Rail trails, snow in SA and complimentary pancakes

To travel offroad in some parts of Victoria you can use the network of rail trails. Rail trails are disused rail lines that have been reclaimed as paths for recreational purposes. Cyclists, walkers and in some places horses are allowed. Coming east out of Bendigo I used the O'Keefe trail that has a length of 19km and meanders along flat and picturesque farm country.

There are more of these projects coming on line and I can't wait to do Goulburn River High Country Rail Trail. It is the longest continuous rail trail in Australia with a length of 134 kms through north east Victoria. I have already done the Murray to the Mountains link and highly recommend it. http://www.bicyclenetwork.com.au/general/change-the-world/10105/

The Shepparton to Benalla trek was only 61 km but I knew that after packing up the wet fly for the tent and covering all the panniers with rain protectors it was going to be a long, cold and wet trip. A bitter and strong cold front blew in from the east cost, plummeting temperatures which is uncharacteristic for October and unusual to be coming from that direction. Not only did the Victorian north east alps get a blanketing of snow so did in SA for the first time in 50 years. Who ever heard of snow in the Flinders Ranges?. Amazing!

Here it comes - hold on,. The Front that gave SA snow!

On the bike I tend to cocoon myself in this weather, keep the cadence going nicely and focus on the destination. With all my high tech wet weather gear I know I will be warm and dry underneath it all. It was great to find picnic stops with shelters and have a lovely hot cup to tea, a sandwich and a banana.

My little fingers were so numb when I arrived in Benalla I could not undo the clips on my helmet or bags and basically sucked on them to get the blood flowing again. Had a nice long hot shower at the holiday park and next morning the park owners provided complimentary pancakes for morning tea for everyone in the park in this huge camp kitchen. I have never seen this happen anywhere but they do this every morning. The pancakes were delicious and just perfect with strawberry jam, cream and a drizzle of real maple syrup.




Tonight's music - Debussy - Images 1 & 2 (Piano transcriptions)

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Rural South Western Victoria, Bugger Bush and cold fronts

I knew I was in for a challenge when the weather news announced massive cold front and gale force winds across the SW and coasts starting from the SA border and lasting for at least two days, I've been there before on Vancouver Island and held out for four days, so this was nothing really, or so I thought. The accommodation park was 3.5 km to the west along a long long hill and in the direction of the rain front.

So the race was on. Up and up the hill I went using all the granny gears but to no avail as the strong gusts pushed my 50kilo load and me down into the embankment. At least it was soft with plenty of long grass to cushion the impact. I collected myself and the bike and with every available effort pushed my way up and out of the embankment on onwards on foot meeting gale force winds and drenching rain to add to the package.

Thirty minutes later I reached the top and would you believe the sun came out and I walked into the park exhausted but delighted by the view. The caretaker gave me a discount and I decided to rest for two days while the cold front passed by.

Wave after wave of rain fronts and gusts for two days.

View from my cabin - nice for the times the sun shone.

Acacia Paradoxa or Kangaroo Thorn

Acacia Paradoxa or Kangaroo Thorn, is also commonly known by us keen bushwalkers as 'Bugger Bush'. I learnt about his by a fellow work colleague and bushwalkers when we did an overnight group hike in the stunning Fleurieu Peninsula South of Adelaide in South Australia. We came across a track with plenty of this Acacia on both sides. At times the growth blocks the track but you must find a way through.

As a plant it is quite a paradox in that it produces one of the most stunning golden blooms for the wattle family in Spring yet is covered by thorns. This helps protect the smaller native birds sheltering in the bush from larger predators. We call it bugger bush as it sharp thorns at times can come in contact with the walker and you will hear someone yell 'bugger!'.

This part of Victoria is generally flat but very picturesque with a patchwork of dairy pastures, canola fields and dry stone walls. You could almost think you were somewhere in England, or Tasmania or the South Island of New Zealand. The heady smell of spring field flowers and wattle is just wonderful, especially when you're amongst it on a bicycle.

