Fixing Australia presented by Rapha - across the continent on a fixed gear bike » Victoria

Broken Hill

Ross — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:10:16 +0000

I stopped at the Coombah roadhouse for some liquids, bought a bottle of water and some lemonade, enough to get me to Broken Hill. I’m back in the outback here, there is little traffic, no houses, no water and the bore-water that is available tastes like seawater it’s so salty. I continued on past the roadhouse for another 40km or so, found a decent spot to camp, leveled a site and called it a night. That’s pretty much how it is in the outback on the bike.

I’m taking a few days off here in Broken Hill. There are lots of little side trips around with plenty to see and do so it’s a good base. I’m not sure exactly why but even though it was only 91km to Broken Hill today, by the time I arrived it felt like I’d covered 250km. The last two days felt good, my legs feel OK. There was a headwind and it was a bit of a grind but still. Maybe it’s just tiredness, I’ve not had a full and decent night sleep since the fall, I keep waking up because of it and it’s especially difficult to get comfortable on the ground in a tent. Everybody I speak to tells me about the town of Silverton 30km or so outside Broken Hill. I’m looking forward to exploring around here. Some of the views on the way into town were phenomenal, nothing as far as the eye can see.

Great Darling AnaBranch

Ross — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 07:01:56 +0000

Typical night in the bush

A week after landing in Mildura and a after short trip to see some friends before they departed this country I took to the road again. The plan from Mildura is jut go straight north to Broken Hill, where the outback begins again and where for me at least it feel like the main part of the journey begins. First off is a 300km jaunt with just one roadhouse to break up the journey.

About 20km out of Mildura I reached into my pocket to turn on my phone and check for messages before left mobile coverage for a few days. As luck would have it it wasn’t there, I’d left it plugged into the charger in Mildura which meant adding an extra 40km to the ride to Broken Hill. A side effect of lots of traffic in built-up areas is lots of broken glass, and before I’d clocked 50km to Wentworth I’d had 2 separate flats – only three so far which is not bad considering. The second happened in Wentworth, the meeting point of the Murray and Darling rivers so I repaired the holes and had lunch there. Not the ideal start to a day but I still made it to the Great Darling Anabranch for sundown.

I couldn’t really have asked for a better camping location. It’s a mostly dry river running parallel to the Darling which in times of flood gets filled. Not so now and there was an abundance of firewood. So I pitched up, and got a nice fire going. It gets cold at night so when I can I’ll try to have a campfire going, depends on availability of wood etc. There were lots of kangaroos around, saw a brown snake, loads of birds, then sitting around the fire for supper. It all seems pretty good to me, I’m really enjoying this..

Sunraysia

Ross — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 06:57:55 +0000

Out of Ouyen I just followed the road north to Mildura, about 35km into the journey I passed theroadhouse at Hattah. What was amusing about it was the big direction sign out the front. New York 18788km, Dehli 8781km all fair enough, I’ve no idea how far but they seem reasonable. However Singapore 17035km? Doesn’t seem quite right. As you can guess it was a quiet morning. Mildura is on the banks of the Murray and as a result has access to water for irrigation, a fact they exploit fully. The region around here produces much of the fruit, grapes, oranges etc. for Australia and throughout the region is nothing but row upon row of vines and orange groves.

The traffic has an effect on the road surface and I suffered riding into Mildura. My left side was in agony. I had to keep stopping to take break, eventually every bump and peddle were jarring the nerve so I was very happy to get to Mildura. No sooner had I arrived than the heavens opened. I’d already decided to take a break in Mildura to rest it up and I was glad to be here now. I feel like it will need more than a few days, here’s to hoping I’m wrong.

Sea Lake

Ross — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:55:41 +0000

I arrived in Sea Lake this afternoon with a little passenger. When I was opening my bag to get lunch I found a little, or should I say not so little huntsman spider in my gear. When I first saw one of these in my tent almost 2 years ago I nearly lost control of certain bodily functions, now I think nothing of it. This guy wasn’t very big as they go but easily dwarfs anything you’ll ever see in Ireland or the UK.

