Melbourne to Sydney: Day 2

The dew was down this morning so a wet tent got packed away...though I'd had a big sleep and was raring to go. The day started with a section along the Bass Coast Rail Trail. Surf was up, it was a beautiful spot to stop for moment, with the sun still low on the horizon. 

I didn't have a set plan for the day today, but hoped to connect up with the Great Southern Rail Trail, and then get as far east as I could. The Bass highway out of Kilcunda is busy and it's best to take any detour you can on a bike. I stopped in at Inverloch and enjoyed 'sitting on the dock on the bay' for a little while until forcing myself up to get cycling again. Via a trip to the local bakery first, of course.

I meet up with the Great Southern Rail Trail near the town of Buffalo. What a great ride this was! It's a dirt trail but packed down enough (just) for my thin road tyres to cope OK.

Great Southern Rail Trail - from Helmet Cam

As you can tell by the title, it's a former railway line, great news if you are pedalling as you know any gradient will be gentle!

Fish Creek was convenient place to stop, and I called in for coffee and a feed at the cow themed cafe with friendly staff. Just out of town I was wheeling the bike through some long grass torejoin the trail, one of my mates is always trying to wind me up about getting bitten by a snake on these trips, and I was thinking...”gee this is a great place for snakes”. Just as I was mounting the bike again, one crossed the path in front of me! It was brown, about a meter long, and moving quite quickly. To be honest it looked a lot more interested in hiding than biting cyclists.

I switched the helmet cam on here hoping to get a photo, but of course didn't see any more. I bumped in to another guy on a bike here and he gave me the awesome news that the trail had been extended to Toora. This was awesome riding, a smooth trail, loads of birds, and out of the sun and traffic.

At Toora it was back to the main road and this section was horrible with no shoulder and seemingly no speed limit. I pulled in for the day at Yarram and got the tent up. Feeling pretty shattered actually, I don't think I'll be doing many longer days! And the big hills are still to come.

Distance: 129 km

Snakes encountered: 1

Route map

Melbourne to Sydney: Day 1

Its tour time again! I'd originally planned to do this ride last year, but had a few less days available so ended up opting for Adelaide – Melbourne at the time instead. So now, this tags along rather nicely from where I'd left off anyway.

Departure day loomed a little too fast in the end. I'd come down with a good hearty bout of man flu and was feeling really very flat all week...not to mention all the other delightful symptoms that come with flu. But loom it did, until suddenly it was 'tomorrow' and I still wasn't ready. So one final scramble as always, and got my crap together ok to roll out of the door this morning on time...just.

I gave myself a kick start on this one to ease into the trip. I got a train out to Frankston and started from there, this way avoiding crossing the whole city with a laden bike and limited camping options after doing those miles. So a slightly late start from Frankston and the roads over to Crib point were bloody busy. I ended up detouring off the planned route which I hadn't remotely researched, and used a series of 'D' roads to cut round the worst of it.

When I got to Crib Point the next Ferry was several hours away so I doubled back a bit to explore the foreshore reserve about 10kms back, which was quiet and a nice place to pause in the sun and get in touring mode.

Heading back to the boat, the banter with the crew was good fun. Of course they thought I was a nutbag for riding so far. They asked what I would do if I made a wrong turn and had to ride extra. I to said standard procedure is to sit by the road and have a bit of a cry.

Its a 30 min ferry ride from Crib point to Cowes on Port Phillip Island. No cars are allowed but bikes were cool. A nice trip to, especially nearer Cowes. The problem for me now, though was that with the delayed departure it was now 5.30pm – I 'd hoped to get much further along the coast before camping...but only had an hour or so's light left to play with.

Having said that, on this trip I'm aiming to spread out the riding a little more than my last efforts...so just had to remind myself not to worry about it. The camp grounds at Cowes were all closed up so I made sure I had plenty of water for camping wild before leaving town.

The sun was going down on my back and the land was bathed in beautiful twilight colours...it was all a bit to open for what I needed right now...so I had to keep going. In the end I got lucky hear at Kilcunda which has a beautiful view out eastwards along the coast.

Quick and easy lentil curry for dinner, and I look forward to seeing that view properly tomorrow in full daylight. It looks like I have 2 good days then maybe some rain. Hell what does it matter, will be pedalling either way!

Day 1: 93km

Route map

West Melbourne's Traffic problems

I live out in the West of Melbourne, and first of all, I must say, I love it out here. But there is a storm brewing here for commuters as the place rapidly grows. It's a problem that's been here for a while now, but gets worse with every new land sale. And, with major new developments appearing constantly things are not going to get any better any-time soon. 

