Many fun things occurred in the two days we were in Bendigo. Rupert played with his cousin Esther and his speed tripled. They had so much fun. Oliver watched. We left Bendigo wishing we weren’t on the morning of Wednesday the 19th of January at 10:15am. We knew that we roughly needed to get to Metcalfe where there was a streamside reserve. All I really remember from this day is that it was hot and for a long time we couldn’t find somewhere to stop for lunch and Rupert got cranky at us. We eventually made it to a playground in the shade next to Sutton Grange Hall. It took us nearly two hours to get from there to Metcalfe where the streamside reserve was rubbish, but there was a recreation reserve which we went to. It was hot and windy, but there was a couch undercover near the tennis courts. A family turned up and an old overweight guy who was their tennis coach. He was doing the lessons for free and as it turned out was nearly a pro back in the day. He lamented the decline of rural tennis clubs and gave us some ice cold soft drinks which were divine. He insisted we check out “The Cascades” before we left Metcalfe. We didn’t really have any intention to do this because it was out of the way and we were knackered. He said we could camp there, so we did. I can’t remember his name. Maybe Jason. Next morning we did go to The Cascades and it was so lovely we stayed there for probably too long from a cycling day perspective, but a good amount of time given how beautiful it was. We scrambled across the rocks and Hannah fell in. Thing is, it really sucks to cycle a lot in the afternoon. A good day is leaving very early and having only 10 km or so to do after lunch. We left at 9:10am and made our way to the botanical gardens in Kyneton where we met Hannah’s friend Kate for lunch. We didn’t end up leaving Kyneton until 3pm which was way too late. We saw Hanging Rock and decided to go for a look, but went to the wrong entrance which wasn’t an entrance, which in a car means an extra five minutes, but on bikes in the sun means oh god we have to go all the way around. We got in and it was very close to closing time (the whole place is 8-foot fenced) and the caretaker was not very welcoming and the rule was no camping so we had to decide to either break the rules or leave and try to find somewhere else. We decided to leave which was probably a mistake. We basically spent the next hour/14 km looking for somewhere to camp and there wasn’t a decent spot at all. It certainly wasn’t normal to be cycling at 6pm. The bushy looking bit on google maps was too sloped and thick. We’d kind of decided to aim for the rec reserve in Romsey on which camping wasn’t allowed, but we stopped to check out a plantation on a side road. We were at the intersection when we saw a lady riding a bike along the side road towards us. We hailed her and asked if she knew of camping spots and lo and behold she was a warmshowers host and said we could stay at her place. Two kilometres of bouncy corrugations later we were set up in the barn and Rupert was enjoying riding on a hobby horse thing. We gave Rupert a bath, they fed us dinner and a beer and Rupert loved playing with toys they had. Their house was small with a great design where most stuff was in one room. I think if we built a house, one like this would be ideal. It was genuinely the most fateful encounter and a good reminder that things will generally work out and people are generally good natured and friendly. Next morning Rupert picked some fresh raspberries and we set off at 8:17am, later than ideal, but refreshed and feeling good. We got to Wallan by around 12pm where Rupert had a play and we ate lunch. There were a lot of people at the Hadfield playground, but it was so much fun for Rupert to play in the water. We left at 2:30pm and had a stop at a fruitside stall before heading towards our target of Toorourrong Reservoir. Once again we went up a road which didn’t lead to the right place (thanks again google maps) and had to go the long way around in the heat. We got there a couple of hours before closing time and it certainly seemed safe enough to camp there even though we weren’t supposed to. Rupert stuffed his face with fresh fruit, as did we, and we settled in for another warm night in the tent. From memory, it took him ages to get to sleep and he was just playing on us while we sweated for an hour. Good times. We had about 80 km to cover in two days to get to Warburton where we had accommodation booked for a day off. We got off to an early start in order to be gone before the gates opened at the reservoir. This meant lifting our bikes, bags and the trailer over the gate which somehow went off without a hitch. We were in Kinglake West by 8am, but the bakery we wanted to go to wasn’t open until 9am, even though Google said it opened at 8am. This was annoying for us and the bajillion other people who thought it would be open. The lady in there was pretty rude and annoyed at me knocking on the window to find out what time they opened. We had muesli and continued on for 30 minutes, arriving at Kinglake at 9:30am. We had a second breakfast at a cafe, then Rupert played on a playground for something like two hours and made friends with some kids. A cruisy ride later we arrived at the Toolangi Rec Reserve in time to eat lunch then relax for the afternoon. Rupert and I kicked a ball around, I realised something on my bike was not functioning correctly and I had a nap while Hannah and Rupert explored the nearby creek. It was a really pretty place. Later, a French couple arrived in their van and Rupert watched their cat play predator, but it never had a chance to catch the rabbits on the clear oval. It was a short day, only covering 30 km, but it would be downhill into Healesville in the morning, then a bed that night in Warburton. We left at 7am on the Sunday morning and chose the smaller eastern Myers-Creek Road instead of the main drag to get to Healesville. It was one of the most beautiful sections of cycling on the trip, a long downhill through rainforest. I think Rupert slept through it all. We stopped at a park for breakfast and I went to a French patisserie in search of treats and was not disappointed. Ooh la la. And the coffee there was amazing so we got a bag for the next week. Much playing later we set off towards a cycle path on Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road. It sucked. We hadn’t been this close to Melbourne for a while and the traffic was intense. Not much curb and people passing when