Sea Lake was hosting the Mallee rally the coming weekend but being 5 days away I didn’t feel the desire to see it strong enough to stop for the best part of a week. Could have been good, the vehicles are impressive. Anyhow after dropping off my passenger I continued up to the salt lake and beyond towards Ouyen. It’s been a northerly wind for the last week and I just kept my head down and kept the pedals turning until I made it to town. Ouyen is famous for it’s vanilla slice. I have a bit of a sweet tooth so I didn’t need my arm twisted to have a sample. It’s not worth a trip to Ouyen for, but if you’re passing it’s definitely worth a stop.

Woomelang

Ross — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:47:43 +0000

From Brim I had a pretty uneventful day, the wind has picked up – not favourably – and made it a hard day in the saddle. My left shoulder is still extremely sore and I felt it every bit of the way today but enough about that. At a place called Beulah there was a rest area with a tree trunk painted to look like a cyclist with a fixed gear bike. I took an obligatory cheesy picture and will upload it when I can find a decent Internet connection. At the end of the day I found myself in a place called Woomelang. It was so quiet it was almost like a ghost town. I found a picnic table and cooked my evening meal. I’d been getting ‘evil’ text messages about this delicious stew I missed in Melbourne so I decided to make my own.
In the afternoon in Hopetoun I got some lamb, chopped into chunks and cooked it on a barbie with some veggies. I made up a soup and put the lot into my plactic container and hit the road again. In Woomelang I let it all cook on the simmer ring on my little stove for over an hour – in between heating water for tea of course. It made a delicious stew, with cheese sandwiches I was very satisfied with my efforts. I couldn’t be bothered looking for a proper place to camp, it was so quiet I just pitched my tent right there in the centre of town. The kids all found it very amusing in the morning on the way to school across the street

The Mallee

Ross — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 20:29:22 +0000

For the fourth night in a row the temperature was below freezing, very unusual in Horsham where it went 12 below the normal average for this time of year. I stayed in a caravan park a few kilometers outside Horsham and sat around a campfire and had a few drinks with some guys there. They brought the beer, cream cheese, dips and crackers, I brought Hob-Nobs and tea later on. I’d found an Aldi store in Horsham and they had large packs of Hobnobs for $3 in addition to the other goodness that resides within. They’d never tried them before but the entire pack was demolished before we called it a night, had to make another pit-stop for a second pack in the morning before moving on.

I’m now in the Mallee region of Victoria, the heart of the grain producing area. Everywhere as far as the eye can see are grain fields. For hundreds of kilometers there is nothing but grain and every 20 or so kilometers are massive grain silos. Being winter they are just starting to sow the next harvest so there isn’t too much activity going on. In the evening I stopped in a place called Brim, on the shore of the ‘lake’. It’s been dry for a decade and the neglect is obvious. There are signs about water safety, swimming areas, water ski channels all around the lake. It really strikes hard just how serious the water shortage is in this place. On the news yesterday I hard that despite getting 15mm of rain in a day the levels of the reservoirs supplying Melbourne fell 1mm. And it’s not raining that often here. For my sake on the bike I don’t want it to rain but do they ever need a good soaking….

Over the hills

Ross — Sat, 31 May 2008 19:08:51 +0000

I took a day off in Halls Gap, did some washing, shopped in the most expensive grocery store in Australia, and did some hiking. All in preparation for this one, right out of the town the road starts to climb immediately, according to MapMyRide gaining 280m in the first 2.5km which is a little bit steep for me on my fixed gear. So in preparation I did a few clicks warm-up and started up. The road is deceptive, it didn’t appear that steep with all the trees around to see the angles but could I feel it in my legs. Within 500m I was almost on my knees, grinding out 11km/h – anything slower and I couldn’t maintain forward momentum. Not particularly heroic speeds but I made it to the Wonderland car park and the glorious reward of a break and some bush walks.