There is a campaign which started soon to Get Wyndham Moving and this inspired me to have my say. 

When I first moved to the area, I was warned about it. Whenever you tell someone you live in Point Cook...the first thing they say is "oh how long does it take to get to work then? This is despite the fact that in terms of distance, it's actually closer to the city than many parts of Melbourne even remotely east.

Anyway, in order to commute to the city centre from here, these are your main options:

Option 1. Drive the whole way. Roll the dice, and hope for the best. You first major hurdle is getting out of Point Cook. With only 2 major roads leading on to the freeway, it can take an hour to crawl along the congested roads just to get to the on ramp, and then you have such delights as the Princes Highway and the West Gate Bridge to look forward too, if you get that far. You could try negotiating odd working hours with your employer but you are going to have to leave home before 6.30 am for that to be reliable enough.

Estimated Journey time:  60 - 90 mins at peak times

Cost: Fuel, parking, stress

Option 2. Drive to Laverton or Williams Landing, and then get the train. On the surface this looks fine, but the access roads to both stations share the same route as the access roads to the freeway (what madness of urban planning led to that?! Especially in the case of the brand new Williams Landing) . So it can still take an hour just to get to the station when things are really bad. Seeing as though its a little too late to build a separate, new access road to Williams Landing, the only thing I can think of is road widening and designating 1 lane of traffic for buses only. It would then be a very quick journey to the station and therefore more appealing than the traffic jam in your car.One more point here:  Parking at Laverton is not possible after about 7am unless you park in the derelict field nearby, at your own risk! Williams Landing seems to be OK still for parking.

Estimated Journey time: 60 - 90 mins. 'Normally' about 75.

Cost: $12.12 return for the train + fuel (From Williams Landing) or $7.16 Return + fuel From Laverton, which is a zone closer.

Option 3. Get the bus to Williams Landing or Laverton, and then the train to the city. Same traffic problem as above. No parking hassle at least! No buses after 9pm, so don't work late or go out after work.

Estimated Journey time: About 90 minutes via Williams landing if the traffic is busy, but moving.

Cost: $12.12 return or $7.16 Return + fuel From Laverton, which is a zone closer.

Option 4. Cycle to the train station and get the train to the city. Not a bad option, but you first have to survive the seriously scary access road also shared by all the traffic above. There are possible alternative routes that will be far less direct depending on where you are in the Point Cook (From Sanctuary Lakes for example, you can ride alongside the creek bike path to the East). There is no dedicated cycle route that goes the whole way. Also at Laverton there are no spots left in the cycle cage after about 7:45am in summer.

Estimated Journey time: This is by far the fastest option. You can ride past the stationary traffic and be at work within an hour.

Cost: $12.12 return or $7.16 Return + fuel From Laverton….both with the possibility of getting hit by a car en-route

Option 5. Cycle to the Westgate punt, and then into the city. My personal favourite of course - but it requires a reasonable degree of fitness. It takes about an hour and a quarter including the punt depending on your pace and the wind. The route is wonderfully mostly traffic free, along the coastal estuary shared bike/pedestrian path. The only hazards are dogs off leash and the wind.

Journey time: About 80 mins depending on the wind and your fitness.
Cost: $10 will get you 6 trips on the punt. So $3.33 a day return...though you'll need a shower at work and a decent breakfast for fuel.

The Altona bike/pedestrian shared path is beautiful

I was hoping, perhaps with blind optimism, that Get Wyndham Moving pushes for better commuting options that don’t involve a car. Personally I'm a bit of a ‘freak’ that doesn't mind a 60 km+ round trip on the bicycle, riding the whole way into the city. For me, I arrive at work exercised, refreshed, on time and free of stress. I'm a huge advocate of the health and environmental benefits of taking this option, and there is a small but growing group of fellow West Melbourne residents who also do this and utilise the brilliant Punt service to shorten the journey. Of course, I have to be realistic and accept that this level of peddling commitment is not for everyone. But surely more people would at least consider cycling to the train station if there was a safe, but still reasonably direct route available to them ?  And enough safe storage space at the train station for their bike? Any solution to the traffic problems that involve driving, seem only likely have short term benefits at best, because road infrastructure can never keep pace with the population.