Tonight's music - Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra - a piece for those who appreciate seriious contemporary orchestral music. This man was a genius.

Tonight's meal - Pasta Primavera - an appropriate meal as primavera means spring, the vegetable choices should be the crisp new vegetables of spring.

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The Grampians

After three buses and 40-plus hours I arrived in cooler and as it turned out later, wetter Western Victoria. Queensland was a real education for me, especially as a bicycle tourer, you start to become acutely aware of how precious water is for survival. In this slower but more enjoyable mode of transport (well...at least for me anyway), the distance between towns or regional centres becomes an even more important factor for planning your water regime and food consumption.

You start to sniff out for the most obvious sources, sports fields, rest stops and petrol stations. Through good advice from fellow travelers I have managed to accommodate an extra three litres of water to my kit. For me that translates to about 100km of riding in mid-range temperatures with 50kg of bike and gear to push, and the remaining 2.5 litres on the are bike for cooking and cleaning. As far as the planned Northern Territory leg is concerned, I decided through common sense or call it self-preservation to pursue this another time but in Winter.

I had such a good time traveling up the East Coast of Australia and the Great Dividing Range for about nine weeks that I simply ran out of time. Why the Grampians? I wanted to escape the constant trucks and hot 30 degree days in QLD (road temp about 45 degrees) and thought what a buzz to start at the very beginning of the Great Dividing Range that runs through all the Eastern states. Its always been one of my 'spiritual' homes, like the VIC alps, the Southern Ocean and the Flinders Ranges in SA. I can now add TAS to the list. The Grampians were named after a similar range in Scotland and provides a stunning Spring display of native flowers.

My favorite native flower - Orchid (Caladenia Sp.)

After several hundred kilometers I'm about six to seven kilograms lighter but I'm feeling very well. The little tummy has gone and thinner around the face to how I was a dozen years ago.

That's enough about me - now for a wonderful people story. At one camping ground I shared a campfire and meals with a lovely honeymoon couple from Melbourne. They had known each other as childhood sweethearts but then moved to different countries and eventually got married but to other people. Astonishingly, at one stage they were even studying in the same city but did not know this. After both marriages ended 'he' decided to try Facebook as a possible avenue to find 'her' at least to keep in touch. After persisting for many months 'he' found 'her' and the rest is for you to imagine. All this being told to me beside the campfire and full moon.

Tonight's meal - Chicken kebabs and rice.

Tonight's movie - Breakfast at Tiffanys - how appropriate given the last paragraph. A most memorable classic Parisian romantic story with stunning Audrey Hepburn and a young George Peppard. And would you believe it? The classic Moon River sung by Audrey Hepburn was also an iconic piece attributed to the American swoon singer Andy Williams who passed away this week.

Ahh....the sound of waves crashing on the rocks on the Great Ocean Road beckons..





 

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Gladstone, mining and 'Biloela

Biloela, pronounced "Bilo wela" or "bilo" if you're a local and Aboriginal for 'white cockatoo', is as far West and North as I go on the first leg of this trip. I have friends here and also wanted to get a sense of this part of Queensland for personal reasons.

I've 'adopted' twin sisters who share the same birthday as me and grew up near a small township to the West of here. The terrain reminds me of beloved Adelaide Hills and surrounding golden plains, and it was also a buzz to see another part of the Great Dividing Range that runs all the way up the Eastern part of Australia.

Native Hibiscus

As a cyclist you really have to be fully alert as up here you will pass or be passed by ten mining or roadwork trucks for every car. In the Southern states it's the opposite. I have two rear view mirrors, one on the bike and one on the helmet.

Wild cotton plant

Gladstone is the main shipping port for this region and exit point for the coal freighted by train from Bilo and Maura to the West. This region has attracted a lot of young male 'tradies' and associated occupations from other parts of Australia as it provides jobs with staggering pay levels compared to their 'home' jobs.I got the first appreciation of the numbers when I tried to find any accommodation in advance of arriving in Gladstone. "...sorry dear but we all booked up due to the mining boom, major hwy roadworks and new large gas projects, but because you've come this far with the bike I'll give you a discount - how is $90 for a cabin but you still need to use the common showers?"

