Day 17: Riding The Urban Style

April 1st, 2011

Seymour to Melbourne
Distance: 127km
Total distance: 1272km

Had a great sleep last night! Watched the weather forecast on TV while having a pancake breakfast. Left the caravan park at about 7am, it was crazy cold that hour! I was hoping it’ll get better when sunlight comes out but it didn’t. After a while, I started to lose sensation on my toes, and that gets me worried. I recalled reading from another touring cyclist journal that using rubber gloves helps in insulation. I did just that but it didn’t help much. In the end, I put on my headphone and listen to my favourite tracks to distract myself from my toes numbness, problem solved!

It was not until about 10am and 30km later that my body starts to warm up. The sun was already brightly shining, and the sky was almost completely blue. I found myself riding very slowly at an average speed of 10kmh, so I decided to have lunch at the next service centre, near Wallan. About 3km before reaching the service centre, from my side mirror I saw a white car drove into the emergency stopping lane and tailed me. It was downhill and I didn’t want to lose the momentum so I just continued riding. A couple of times, the car came quite close to me and it was only then that I discovered its a police vehicle! My mind suddenly gets very busy. What am I doing wrong? I’m just a cyclist riding an emergency stopping lane which is totally legal here. Oh yeah, my headphones! That’s not legal. Maybe they honked at me several times and I couldn’t hear? Perhaps they think I was avoiding them since I was going faster when they appear (it was downhill)? But that’s just silly, a cyclist trying to outrun a motor car on the freeway. Anyway, I took out my headphones and continue to observe. There was no signal of any sort asking me to stop. The service centre is now only 1km away so I just continue pedalling until I reach there. The police followed me into the service centre and I was prepared to answer some questions, but all they did was just slowed down when they passed me and drove back out into the freeway! What an odd encounter! Until now I still don’t know what was their intention.

After my lunch break, I returned to the freeway and the next 45km or so was truly a joy ride! Riding at an average speed of 22kmh, I covered that distance in only 2 hours, less than half the time I took to ride the first 50km this morning! All thanks to the mostly downhill gradient. At that time I suddenly remembered that I was still at an elevation of above 300m at Wallan and Melbourne city is almost at sea level. Pure awesomeness!

Melbourne is mega HUGE compared to any of the town I’ve stayed previously, except Sydney of course. When I see the welcome sign, I was still 26km away from the city centre and 50km from Ormond, my destination today. When riding 50km across the rural area, I would have passed at least 2 or 3 townships, sometimes as many as 5.

As always, riding into a large city means my stress level goes up. I checked my phone GPS to find alternative route to avoid the busy roads and found a bike-specific route that would lead me to Glen Iris via Merri Creek Trail, Main Yarra Trail, and the bikeway along Monash Freeway. From Glen Iris, I would just ride along the road until I reach Ormond. Sounds simple no? Not quite, it took me 4 hours to get home from Coburg, where I first got onto the Merri Creek Trail. While there’s signage throughout, I stopped countless times to check my GPS because I wasn’t familiar with the names of suburbs and roads here. Also, the trails were obviously not made for touring cyclists since some sections were insanely steep and there was one point the trail led me to stairs, what the heck? Being a recumbent trike didn’t help either, as the trails were mostly narrow. At some stretch, especially the bridges, I took up the entire width with no room at all for a passing upright bike.

Frustration aside, I did eventually arrived at Ormond, and got a welcome surprise from Grace when we encountered each other on her way home from work! This officially concludes the Leg 1 of my tour. I shall be staying in Melbourne for at least two weekends and until my legs are fully recovered. My achievement was celebrated with a nice and proper asian meal with Grace at one of the local restaurant. What else could satisfy a touring cyclist more than food!

While in Melbourne, I will be preparing for the remaining part of my tour. I am quite satisfied with my cycling performance from Sydney to Melbourne and have more confidence now in the longer and much more challenging journey from Melbourne to Perth. Updates will follow when I’m about to depart from Melbourne. A good rest is my number one priority now 🙂