As for cycling to the local train stations...here's an example of the peril involved:

The issues with this road are:

-         Cycle lanes are only present at intermittent intervals  along Point Cook road. In some places, they disappear quite suddenly, forcing the rider out into the traffic where there is already very limited space. Having no cycle lane at all may actually be safer in that at least the rider is then on a direct, and predictable line. The worst areas for this are: South of the Sneydes Rd intersection , and north of the Sanctuary Lakes roundabout before the Dunnings Rd intersection

-         The roundabout at the freeway entrance near Laverton is still seriously dangerous despite a recent upgrade. The Sanctuary lakes roundabout also pretty intimidating and a regular accident site for cars. What is the safest route here...into the left hand turning lane, but then go straight?!

-         South of Syndes road there is a bus stop with a section of unsealed road pushing out into the lane. Cars travel along here at 70 km/h are expecting the cyclist to stay in a straight line which they can’t do. The road here is also not wide enough.

-         Cycle access to Williams Landing does not seem to have been considered? Though there are bike cages there that get used a little bit, I wonder how you are supposed to get across the freeway over-bridge safely and directly without riding on the pavement which is illegal in Victoria unless you are under 12 years old.

Finally, I was a little disappointed in opening up "what we need" section of the website that there wasn't one single mention of cycling or related infrastructure. Is the green bike logo on their cover just for decoration? Hopefully something more specific comes from this as the campaign gets started. The 'race' sounds interesting at least. 

I'll be sending this in to Get Wyndham Moving to see what they say...

EDIT: The big news only the day after  posted this, is the public transport announcement that Zone 2 will be scraped. It will be interesting to see what the effect of this is, but will surely push more people towards the newer and further out train station here. The problem of course still exists I of how to  actually get to the train station! And will a fare increase for zone 1 end up funding this? The budget details are "yet to be revealed".

10,000 km - Done

Today I pedaled my ten thousandth kilometre for the year! My wife joined me for the milestone which was a lovely moment, and fitting we should do it together! I'd set myself a target of 10,000 km last January, not so much as a New Years resolution, but more a specific cycling goal. So today, at the finish of 2013 I have ridden 10,026.5 km...with two day's to spare!

This was an interesting challenge. Most of my previous goals in any sport have required commitment over a shorter time period. I found the sustained nature of this challenge made it easier in some respects, but harder in others. On one hand, I could afford the odd 'bad month' provided I was able to make up the time later. At the same time, it was hard in that it works out as having to ride a minimum of 27 km a day, every day...for the whole year..so any slack time meant more work later. As it turned out, I lost a lot of momentum over winter - and I found switching jobs always contributed to that lost momentum, so had to really dig hard for November & December to make the total distance:

A lot of the distance came from commuting. Over the course of the year I had a couple of different jobs, and the closest to home was still 31 km away - so riding that both ways at least a few times a week would mean lots of km's done. I supplemented this with fairly regular weekend rides in the warmer months, and 1 long tour from Adelaide to Melbourne. When I got behind, it felt better to break down the 10,000 into smaller weekly targets and focus purely on hitting that. Losing momentum is your biggest enemy...it's really hard to get started again when you stop, so the key for me was making it part of my daily routine - then your body actually starts missing the pain when you stop pushing yourself hard. I also got plenty of motivation form cycling forums where plenty of others had set similar goals.

Melbourne's Eastern Bays: The path is great for slow training. Take the road to ride quick.

Apart from the physical challenge I've had great health benefits returned from being active. I weigh less now than I did 10 years ago (I also changed a few bad eating habits mind you), and after a cholesterol warning from my doctor at the start of the year, look forward to my next test results to see how much its all paid off.

Perhaps one of the most inspiring news articles I read all year, was the news that bicycles outsold cars in Europe last year. And not just in the big cycling countries with a long history of bicycle friendly services, like Holland, Denmark and France....but we are talking just about ALL of Europe. Most articles I've read about this tend to cite financial recession as the main driver for this, but I wonder if this keeps up long enough, we might even see an impact on not only our population's health, but our planet's too?

All the more reason to get off your ass. Have a happy New Year! And good luck with setting tough, but possible goals...

Swan Hill to Melbourne - Day 2

After a deep but all too short sleep it was time to fuel up again and get moving. The breakfast at the B&B was just brilliant: Fresh fruit, croissants, coffee and some scrambled eggs with salmon in a Brioche. That ought to get me going! Yesterday I burnt 7500 calories and its hard to replace that.

