Google Map

In case peoples geography isn't too good, the map above may help you track where i am and have been. Still a beta version. Off to sydney tomorrow on the train. Next updtae from the east coast.

GMap Test

3rd Test

June 16th - Adelaide Hills

Distance	Time	Overall Total
62 km	3h	1010 km

Headed for the adelaide hills first thing this morning, a nice excuse to test the new rear wheel. I also replaced the chain, rear gear cogs and brake blocks. It's amazing how smooth the ride on the bike is now. The weather didn't help the view from the top.



Taken on the decent back into the city, glad i replace the brake blocks.



Once I was back in the city, i decided "forest gump" like to continue cycling, and had lunch on the beach near henley. It was tough having to sit in a pier, with warm sun and sound of waves as i ate my lunch.



For the stat's people, the polar heart rate/speed/altitude graph of todays ride.



The evening will be spent with luandry, blogging and figuring out a plan for what/where to do next week.

June 15th - Adelaide City

Distance	Time	Overall Total
27 km	0	948 km

Collected the bike at mid afternoon and did a small tour around adelaide.



Good being back in city again, really like this place.

June 14th - Tintinara to Adelaide

Distance	Time	Overall Total
0 km	0	921 km

The megaopolis that is tintinara. Facts

Tintinara will be 100 years old this year.
Tintinara has a train line, but no train station.
Tintinara has 4 vowels in its name.



Premier State Liner bus arrived in the dot at 12, and where on our way to adelaide.



Find a local bike store. Long and store the boys there will build a custom rear wheel, with a stronger rim and spokes - will have 24 hours. Will chill in adelaide for a couple of days.

June 13th - Keith to Tintinara

Distance	Time	Overall Total
45 km	2h	921 km

You'd think the soccoroo's had won the friggin world world cup the way the morning tv shows and newspapers are going on.. bring on brazil.



Anyway, another long one planned for today, 120km upto Tailems Bend, so set off about 9.30. Pulled in after 40kms for an eleven o clock break in a small town called Tintinara.



Heuston we have a problem

About 4km outside to tintinara, i hear a ping, then a second ping - ping.
Look down to see what the issue may be.

"We have serious mechanical difficulty - Heuston!!".

"Can you confirm the nature of the problem trek 1000".

"Yeah - well, it looks like four spokes in a row have broken, two are completly
missing, and the other two are at very strange angles. The wheel not to be outdone
has buckled so badly that its wedged itself into the frame"

I dismount and then have the persuade the wheel that it should go back towards its normal position. This involves holding the frame with my hands, and using my foot to apply pressure to the wheel. There were some weird looks from the passing cars as this operation took place.

Go the wheel moving again, kinda, and limped back to the town. Had just missed the only bus to adelaide, so just cut my losses and booked into the local motel to wait for tomorrows bus, and a decent bike shop in adelaide.

June 12th - Naracoorte to Keith

Distance	Time	Overall Total
113 km	5h	876 km

Bit worse for wear this morning after watching the holland / serbia game, and having necked a few beers last night. The yard looks very clean this morning, but there was a dude looking for a pair or runners he'd left out. i'll let the other explain.

Sunny but cool morning pulling out of Naracoorte at about 10.30ish.



Boredom on wheels today. Field, car, field, cow, truck, field, vineyard, sheep, truck, cow, field, [randomly sequence for 100km and you get the picture].

Finally hit the town of Keith at about 4. Crash in the motel, then when out to jump on the socceroo's bandwangon which had happened to stop in the town for the Austalia v Japan game. I had to explain th offside rule to about 4 people, don;t think they'll
ever really understand it. Anyway good result in the end.

June 11th - Naracoorte Caves

Naracoorte Caves are Southern Austalia's only world heritage listed site.
They are located about 15km outside the town, and guided tours are available
for all the main caves. By the last tour i didn't really care where
staligtites or staligmiites grew from.

Also figure out today, that SA has a different timezone to victoria - 30mins
difference FYI. I discovered this by being late for one of the tours, or was i
early.



Back in town, most of the other people in the backpackers are working as fruit pickers down here for the year. Its the queens birthday bank holiday weekend here, so most don't have to work tomorrow. There was some good craic with a couple of slabs of beer and a massive open fire in the back yard of the hostel, any thing that wasn't bolted to the ground was fair game for the fire.