they couldn’t see oncoming traffic. We had no alternative so we just went as quickly as we could. It was a 12 km section (I think), so it was out of the way reasonably quickly, then we were on the cycle path. For some insane reason I just wanted to keep riding quickly, but Hannah wanted to enjoy this bit because there was no rush and it was through nice countryside. Eventually she caught me and suggested this, so that’s how we proceeded. We stopped in a Yarra Junction park for half an hour with only 8 km to go to Warburton. As we were about to get back on our bikes, we found a baby possum which was injured and seemingly fallen out of a tree. After a few calls we had a potential pickup from Warburton for it to go to a rehab place (we’d seen a lot of signs for these along the way). We sped to Warburton with the possum wrapped up in our jumpers nestled in the trailer and Rupert on the front of Hannah’s bike. The possum was sadly D.O.A and the pickup person fell through anyway. Rupert talked about it over and over again for the next few days (“possum” “baby” “tree” “mummy” “ouch”) - two year old trying to make sense of death. On arrival to Warburton we had a delicious cold drink and toastie for lunch, hit the supermarket, then rode up the absolutely insane climb to our Airbnb. We should have booked earlier so the only available ones were out of town. The Airbnb people thought we were nuts. Not wanting to go down and up the hill again meant we hung around the Airbnb all day which was kinda fine, but there was no aircon, just fans, so it was pretty sweaty. A shower was nice though. We planned a three day loop around Marysville and Reefton Spur and booked another Airbnb closer to the centre of Warburton for another day off. We left at 6:40am on the Tuesday morning having not had a shower because the water had run out. It was too early to call about it, so that sucked a bit, but they did refund us part of our accommodation costs which was very thoughtful. There was a long uphill to start the day which we wanted to get out of the way before it got too hot. We stopped part way up at a rainforest gallery which was beautiful to walk around. We stopped for lunch not too far out of Marysville at a stream which unfortunately didn’t have a shady spot for us, but the swim was lovely. We got to Gallipoli Park in Marysville and relaxed near the water. We didn’t have a solid plan for where to pitch the tent and this public park was certainly not the place. Despite a day off we were pretty knackered and super indecisive about what to do. We spoke to some locals about good camping spots and eventually ate a pack of ice creams and set off down Lady Talbot Drive to a day use area which we used for night use. It was on a creek and was actually delightful (and deserted). It was Australia Day. We rode back into Marysville to visit the IGA again, then started up the hill (mountain) out of town just before 8 am. It’s a well known cycling loop so we were passed by sporadic public-holiday road cyclists who were very encouraging (and probably thought we were crazy). There were a bunch of hoons going waaaay too fast but fortunately this did not coincide with oncoming traffic. They were also super loud so we could hear them coming a long way off. We stopped at The Big Culvert which was a very old, long, stone culvert which would have taken thousands of man hours to build whenever they built it. Cambarville Historical Settlement and Picnic Ground was gross, boring and full of march flies (after getting good press, so we were disappointed), so we continued on hungry down Reefton Spur. This was a pretty nice ride, but we were definitely walking the line of being too hungry and getting grumpy with each other. I just wanted to get to the pub. There must have been a BMW enthusiast event on that day because we passed maybe a hundred of them (and fewer than a hundred cars of other makes). They had old white male drivers and dressed up old lady passengers. We made it to the Reefton Hotel and it was HOT. I think 39 degrees. We were Covid-worried, so we sat out the front in a tiny sliver of midday shade and ate our food and drank our drink. Rupert was hot. We didn’t know where to camp, but we spoke to a very drunk guy before he drove off and he reckoned we’d be right at the Little Peninsula Tunnel which diverts some of the Yarra through a tunnel. We decided that would be fine, though if we’d had accommodation we’d just have continued on to Warburton. There were a tonne of people there having a great time, but as the weather came in and the light faded, they all left and we put up the tent. Another hot afternoon with a sweaty child and lots of swimming. There were thunderstorms and heavy rain all morning until 11am, so we had more tent-time. It rained so much the ground underneath our tent turned into a pool and we briefly considered that maybe the Yarra was going to flood and sweep us away. The ride back to Warburton was cruisy, muggy but not too hot. As soon as we got to the Airbnb, Rupert ran to the second drawer down to get the “flippers”. Rupert played with some water outside in the shade. The next day we had a few cuppas tea and generally relaxed. We cycled along the path towards Melbourne to go to a few recommended places, particularly the patisserie in Wesburn which had all sorts of gourmet treats. We headed off the next morning to the campground where we met up with the non-Bendigo contingent of Hannah’s family. We spent the day riding to a redwood forest all together, then back along the aqueduct trail which was very scenic. We camped next to Hannah’s parents’ caravan, then the next day cycled over 65 km, nearly 100% of which was on cycle path, to Glen Waverly. It’s great how much you can get around Melbourne without having to go on the road. We had a couple of nights with Hannah’s grandma (Rupert’s Grand Ma Ma) then stayed with one of Hannah’s friends in Brunswick for three nights. We got up on the Friday morning and readied ourselves for a day. We cycled down to Fitzroy Gardens, changed in a car park into wedding attire, attended a delightful wedding, changed again and cycled to the boat, had pizza with Hannah’s fam, then got on the boat. The journey back across the Bass Strait was more relaxing than the one on the way over, though surprisingly different in protocol for cyclists. Trip over!
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Chris JonesJust a guy going for a bit of a documented ride. Archives
May 2018
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