I arrived at the holiday park which was overflowing with 'blokes' and their 'utes'. It appeared that every available space was occupied with them but magically the whole holiday park had become a ghost town next morning as all the workers had gone off to their respective jobs for the day.

I've met some lovely people here but the only negative experiences were from the number of 'hoons' (mainly young males in pairs driving around at night) telling me to " f off South you looser!" or "get a f..n car you w..r"

What a nice cultural exchange.

Mmmm...."when the cat's away the mice will play"

Tonight.s movie The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo.

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Hervey Bay, Fruit bats and Fraser Island

Hervey Bey was known to me as the fisherman's paradise and people I'd people met told me it was just "..a beach with shops.." they never mentioned it was the gateway to stunning Fraser Island. This gem of the Australia was idle curiosity but now I had the taste for exploring it albeit as a tourist/trekkie after seeing the south end from Sarawak Beach a few days earlier.

Before I start on Fraser Island (FI) may I mention the most eerie experience while arriving at dusk in Hervey Bay. The directions to the camping ground were clear but it did not mention the street was separated by a forest with wetlands. Somehow I found the connector but had to pass through the forest. There were no lights but my night vision is good enough and the dirt road was OK. As I moved on I as greeted by a view of several hundred flying shapes silently above me that at first I thought were parrots or cockatoos. But there was no sound and then I finally recognized these creatures as fruit bats. Countless waves of them passing overhead again and again but in absolute silence. What a shame I did not have the video recorder in the camera setup for night work.

I decided to stay on for another day so I could do the organized full-day exploration tour of FI. People that know me, know I would never do the touristy thing and go to Sea World or Disney World or any other Worlds of any description because quite frankly I think they're tacky and expensive rip offs and I'm not into holiday maker/family entertainment scenarios anyway. Hate crowds! This was a tour with a difference and I'd prefer to let someone as skilled as Craig the driver navigate the four-wheel-drive only sand tracks of the Island.

Native Boronia

This is probably the only island in the world with an identity crisis. The amazing geological fact of FI being one of the largest sand islands of fhe world and in Queensland, is that the sand comes from the Great Dividing Range in neighboring New South Wales.It started 2 million years ago through erosion of the mountains where the sand flowed out to the Pacific Ocean and travelled North to be met by a barrier in the Continental Shelf just NE of Hervey Bay. 750,000 years later the island sand stabilized to form what we see today.

Pure clean fresh water

The weather this day was perfect as our small group caught the ferry across from Hervey Bay to FI. At FI We got on the huge four-wheel-drive transporter and started our journey East only to be stopped by a stuck (bogged) vehicle. It really is four-wheel-drive only but the young family in their Rav4 may have been a little ambitious. Craig has five years experience on this island so he knew what to do and went to help them. After several minutes they got moving again only to get stuck a second time.In the end they were pushed aside to let all the four-wheel-drives and us through.

Hoop Pine

We eventually checked off our itinerary with morning tea, lunch, visits to stunning beaches, fresh water creeks, the long beach and fresh water lake. We learnt about the hoop pine and other timbers used to build the Suez Canal and London Dockyards, native dingo (90 per cent pure breed) and the country's decision to preserve this stunning wilderness. The fresh water is so pure you can safely drink it and the volume FI is equivalent to 5-7 times the volume of Sydney Harbour.The sand is carbon dated to around 85 million years.

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Gympie, the Great Sandy National Park and Sarawak Beach

I'd always associated Gympie with Muster. Apparently I missed it by a few days and it's biggest drawcard was Kenny Rogers. i suspect there is some rivalry between this and the Tamworth country music icon to the south in neighboring NSW. I'm a classical music listener so the Muster was simply idle curiosity.The locals tell me it's really 'the town that saved Queensland with the 1867 gold rush bringing prospectors in from all parts of the globe. After the 'whites' had finished mining, the Chinese took over and yielded four times the amount of their precedecesor. Ouch!