June 10th - Mt Gambier to Naracoorte

Distance	Time	Overall Total
104 km	4h	763 km

Bit of a chilly night in Mt Gambier, but got a cool photo of the morning
fog over the town.



And the auld triangle, went dingle dangle.. The bike is ready for the escape.



Not much happening on the road today, just farm land country side with the odd vineyard now and again. The first 50lm to penolq took about 2hours, but picked up a neat tail wind after lunch and did the final 50km in 1.5 hours.

Crashed in the local back packers in naracoorte. Am planning to take tomorrow off. World cup kick-off for england. Prize for the best comment "What crime would I get sent to jail for?"

June 9th - Portland to Mt Gambier

Distance	Time	Overall Total
105 km	5h	659 km

Pulled out of Portland at around 10, heading for Mt Gambier. The route cuts through forestry land. So had some scary moments, when triple trailer logging trucks zooming past.


The dark forces of mount boom are on the march again, they have destroyed the edges of fangorn forest. Will O'Connell save middle earth..



Just after this photo, i'm touring along down hill at about 35kmph. When i notice these 2 emu bird things, running along the other side of the road. So of course, have to race them.. 40kmph no hassel to them, i still reckon i can go quicker. Well a truck appears coming against our little drag race. I'm cool, thinking the emu's will turn right into the forest.. oh no, with about 100m between the truck and me, the two emu's make a massive left turn, and skip right across the road. I would have been the pin, in a game of truck emu bowling. Still reckon i was winning the race.

Loads of dead kangeroo's on the road side, the first couple surpised me, but after a while the smell gave them away. Goodbye Victoria, Hello Southern Australia.



Arrive in Mt Gambier, to find half of austalria has moved to this town for the bank holiday weekend. The usual lines of "did u not have a booking"? Well no.. Anyway, many people will have predicted this but i am staying in the local jail, but not at her majesties leisure. The old town jail has been converted to a hostel after it closed in 1995. I still reckon some of the inmates are hanging around, given the cut of them (kinda like that alien 2 movie).



So I'm determined to escape, so my brilliant plan was to trick the govener into giving me a key.. smart, I'm not a thick as i look. As phil linnot wrote "Tonight, there's going to be a jail break.." rock!!

June 8th - Warrnambool to Portland

Distance	Time	Overall Total
125.74 km	5h 30min	554 km

Left Warnnambool, with clean laundry and a fixed the rear wheel (25 bucks).

Stopped in the "irish" town of Port Fairy. Fecking dub's, there everywhere.



Not much happening today, just cutting along through farm land. Hit the major town of portland. Its a big port and an aluminium plant, thats about as nice as i can be. well thats a bit harsh, nice chicken kiev and chips in the local hotel.

Did a side trip to cape nelson, to try and find some high point to the day. Schon.

June 6th - Lavers Hill to Warrnambool

Distance	Time	Overall Total
118 km	5h 30min	449 km

Stayed in the Lavern Hill Roadside Tavern. I do believe that this was the first and last, build your own hotel from flat pack wood beams and corrigated iron.



Got cracking at about 8am, and nearly froze to death on the decent from the lavern hills plateau.



After about 35 km, we hit the coast again near princetown, and the twelve apostles. Will let the images do the talking, and replace the 1000 words that i couldn't be bother writing. Just to say in summary, cool.





Having had no breakfast, i stopped in Port Campbell (50km) for an early lunch. The final 70km into warrnambool, initally runs along the coast, past the Bay of Martyrs and then turns inland. I got into a good rythem and made some good progress, making the this leg in about 3 hours.

June 5th - Lorne to Lavers Hill

Distance	Time	Overall Total
96 km	5h	331 km

I stayed at the Lorne YHA Hostel, which has to have had the best setting of any
place so far. Had the company of some cockatoos as i was having my breakfast this morning.



Just remember that you need specialist training to photograph cockatoos, on the off chance that they attack.



Got going at 9 heading for apollo bay, the road on this section is cut into
the cliff face in places, and offers some amazing views of coast.



Stopped in apollo bay [45km] at 11, for an early lunch and rested for an hour.
The next section to Lavers Hill was always going to be tough. The road rises
through the Otway National Park, and then drops and levels out in the Aire
river valley. The final climb to Lavers Hill rises 500m over 10km, which seems
simple on paper, but for every climb of 20 meters, theres a drop of 10 meters,
so for a simple 500 meter climb, the actual accent needed on the bike is about
1000 meters!!



