Just a quick overnighter east of Melbourne as far as the town of Warragul. I didn’t quite get to Gippsland.
Tuesday 27 April 2021. Melbourne · Warragul |54 km cycling+ 60 km by train|
[Cool; 15 -17°C, overcast. No wind. Reasonably flat, mainly on busy C roads with no shoulder but some with bike lanes; 12 km of washboard dirt].
I made big preparations to go away cycling to the Victorian high country before winter set in. The main consideration, as always, was whether or not to take the generator. This time I decided not to take it because for once I had carefully planned out daily rides that allowed for overnight stays in paid accommodation where I would be able to access mains power. This turned out to be a poor decision, however, because it proved impossible to actually find any accommodation at a reasonable price. Victoria has gone crazy at the moment with wanderlust grey nomads breaking out of their coronavirus-induced quarantine isolation and filling up all the spaces with their big caravans.
I bought a set of Ergon GP5 handlebar grips to give me two more riding hand positions and so far I’m very pleased with them. My left wrist/ hand is still suffering from whatever I destroyed inside it 6 weeks ago and the ability to frequently change position helps a lot. I hadn’t been able to manage more than 50 km in a day up until then without feeling very sore and sorry for myself.
It was very late on the Tuesday before I was finally able to get away. This was mainly because I discovered there was a slow-leaking puncture in the BOB trailer tyre. After trying to fix it several times I gave up and went and bought a new tube. Without the generator it was a comparatively light trailer-load anyway, but I still needed the trailer’s space for the camping gear and food because of all the extra warm clothes I’d brought along.
I tried booking at 5 different caravan parks from between 60 to 120 km away and the only one that would have me was at Warragul which is 110 km away. Since I was determined to set off straightaway that day, and it was already 1.30pm, I therefore had to take the metro to the end of the line at Pakenham, to leave me with only a 50-km ride to make it to Warragul before dark.
I was nervous about taking my eBike and trailer on the train. That’s because it blocks the aisle and obstructs the doors on one side of the carriage (and the doors open on different sides for different stations). My main concern was that a late-coming commuter dashing onto the train might trip over my trailer and break a leg. I was at the middle door of the first carriage, and this is the best spot because the first carriage is always less busy. It was the quiet time in the middle of the day anyway. I freaked out when a group of 8 disabled people and their carers came aboard but they congregated around the front at the door where where the train staff put the loading ramp so it was ok in the end. Still, a bit nerve-wracking and I remained stressed the whole time I was on the train.
After the train, the ride itself was pleasant enough through a string of small towns and mostly flat grazing country. The ‘Warragul Gardens Holiday Park’, to give it it’s full title, is across the railway line from the main part of town alongside a creek. An unpowered pitch cost $32 – about standard these days. I arrived at 5.30pm, just before dark and quickly got set up.
My caravan neighbours thoughtfully turned on their full length LED strip-light especially for my benefit but I had to go and ask them to turn it off again because it blinded me once it got properly dark. The large flock of Corellas roosting in the gum trees along the creek bed were incredibly noisy and didn’t shut up for most of the night, and frequent trains came roaring through sounding their horn for the crossing half a kilometer up the road too, but none of this bothered me much and I got a good night’s sleep.
I even got to have a nice cooked dinner by reheating my frozen butter chicken meal, home-made from my favourite Headbanger’s Kitchen recipe on the camp kitchen stove.
It was a clear cloudless night. A beautiful full moon – a Super Moon no less – rose at dusk. I got some good shots of it after it had cleared the trees. They call it a Pink Moon, but it’s not pink at all – that’s just a northern hemisphere thing – a full moon in April is supposed to herald the arrival of a certain pink spring flower by the name of phlox. But it’s autumn here 🙄. Next month, we’ll be getting a Blood Moon, and it will be pink(ish).
Wednesday 28 April 2021. Warragul · Melbourne |111 km|
[What a perfect autumn day! So greeted me a passerby when I stopped for a a slug out of my thermos flask. And I couldn’t agree with her more: cold to begin with, then up to 19°C, slight head breeze, sunny with scattered cloud. Perfect for cycling!].
My tent neighbour on the other side went off to work at 5.30 am. And how do I know this? Because his diesel ute and rattling trailer were parked about 2m from my nose and it left like he was about to drive straight over the top of me when he started up. He’s doing a week-long landscaping job at Tynong which is 35 km away and this was the closest accommodation he could get, so he told me. This did not auger well for my own prospects.
I wanted to go to Walhalla next, and I thought the modest (3-star) Star Hotel there might be the best bet for somewhere to stay but when I checked it out online, its price certainly wasn’t modest – upwards of $242 per night. Some B&Bs in the area were priced from $190 per night per couple, 2 nights minimum (breakfast included!), but I called one and even at that price they were already full up on a week night.
OK, I anticipated this, so I figured I’d head further east in more settled country with bigger towns towards Maffra instead (then to Dargo and across the Great Divide to Bright), but again I could find nothing within a daily range of 80 km that I’d be lucky to cover once I got into the mountains. Nothing else for it but to go back home to Melbourne.
There was a thick fog at daybreak that didn’t burn off completely until after I’d packed up and got going at 9.15. The route was essentially retracing my path of yesterday through Warragul, Drouin, Longwarry, Bunyip, Garfield, Tynong and Nar Nar Goon to Pakenham.
Drouin is the biggest of these, Tynong and Longwarry not much to look at, all trains stop at Garfield but not much else, Bunyip is very cute and I stopped there for a bite to eat, and Nar Nar Goon – well, all that sticks in my head about Nar Nar Goon is that two brothers from there sold their 83 Ha (200 Acre) cattle farm to developers for $80 million last year after trying, and failing, to sell it for $265,000 about 16 years ago. Nar Nar Goon brothers sell for $80 million
Pakenham is currently at the south-eastern fringe of the greater Melbourne metropolitan area (But I guess Nar Nar Goon soon will be huh), some 60 km from the CBD. From there I cycled 35 km through the suburbs of Officer, Beaconsfield, Berwick, Narre Warren, Hallam and Dandenong on mainly quiet residential streets following GPS guidance (and looking back at the track it was almost a straight line, so well done GPS!).
Then, after crossing under the Eastlink Toll Road I was back into familiar territory on the Djerring Trail alongside the railway line for 17 km through Noble Park, Springvale, Clayton and Oakleigh to Hughesdale. At Hughesdale I branched off onto the Scotchmans Creek and Gardiners Creek Trails for 11 km to the Yarra River and then on the Capital City Trail for the final 6 km to my home.
My left hand stood up well enough to the rigours of 111 km of cycling for the day, but I guess I am just saying that because I’ve already forgotten how sore it was by the time I got home yesterday. Frequent changes of hand position sure do help, and the top fluke position is especially handy for hills (there was 630m of climbing).
– ends –