Beyond that the gradients were much more forgiving, there were a few short steep bits but nothing as tough as the first few kms. I spent a few hours at various lookouts along the way. It was a pretty overcast day which was a shame as the photos don’t really appear to do the views justice, but I was enthralled and the day was disappearing very rapidly. Having not done any shopping in the most expensive store in Australia (where even the fuel station was cheaper!) I needed to get to a town for some foodstuff. After coming down the other side of the ranges and leaving the Grampians the land was completely flat and with no winds at all I manage to end the day in Horsham having averaged 26.8km/h.

The Grampians

Ross — Fri, 30 May 2008 22:36:02 +0000

Dunkeld is the southern gateway to the Grampians and after my arrival I picked up some leaflets about walking trails and took off. I arrived in town too late to be able to climb any of the peaks, each one is a few hours return trip and being winter time, daylight is at a premium but there were plenty of other options which kept me busy. Once again the temperature dropped below freezing during the night, I awoke sometime around 2am and could see the condensation droplets had frozen on the inside of the tent.
The following morning was the first real challenge since I took to the road again, the road has been kind, generally pretty flat, only some gentle hills and the occasional short sharp rise. Through the Grampians valley there will be a little more work to do, a few hundred metre climbs. I don’t know how other people ride but on tough climbs I work the handle bars a lot and my arm and shoulder being as they are, I can’t even get out of the saddle at the moment.
In the end it didn’t turn out as bad as I’d feared, once again riding conditions were perfect and the gradients were constant so even though it was brutal I could settle into a rhythm (40 RPM!). On the first climb I had to take a break along the way, these are roads that normally I’d think were fun! I think the worst was trying to manage the speed on the descents over the crests, on the fixed gear with the extra weight of the gear it was very difficult. My legs were seriously hurting by the time I made it to Halls Gap but even after only 4 days on the bike I can feel I’m getting a little stronger which is nice because out of Halls Gap I have almost 1000m of climbing to tackle in my next day.

I’m taking a rest day tomorrow…

Perfect ride to Dunkeld

Ross — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:14:33 +0000

My map is an atlas of the entire county so it’s level of detail is pretty low, not a problem in the remote areas but in Victoria there are many more options. I always ask locals for alternate routes, things to see that I’m not aware of from tourist information etc. and usually is works out pretty well. I followed the instructions I got yesterday evening as best I could and had an excellent day on the bike. After leaving the main route the road was completely empty, the entire 60 or so kilometers I was riding to Dunkeld I didn’t pass, see or hear a single car. And the roads were butter smooth, no bumps or vibrations to deal with which made riding so much more enjoyable. Pretty scenery, gentle rolling hills, the sun out in full, it was warm and only the slightest breeze. All in all a perfect day to be on a bicycle!

Mortlake

Ross — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:32:02 +0000

Due to a storm the previous night in Cressy with some torrential rain some of my things were a little wet so I laid it all out to give it a chance to dry out in the morning sun. It was pretty cold so it took a little time but my legs were not complaining about the extra rest they were getting. Late in the morning I eventually got going following the same road to the town of Mortlake. I met some guys working along the road, one of whom managed the caravan park in Mortlake so I decided to make that my target for the day. As it was just 80 odd kilometers away I took my time. I arrived in town in the late afternoon and went to my stop for the night on the banks of the town lake, very picturesque.

It never really warmed up during the day, barely made it to 13 degrees so it was going to be a cold night and being showered and in clean clothes makes a big difference, especially given how light my sleeping bag is. I got talking to some of the people staying there as you do and picked up an alternative route to the Grampians. I loved the accurate descriptions I got:

Somewhere outside of town there is a dip on the road, take the third right after that, follow that road for about 5 minutes and you’ll come to a crossroads. Go left and then take the next right again and you’ll be right.

Just like home.