One thing I can definitely share with you without bias - this has to be the hilliest town I've visited. As a cyclist pushing around 45 kg of bike and baggage you really notice the hills. Most inland towns are established close to a natural resource like a river but Gympie was established around the promise of gold.After traveling a short distance on the Gympie to Tin Can Beach road I was stopped by a couple who were visiting from overseas. Renata and David kindly offered to save me from being a local road statistic and took me all the way to beautiful Sarawak Beach. It's North facing with a view of the Southern edge of Fraser Island. I've read the book, seen the film and now I finally get to see Fraser island it with my own eyes.

Those who know me understand when I say I'm in native heaven while traversing this pristine part of Queensland in the Northern Sunshine Coast. There are vast areas of coastal scrub and heath full of many plants in flower, such as Lemon Scented Teatree, Native Boronia, bottlebrush, coastal wattle and eucalypts, not to mention the bird life and reptiles.

Weeeeeeeee!!!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Weeeeeeeee!!!

Like the Fleurieu Peninsula and mallee scrub in SA, this is my favorite landscape for hiking and camping as everything is so close and accessible. I decided to do some solitary camping in the Great Sandy National Park. Early one morning, around 2am, I awoke to the sound of a small native animal Long-nosed Potoroo exploring the outside of my tent probably smelling the dried fruit. It disappeared when I unzipped the tent fly but I was greeted by this stunning moonlight glistening on the white bark and leaves of the mallee-shaped eucalypt trees. They looked like eerie sentinels guarding the landscape. With no wind and a very mild temperature I decided to enjoy a cup of peppermint tea and some dark chocolate. It doesn't get better than this!

Tonight's music - Finzi - Five Bagatelles - this makes my heart sing and I can imagine riding through the areas in England where he lived and composed early last century.

I will have to wait till next year.Tonight's meal - stir fry - an easy meal for leftovers.

Tonight's movie - Fargo - an eccentric bunch of characters in contemporary Minnesota portraying obvious Scandinavian roots. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fargo_(film)

 

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Noosa and Neil Armstrong

I'm working my way through supper while camped by a full moonlit lake at Boreen Point, 20 k North of Noosa with no wind and water lapping gently on the sandy beach. It.s probably about 18 degrees which is the comfort zone for me - at least that.s what I set heating for in icy Canberra winters. It's a tranquil settlement and reminds me of Lake Learmonth, Victoria in it's character, albeit several times larger, where I spent Summer holidays with the Ballarat cousins.

So apt that we have a full moon while hearing of Neil Armstrong's passing at 82 after complications from a heart operation. For the unknowing, he was the first astronaut to land on the moon in '69. How do I know? Well .... i excelled enough in Maths and Science to get a three-year scholarship and I supplemented this by giving class lectures on the full Apollo space program. My poor fellow students must have been bored stupid by a thirteen-year-old's enthusiastic explanation of jet propulsion, orbit trajectory and time take to get to the moon and back. But I will always be able to show the Sea of Tranquility where Apollo 11 landed.

After spending three solid days catching up with family and friends in Brisbane and getting bike bits, Noosa on the Sunshine Coast has been a surprise for me. Despite the horrendous traffic I weaved my way up and down several hills to find the Noosa Junction. I was told to expect the main street to be lined with sports and luxury cars of all descriptions but that's what I saw in Coolangatta not here.

Cyclists get to go first - I like the balance!

It's a very clean and tidy regional centre but obviously with a lot of quiet money. And quite frankly much cheaper that Canberra for morning breakfast choices.I also met some lovely kindred spirits, Roberta, and Mary and Dave; with youthful looks that hide their true age due to their long commitment to cycling and fitness. My new friend Roberta kindly arranged for me to 'camp' in her friend's yard which backs on to native forest. No snakes came out to great me. So now it's time for desert and an early night before the ride to Gympie and Hervey Bay on the first day of Spring. To quote a wonderful film - 'While armchair travelers dream of travelling, travelling armchairs dream of staying put'

Burning the sugar cane

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