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.

Calais to Paris: Day 2

I woke up late after a massive sleep but with a return of my sore ankle...it was really stiff and a bit swollen so I spent a good while stretching and trying to loosen it up. The day started with a steep hill climb, all the major towns in the area seemed to be at the bottom of valleys, including Poix De Picardie. But it wasn't raining! So once I got up the hill the riding conditions were better than day one by a long shot. Still overcast, but fantastic on the flat hill tops, with well signposted roads:

And the further on I got the less pain there was in my ankle. Originally I'd planned to follow a long wide arc south west of Paris, but decided instead to cut slightly less south and risk a few busy roads in exchange for a slightly shorter route. Besides it was also much more fun just plotting my own route, I just used Gmaps on my phone, using an "Euro internet booster" through my provider to keep the cost down, and this worked well...didn't loose reception once.

The weather cleared a little too, and I just adored the section between Poilly and the outskirts of Paris...

The feeling of complete freedom that cycle touring gives you, when you are totally self sufficient and your only limitation is your own strength, is a wonderful feeling. You feel the world opening up before you...

The only problem I had was finding somewhere to get water and something to eat... it was a Sunday and the few small towns I passed through were well and truly closed for the day. So my advice to anyone following this route is to stock up well!

I finally found something (yes, a bakery) on the outkirts of the city at Osny, and then got pretty lost even with   gmaps but eventually sorted it out. The main problem entering Paris from the west is the amount of river crossings, the lack of bridges mean some of the roads are extremely busy. But is is possible - and I cut out about 20 km going this way.

Anyway Port D'Orleans was the point I chose to cross the dread "Peripherique" and it was no trouble at all, probably helped being a Sunday. I'd caught the odd glimpse of the top of Le Tour Eiffel on the way before finally coasting down Rue Des Longchamp and seeing the whole big pile of scrap metal tower in her full splendor:

Being election day, it was a busy place. A vocal group of Syrians were trying to raise awareness for their plight, but the show was stolen by a large group of Chinese performing Tai Chi and putting forward a message of peace and free speech. While they were doing this the local police were busy trying to round up all the immigrants trying to make a living selling cheap miniature plastic Tour Eiffel's and noisy wind up toys...what a crazy place...

I did like the French election posters though...very stylish. They looked like they were drawn by Herge and then painted by someone equally famous

This was almost the end of the line for me on the ride, I somehow picked up a puncture at the tour Eiffel but 1 stop to pump up the tyre got me across town to my family's place...my ankle was really very sore when I got  there but what a rewarding ride that was.

The whole trip all up was about 326 km, here was day 2 (at least up until Le Peripherique):

France, you're stunning countryside and friendly people were an absolute joy to cycle through...I hope to return again!

Calais to Paris - Day 1

I'd started this trip fairly tired after a manic week at work so it was with some difficulty I got up at 5.30am to get underway from Dover. The plan was to get the first ferry, and head to Paris in 2 days on the bike starting in Calais. As we sailed out from port, the white cliffs off 'Old Blighty' were fighting to stand out against the mirth of Channel weather...another wet and windy day looked to be on the cards...nothing new there...

Nevertheless I was excited about the prospect of the days ride ahead and spent the entire crossing going over my maps to plot a route. I'd decided to do this ride really only a few days earlier and had no time to research in detail. What I had done was look briefly at this route on Bikely which looked interesting.

Calais was wet and blustery when I pulled out of the boat and cycled out of port, I was soaked within a few minutes so set about looking for the route out of town, wanting to get peddling to warm up. After a few initial wrong turns I got my bearings and began the gentle climb into the countryside. The first thing I noticed was how courteous drivers were. When overtaking, they sat well back until it was safe to pass then performed a proper overtaking maneuver, giving a full cars width space between us - brilliant! I wish drivers in the UK would do the same! The roads were also superb and as I was sticking to "D" roads - traffic was very light.

And despite the awful weather..

 I just loved cycling through the Parc Naturel régional des Caps et Marais d'Opale, it really is superb riding and very pretty if you like open spaces..anyone that tells you otherwise needs their head seen too! (On this point I've seen a few comments about featureless landscape in other trip reports - o.k its not the Alps, but what do you expect?!)

As I progressed towards Montruil, I started seeing Gendarmes on the side of the road...then a gradually increasing amount of people lining the street in every small village. At first, I thought this must be something to do with the national elections but then some of them started cheering when I cycled past. Bewildered, but amused I got into the spirit of things and started cheering back..my limited knowledge of French indicating that I appeared to be in first place in some kind of race!!

When I hit Montreuil and the steep climb into the beautiful walled town, there were bigger crowds and crash barriers lining the streets, complete with TV crews and a funfair....and erm...yes, it did appear to be quite a major cycling event:

In fact, this turned out to be the route of day 2 of 4 Jours de Dunkerque ! Which explains a lot...the locals must have been very amused by some chump tourist trucking by them on a pannier laden touring bike!

Anyway this seemed like a good place to stop for lunch, and I found a typically excellent bakery which sold these fine treats:

No one ever said this route was flat and I felt quite tired already at this stage, having stopped after 75km, a little below target. Here's how the first section looked:

After stuffing my face it was time to move on. The weather had improved a little but somehow I ended up back on parts of the race route again, and would get convoys of cars honking past in places. So I then deviated off from the original plan and took a slightly more westerly route to get out the way. The roads remained brilliant:

And it was just a matter of plodding on and eating up the miles. There was one final hill section to go that I really struggled on, before a the descent downhill into the village of Poix de Picardie, the target for day 1. And what a relief it was too! 176km all told, and the section after lunch looked like this:

Day 2 promised to be slightly shorter, but with the challenge of entering Paris...

