads, so where do all the cars come from?
I wasn’t here, I was on the Easter Deadly Treadly Tour.
It was an almost perfect day for cycling. Hardly any wind, not too warm, and deserted roads for the first forty kilometres. Even the remainder of the ride, along the Western highway then through Footscray to the city passed without incident.
62.81km, odo: 1036km
Where? Bacchus Marsh(-37.6833333,144.45)
I wasn’t here, I was on the Easter Deadly Treadly Tour.
Ah, Bacchus Marsh. Every time I ride in here, something happens. The something usually involves a pin-headed yob and his mates, driving an old bomb of a car, and either screaming abuse or trying to run someone down. Today was no different, as a bunch of my friends rode down the hill into town, the local hero threw an egg at them from a car driving the other way.
I wasn’t here, I was on the Easter Deadly Treadly Tour.
An incredibly strong southerly was blowing constantly, all day long. The 42km were covered at an average of 14km/hr! At each possible stop we gratefully sheltered inside, out of the wind.
There was an amazing feeling of culture-shock riding into Daylesford after the last two days of almost deserted country roads and country towns. There was traffic everywhere, the streets full of people, it seemed like we were back in Melbourne.
I wasn’t here, I was on the Easter Deadly Treadly Tour.
Get up, drizzle, coffee, shower, put bags in car, drive to Alexander parade, drive home, get on bike, shiver down Swan Street, get off bike, put bike in truck, get in bus, try and sleep through the two hour trip to Beaufort.
58km. Alternating drizzle and sunshine. Finally a terrific tail wind into Clunes.
Clunes resembled the set of a western movie, sometime after the cast and crew have all gone home.
This is being typed from memory in my spare time and I haven’t finished writing it so….
Jo was feeling very tired so we rode at an easy pace out of Sorrento and around the bay towards Rosebud, the weather couldn’t make up its mind whether it was cool or hot so we were stopping every fifteen minutes or so to change into or back out of our jackets.
This is being typed from memory in my spare time and I haven’t finished writing it so….
Ever tried to get eight people coordinated, packed, and on their bikes in the morning? There was no food in the house so we were arranging to have breakfast down in the town, but had to get the bags back to the camp ground and onto the trucks. The bags went in the taxi, Jo and I took off and (just) beat the taxi to the campground, then met the others at the local bakery.
This is being typed from memory in my spare time and I haven’t finished writing it so….
Jo and I get up bright and early (ugh) and catch the 7:50 train into the city. The nominal assembly time is 8am for an 8:30 departure but experience has shown that the Deadly Treadly tours never leave until well after 9. Walking across the river I looked down to discover that I had just left a trail of money along the path as my weekend’s spending money jumps out of my pocket.
Thus spake the ride guide for today:
An easy cruise on flat roads should have you back in Melbourne before midday. The finish will be at Jeffries Parade where the ride started. This is the time to say farewell to frineds, arrange reunions, and start to plan for the 2 DAY BAY RIDE in May!!
Well, it might have been an easy cruise, but Jo and I had to go to work today so we had caught the train back last night.
After a 3 hour bus trip which included the bus driver getting us lost near Ballarat, we found ourselves sitting outside the pub at Moonambel, eating lunch and considering where to go. Jen, being the resident food and wine expert, had a list of which wineries we were to visit, so off we went to Taltirni (very elaborate and touristy, with arts and crafts for sale and lawns and gardens to sit in, as well as wines for sampling), then Redbank (a far more relaxed establishment).
I’d picked up my mum’s car and packed last night, although I was feeling very vague and couldn’t think of what I wanted to take so I ended up just stuffing everything I could think of into the big-black-bag (™), fully expecting to find out later that I’d left some essential item at home.
I left work at 3 pm, intending to quickly call in at the shops to pick up a few essentials — unfortunately everyone had gone mad because it was Easter — I’d never seen so many people in the supermarket.
Benalla, Mansfield, Alexandra, Flowerdale; from warm and humid to cold wet and miserable.
1995-Nov-04 – Day 1: 1995-Nov-05 – Day 2: 1995-Nov-06 – Day 3: 1995-Nov-07 – Day 4:
Vanity site? Technology experiment? Learning tool? Blog? Journal? Diary? Photo album? I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you…
I experiment. I play. I write and I take pictures. Some of the site is organised around topics, other parts are organized by date, then there’s always the cross-references between them.
Its all been here a fairly long time. Like the papers on my desk, or the books on the bedside table, the pile just grew… and it all grew without much plan or structure. I try not to break URLs, so historical oddities abound.
Long ago it started as a learning experiment with a few static HTML pages, then I added a bit of server-side includes and some very ugly PHP. A hand-built journal/blog on top of that PHP, then a few experiments in moving to various static publishing systems. I’ve never wanted a database-based blogging engine, so over the years I’ve tried PHP, nanoblogger, emacs-muse, silkpage and docbook before settling on Emacs Org mode for writing and jekyll for publishing. But the itch remained… I never really liked jekyll and the ruby underneath always seemed so much black magic. So now the latest incarnation is Org mode and hugo.