The back wheel on the bike is now feeling the pressure of the extra bag weight,
what started as a small buckle had grown, and now there are two broken spokes.
On the final climb, i had to loosen the rear brakes to allow the wheel to travel
more easily. Will have to get this fixed in Warrnambool, when i take a rest day
on Wednesday.

Having finally made it up the climb to Lvers Hill, i then actually cycled right
through the village. The term blink and you'll miss it takes on a new form.

June 4th - Torquay to Lorne

Distance	Time	Overall Total
60 km	3h	235 km

Stayed in the Bells Beach Backpackers, torquay overnight. Great weather this morning, with a cool breeze, blue sky and sunshine.



Took a small detour outside torquay to Bells Beach. This turned out to a complete pain in the ass, as there where three massive steep hills to climb to get to the coast. If find a fairly non-descript surf beach. Had to come out over the same set of triple hills on the way back to the main road. Note to self - no more side tour from now on.



The road from torquay cuts inland with a constant rise towards angelsea. The great ocean road officially starts outside this town, and the road runs along the coast. There are some tough hills to climb as the road winds around various headlands.



Got into lorne about lunch time. The weather started to turn for the worse, i was feeling a bit wrecked, so decided to take a 1/2 days and booked into the Lorne YHA hostel. Just chilled around the town for the Rest of the afternoon.

June 3rd - Blairgowrie to Torquay

Distance	Time	Overall Total
67 km	5h 30min	175 km

The Bay Play Backpackers is set in bush land in Blairgowrie. I slept like a log, and was feeling quite good this morning. Despite a water restriction in place in the area, this guys must have used about 10 buckets of water to wash his car, i was worried that the car might start sinking into the ground.



Started early and was making good time to the passenger ferry from portsea, 4km past sorrento as the guide book stated. Arrived in portsea to find no quay, and to be told that the only ferry leaves from sorrento, stupid guide book!! Nearly set a land speed record getting back to sorrento. Nice 40min ferry trip brought me across the entrance port philip day. The sky line for melbourne was still just about visible.



Starting in queenscliff, i followed the coast road to Pt Lonsdale (see nice photo of light house) and then onto ocean grove and barwon heads.



The road turns in land from then on and joins the surf coast highway. The final strech of road into torquay seemed be a constant 10km rise.

June 2nd - Melbourne to Sorrento

Distance	Time	Overall Total
108 km	5h 30min	108 km

Pulled out of Chapel Street Backpacker, Melbourne at 10am and headed south towards St Kilda, the coast road and the mornington peninsula.



The first 20km was on a dedicated bike lane, with the only hazards being the morning pram walkers. Joined the Nepean highway near chelsea and followed it down via Frankston, Mornington and St Marta. The bike lane on the main road was really wide and most vehicals gave me plently of room.



Hauling the fully loaded bags on the bike finally kicked in about 40km. I was expecting the first couple of days to be tough, but not this bad this early. Had 60km done after 3 hours and needed a lunch break. The small issue of the scale of distances in austalia kicked in after lunch, when the sign post for portsea said 44 km, when i was expecting a slightly lower number. Actually checking the distances before starting the days ride would be a good idea.

Decided to call it quits for the day and stay at the Sorrento YHA hostel. Arrived at the village and found the hostel, only to discover that it was closed for bulding work. The owner redirected me to the Bay Play backpackers in Blairgowrie. Arrive just as the sun was setting.

Thursday 1st June

Just chilled around melbourne again today, sorted an aussie mobile number [0448 997 380 ] and some replacement tubes for the bike. Toured around CBD, victoria market, richmond, fitzroy and the MCG today.



The plan tomorrow is to cycle down the Mornington Peninsula, use the ferry to cross the bay and spend the night in Torquay.

Wednesday 31th May

Moved to a hostel in St Kilda today for 2 nights, the CBD is dead at night. Spent the rest of the day touring around melbourne, its so easy having your own transport to just skip past places. Did a lap of the albert park grand prix circuit, not sure if i was on the same pace as the F1 dudes. Picture of the Melbourne skyline taken from albert park in the last afternoon.



Went down to the Esplande Hotel to hear the live music they have there. The place is a old hotel, where they've converted all the major rooms into different stages for bands and dj's. Would be cool to see the place packed out, reckon it would rock. www.espy.com.au

Had two frigging punchers today!!, I know shep is laughing as he reads this - PUNK.