March 30th, 2011
Albury to Glenrowan
Distance: 119km
Total distance: 1009km
Last night I didn’t have a good sleep at all. Woke up several times due to noise coming from people chatting and laughing outside the building. Worse, my dodgy roommate murmurs every now and then, not sure if he’s sleep talking or talking to himself. The room was very stuffy as well, and I still couldn’t stand the terrible BO. I thought I would have a better sleep with a proper bed but this is by far my worst stay.
Got myself prepared quickly this morning and started riding at 6.15am. I needed to rush out of the two cities, Albury and Wodonga before the traffic peaks. After riding for 18km, I managed to get out just in time to watch a beautiful sunrise by the countryside. My average speed was significantly slower this morning due to my muscle soreness. My speed declined further when I was hit by a steep hill about 6km to Beechworth. As if that wasn’t enough, it rained heavily in my final 2km to Beechworth. My rain jacket wasn’t very effective against such heavy downpour so I was all soggy wet when I reached Beechworth.
The rain still went on, and I was only halfway to my destination, so I popped into a fish and chips shop for lunch. While waiting for food, I took a stroll around the town and noticed the vintage style decorations of all the shops there. The rain finally stops and becomes sunny. As soon as I finished lunch, I went straight for the rail trail! This was one of the rail trails that Jim recommended me, it should take me all the way to the Wangaratta city with a total distance of 44km.
Previously, I’ve read a lot of good things about rail trails. They are basically old railway tracks converted into bicycle and foot trails. And because they were originally built for railways, the gradients on this track are very mild if not flat. According to Railtrails Australia, the rail trail I took today is the most established rail trail in Victoria, with the entire trail sealed. Needless to say, I was very excited to try on my very first rail trail!
I had a very good first impression the moment I got onto the trail, there were maps and signs and a ‘railway station’ that’s basically a resting area with toilets for rail trail users. The trail was almost flat for the first 2km but it becomes slightly downhill for the next 12km. At this point, I think I have found myself the perfect gradient. I was cruising at a constant speed of 35kmh without braking or pedalling. The scene along the trail was breath-taking! Shady tress and a great diversity of flora on both sides of the trail. At some point I feel as though I was travelling in a train, re-living the past memories of the rail trail when it was an active railway track. All along the rail trail, I was listening to the albums of Sunny Day Real Estate on my iPod. The whole experience of riding on this rail trail was so amazing and surreal that I was nearly brought to tears!
Somewhere along the downhill ride, I let a guy riding on an upright overtook me. After that, I was tailing him effortlessly. He was pedalling every now and then while I had to apply brake to maintain that safe distance between us. Such is the strength of the aerodynamic design of recumbents! Saw some school kids (probably a club organised ride) cycling uphill in the opposite direction, it looks so tiring, am so glad to be riding in this direction, hehe!
After the 12km of only downhills, the remaining distance was a mixture of flat and downhills, there were very few uphills. About 2km to Wangaratta, I encountered strong headwind and crosswind. I find myself putting twice as much effort to maintain the same speed. And then I noticed something, my left tire was flat! Troublesome, but a historical moment nonetheless since this was my first flat tire of the tour! The Schwalbe Marathons are pretty stiff tires so I took quite a while to put it back in. I think it took me about 40 mins altogether to get the tubes swapped, must do better next time. It was getting late so I quickly rode through the city to avoid the rush hour traffic. Took me another 16km before reaching Glenrowan. Somewhere along this 16km, I had another historical moment, I hit the 1000km milestone for the tour! Felt a great sense of achievement!
I was already very exhausted when I entered Glenrowan. I am feeling the effects on my body after two weeks of riding. I just checked into a motel since the caravan park was a further 2km uphill. I also wanted a warm environment to sleep in as the temperature was dropping quickly after dusk. The motel owner was nice enough to give me a bit of discount for travelling in a ‘fancy bike’. Did some washing and planned for the next few days. I decided to use the Hume Freeway all the way to Melbourne knowing that my legs wouldn’t be able to handle the hills on the smaller roads. However, I was hoping to cover the 250km distance to Melbourne in the next two days. Hope this isn’t too much for my legs.
This is really funny!