The day started with a nice downhill section towards Daylesford, a pretty and undulating area of mixed forest and farm land. I missed a turn off at this point, and ended up on the A300 to Daylesford instead of a quieter minor road. Thankfully it was a short error and made little difference to the day. Daylesford was heaving with day visitors, and not as pretty or charming as Maldon...but grabbed a nice coffee here and topped up the water, as this was actually the last town to pass through before the western edge of Melbourne on my route.

About 10 km out of Daylesford I reach the high point of the trip at about 700m. The hill climb was mostly pretty gentle so this didn't seem too bad. Nevertheless still a comforting thought to know its all downhill from here, and I could feel the expected Northerly wind picking up behind me which was definitely making a difference.

The highlight for the day though: Glenmore road, which is nestled between the Brisbane Ranges national park and Weribee gorge. The road is single lane and almost entirely traffic free here.

The start of Glenmore road from the West

As you head east, it drops very steeply into this stunning valley filled with farms, young orchards and livestock. Steep enough in fact, to need to move one's butt over the rear tyre and behind the bike seat, to shift weight off the front of the bike.

Descending Glenmore Rd

Out the other end of the valley there is just a slight hill climb and a few kilometers further on I got my first glimpse of Melbourne, and home, from the top of  the Weribee grasslands area. From this angle, it almost looks like Melbourne is surrounded by grass plains.

Melbourne just to the right of centre here

An hour or so later, blasted home by the wind over the final section, I arrived at West Melbourne and home. I really flew the whole day today, not stopping for lunch, just a few water swigs and some dried fruit after the coffee in Daylesford. 1 big 155 km push. It was great to be back...and be greeted by my brilliant (and tolerant) wife & our cats.

Many fellow tourers may tutt tutt at doing such big distance so quickly and 'not seeing anything' - and I actually agree completely! Though I did see something and as always I had no time off work. Getting out and doing this felt a lot better than talking about it. I'm also well on my way now to completing the 10,000 km cycling goal I'd set myself for the year, with only 550 km to go and 3 weeks to do it.

Day 2 ride profile

You can grab my day 2 route and .gpx file here.

Swan Hill - Melbourne Day 1

This was a mini tour with an ambitious itinerary, not much time, and cobbled together at the last minute when a relatively forgiving weather forecast emerged! The plan: get a train to Swan Hill after work on Friday, start peddling south Saturday morning, travel light, and emerge on the Western edge of Melbourne on Sunday afternoon before a strong Southerly change and thus tricky headwind was forecast.

'Bianca' configured for speed touring

So on Friday I zipped down to Melbourne's Southern Cross Station on 'Bianca' straight out of the office & grabbing the only vaguely "carb heavy" looking food on offer at the railway station to eat on the train. This was a fairly grim tasting pesto pasta salad. It was at least filling...but next time I'll take a packed dinner!!

The train north to Swan hill takes about 4.5 hours and bikes can go in the rear of the train.  Frustratingly, you can't book the bike and there is limited space. Its luck of the draw..but only an idiot would take a bike out to Swan Hill....right? I'd arranged a late arrival at a budget hotel conveniently on the main road south out of town in Swan Hill, and they were wonderfully accommodating with the bike and an early breakfast as well.

A beautiful morning dawned with the deafening squawks of local parrots ensuring everyone was up. I was rolling south nice and early with a very long day on the cards and an eagerness to make an early dent in the kilometers before the sun reached its full power.

For the first leg, it was a flat 55 km run down to Kerang passing a series of lakes on the way, that promised both motorised water sports, and bird life in the wetlands, as their prime attractions...

This reminded me of the great classic Aussie movie "Castle..."

Feel the serenity

The shoulder on this section of road is a bit patchy in places and the traffic fast with a few trucks...but most drivers were really courteous and overtook nice and wide. Winds were light and I made great ground here! After Kerang the volume of traffic eased off a lot as well...but the sun was beating down and there was no hiding from it (see below). In the flat and barren land there were odd moments of beauty to be seen. At one point 2 very large eagles soared down to land on a fence line close to where I went past - they looked very well fed!  The midday heat resulted in mirages from all directions, and farmers tall stacks of hay looked like a distorted scene from a low budget sci -fi film! Or maybe I just hadn't had enough water...

I'd set my new helmet camera to take a picture every 4 seconds, and in bright conditions, the pictures aren't bad. The really cool thing for touring with this is having a photo journal taken for you "in the moment" without you having to stop all the time. Here are some sample pictures from the cam:

Not quite the outback, but hot and exposed nonetheless

Not much of a shoulder here.
 It's worth noting in still mode, you can sometimes pick up the license plate no. 