York - London: Should have taken a pedalo

I've got 5 weeks left till the big challenge starts. So whats the sensible thing to do? Why get a train to York of course and then cycle all the way back! So on Saturday I got up at Oh-My-God O'clock and pedaled up to St Pancras in torrential rain...a theme that was to permeate the weekend. The trip north was really pleasant, zooming out of town on a high speed train...at least  until it dawned on my every couple of minutes of "zoom" was going to be a slog back on the bike home. Anyway this was the plan:

York is a beautiful railway station to arrive at...which is saying something. Blossomed tree line lanes and castle walls tucked in to the middle of the city. Had no time to look around but took the tourist shot thats no doubt been done a few times before:

And then got a move on. I'd done a rough calculation before going away on the excellent route planning website http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/ and knew that to make it to my target for the day, Peterborough, I'd have to ride a PB for distance - but that was the whole point of heading so far away. The weather was not great either, cold, and the odd heavy shower - but the riding was brilliant - fast, flat and with a wind mostly on my back quarter with the odd headwind section.

I made great time south, having a lunch break after 100km at possibly the worst pub in Lincolnshire, for a rather unpleasant, but very filling Lasagne...which I regretted later (don't ask). Then moved on to Lincoln itself, very briefly passing though the city center for a peak at the Cathedral:

After Lincoln the miles were really stacking up and the constant buffeting in the wind was taking it out of me. I squeezed down a gel and tried to find some more energy...finally Peterborough signs started appearing and I negotiated busy arterial roads to the south side of the city where I'd booked a room.

Wow...this turned out to be a cyclist dream. When the staff asked why the heck I'd ridden from York and I said it was training for a charity ride, they went well out of their way: bike locked safely in a meeting room, my room upgraded, beautiful meal, smiling faces. Shame I'd passed out asleep by 9pm and couldn't enjoy the place more but thanks guys at the The Premier Inn - exceptional service!

The weather worsened overnight and I was out the door as early as possible...still a long way from London. Not much to say about this...except I was soaked, cold, and still very sore from an epic day one. This was a pure mental battle to keep going, and small things like navigating were more difficult than normal. I couldn't stop & knew if I did I'd never start again. I was too wet and cold to stop moving...so did the final 130km pedal in 1 long single hit - riding a lot slower than normal. So wet in fact it might have been faster in this:

Finally back home and an ice pack on a sore ankle, a bit of achilles tendonitis is back...got to get that sorted before next weekend when I'm riding aboard...

Total tally for the weekend:

Day 1: York to Peterborough

230 km / 142 Miles: 7001 Calories

Day 2: Peterbrough to London

140 km / 87 Miles: 4464 Calories

Paying for it now!

The New Forest & 371km this week

The long weekend meant more time training of course. I headed out of London riding south west, supported by a light tailwind which helped me make great time down to Alton for the lunch stop about 80km down the line. The riding was on mostly busy roads and plenty of dual carraigeway unfortunately, but it was at least very fast.

After an hour break and a big lunch I pushed on to Winchester, always a lovely place to call in at, but didn't really have anytime time look around...as I was taking this photo:



A very inebriated gentleman went out of his way to inform me me that the boat race was off! Some idiot had gone for a swim.



New travels fast in Winchester...I was impressed. (And peddled away FAST).

So crossing the town, I finally got on some B roads and did plenty of hill climbing as the road snaked its way towards Southampton. There were a few pretty hairy roundabouts with very fast moving traffic to negotiate - I hate doing these on a bike as the traffic is often moving too fast for you to get in the right lane and cars never let you in. But finally exiting town, I got to the far more pleasant New Forrest:



Passing through the ancient woodlands and emerging at Christchurch (the other one):



On the outskirts of Bournemouth. I felt great on this ride, and pulled up at my accommodation with 176km on the odometer...pulling up to a beautiful beach view despite the murky weather.




I did that in about 7hrs of ride time, with a 1 hour break. Far, far to fast, still need to slow down damnit - this challenge is not about speed its about sustaining long rides 10 days in a row. I think I got nervous by the millage still to go when I saw a sign at Winchester, and hit the gas. But it will be easier in June with longer daylight hours and thats not a factor.

But, I had the pleasure of my Wife's company for the rest of this trip


She'd got the train down from London with her bike. So on Sunday I rode back into the Forest and met her at the train station at Brokenhurst. I love this area, it makes me think this is how most of Britain would have looked, before the onset of agriculture and the rest. The villages in the area are very pretty as well, and you often see animals wandering around freely. We saw this huge Bull in Brokenhurst:


And there are ponies abound, which graze on the common land


We cycled across to the far northern edge of the park, enjoying fantastic riding conditions on narrow sealed country lanes weaving there way through forest and heathland. Our lunch stop was at the very cute Red Shoot Inn both eating a massive ploughmans to fuel up:


We then rode back down to Brokenhurst, mostly downhill and with a tailwind to boot so it took half the time that it had on the way up. My wife headed back to Bournmouth on the train while I stayed on the bike. So in the end the days tally was 110 km, making this a fantastic training week all told: 372 km / 231 miles. This month I need to hit 1300km so no celebrations yet. But am feeling tip top, though you cant tell in my mug shot:


In the meantime the folks at Rethink put me in touch with a few other keen souls cycling for the Charity this summer. John is cycling 700 miles from Calais to the Mediterranean sea..the Med?! Why didn't I think of that? Here I will be ending in the northwest corner of Scotland when John will have motivation of the beach at the end to pull him through...well done mate. Also another LEJOG'er Paul who is setting off at the end of the month and Stephen doing the coast to coast in a single day. Always good to hear what others are up to share ideas...good luck all!