Forgetting I had a camera running already...

I passed my mid point for the day along here somewhere but wanted to stop out of the sun so pushed on to Serpentine for lunch. When I supplied at Kerang I'd checked with some locals when the next water point was and was told there was a truck stop here that would have to do. This turned out to be good advice, it was a welcome relief to be under air con and even more so to wash the sun block out my eyes! Being a truck stop, food choices were poor and yet I somehow still spent $27 on lunch in there...what?! I was also an alien to them...they just could't fathom why anyone would cycle from Swan Hill. I half expected then to start throwing salt over one shoulder and cross their chests! But jokes aside the banter was fun and it was welcoming place that was hard to leave.

But leave I did. South of Serpentine I was on a smaller still road and saw a lot less traffic, enjoying taking up as much space as I wanted. Around the 160km mark I started feeling most unwell, a sort of queasy exhaustion. I'd drunk a lot of water, I think it was more the bad food options at lunch and the sun. At this point, the demons of self doubt started creeping in as to whether I could make it. After this carried on a while, and pace kept falling, I found a tree that offered a bit of shade and pulled over for a carb gel. I keep these only really for emergencies and they work wonders if not overdone. I was back in the game half an hour later and the road entered a more forested area...shade, bliss...awesome!

This section south of Bridgewater was a highlight of the day. The land took on more variety with increasing patches of hills and patches of trees teeming with life.Finally, at the top of a final hill section the cute "frontier" town of Maldon merged in the trees...and oh what a relief!

So it was 210 km for the day, only the third time for me I've cracked a double ton and the first in hot weather. The ride profile says it all:

Special mention to the Rendevous B&B in Maldon. What a great place! French couple Marie & Didier clearly love people and love their job and gave a very warm welcome. The bike was no problem and they mentioned they get plenty of cyclists. Didier also used to ride. They cook outstanding french food and have a well stocked bar. A great place to treat yourself if you can swing it. I was a wreck when I got here and left nicely refreshed.

Some further info for anyone else riding this route - water:

Between Swan Hill and Kerang there were only 2 places you could buy water and basic supplies. Beyond Kerang...there was nothing definite I saw. Make sure you are well stocked before leaving town south, its a long (80km) dry, hot and very exposed section of road with not much shade or relief from wind. The only definite water points I saw from there were at the next town Serpentine where there is a truck stop and a small service station. Between Serpentine and Maldon you could get water at Bridgewater or Newbridge.

I carried 4-5 litres...probably not enough in summer. I emptied that twice.

A brief point about my route choice:

I planned to enter Melbourne from the Western side and this route choice leads up to that. Its a fairly direct route, and uses mostly minor sealed roads. I did not focus on avoiding hills.

Day 1 route and .gpx is available here.

Contour Plus 2 - Review Part 2 - The device config file

In my last post I mentioned that the Contour "Storyteller" software isn't available anymore from the Contour website. Well you don't really need it, and there are a few nifty tricks you can do with the camera configuration just by editing the camera's configuration file.

Backup

Before you start, make a backup of the file:

• Plug your camera into your computer, and browse to the contour drive that appears
• In the root folder, you should see a file called "FW_RTC.txt" which is the configuration file. 
• Make a copy of this file on your computer

Ensure file is not "Read only"

Now, going back to the contour drive on your computer, right click on the file and make sure it's not "read only" - uncheck this box if its checked before you start.

Explore the file

Open up  "FW_RTC.txt" on your device. This first part of the file, tells you what you have configured the programmable switch buttons 1 & 2 on, when you open up the back of the camera :

And this part of the file, defines what parameters you can enter, for each of the options in the settings above:

For example, if I wanted to change program otpion 1 from "A" - 1920x1080 30fps (NTSC)/25fps (PAL) to "G" 848x480  120fps (NTSC)/100fps (PAL) I simply change it to:

You'll notice I also change the 2 update settings to "Y" - this ensures the device firmware gets updated next time you power on the camera. If you leave it on "N" nothing will change.

To save your changes, just save the notepad file. Make sure you eject the device properly from windows before you unplug it. And you do this at your own risk! Make sure you test it before you need it....

Option for travelling

A good option if you are travelling,could be to make a couple of copies of the configuration file with the various settings you prefer, then just copy the one you want to have active onto the device whenever you need it. For example, have a couple of different microSD cards with you, and use one for HD video in low light, and a different microSD with different settings for other shooting conditions.