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Tuesday the 21st of March was equinox and I had flown out to Melbourne to stay with Tom along with the Scott mountain bike to ride the 50km Epic Trail from the top of Mt Buller. Then flown back on the Sunday. I had left a number of days open to allow for bad weather or any other obstacle. I had been meaning to do this ride for the previous 3 trips to Melbourne; I had hit my head on the freeway the first year, then there was a huge thunderstorm predicated on the second, then last year, I was too unfit from the lateral epicondylitis. But this year? I had driven out to Kalamunda the previous Saturday, and ripped off two laps of KC with total climbing of 700m. Not quite the 1200m at Mt Buller but a good long way there. Monday was taking dad to have this pin pulled out of his big toe (12cm long and had actually been hammered in - this time, the doctor, a tiny young woman, maybe 12 years old, just pulls it out in seconds), and I use the trip to South Perth to pick up a bike bag I hired from Wembley Cycles, not at all on the way. . . Taking just the bike bag (and bike) and a cabin bag was really pushing it - volumewise and weightwise, thank God the bag had wheels. I still had to remove bike shoes, axles and pedals from the bike bag to get the weight down. I had booked a SkyBus to St Kilda because it is closer for Tom than Southern Cross station in town. Of course, the SkyBus to St Kilda runs less frequently and is 800m further down the road. We learn. I did manage to talk to the new Enercon man in their new Melbourne office on the Wednesday before the Wind Industry Forum proper on the Thursday. Things are white hot in Victoria at the moment, I remember the Minister for Energy, Lily D’Ambrosio was a key note speaker from way back but had never made the effort to get there early enough to hear her speak. Well, she is a believer, "I do not see any downsides to renewables . . . ". According to the windfarm map that they give out every year, for 2019 Victoria has 2,500MW of windfarm under construction, this compares to 250MW for SA or Badgingarra in WA (130MW, which is now spinning - first windfarm in WA in 6 years). 500 delegates versus just 100 from just a couple of years ago, when things were quite dour. Back in 2016, people were wondering if Australia would be able to make the 2020 target, now it looks like we will probably double it within a couple of years. On Friday, Tom and I drove out to Mansfield where we found a very good map and why it had been so hard to find anywhere to stay - a huge road bike event was taking place that weekend, and Mt Buller was completely out for the Sunday. By the time I was ready to ride at the top of Mt Buller, it was 3:30pm and still quite hot, 30 degrees. I managed to miss out on riding the Epic Trail proper twice by the time I took a final wrong turn, down a very steep, nasty and rocky trail. It was too late by the time I realised I was on the wrong trail to turn back. |
The rocky track becoming less rocky and much faster.
I was on a downhill trail called Delatite that was only 12km long, past a certain point the rocks gave way to a much smoother and faster trail with half a dozen log bridges across the Delatite river. You tend to go where you look, so my focus was on the central logs and I guess I missed the views of the river which I suspect were gorgeous. I did stop once or twice . . .
Log bridges where three trunks bolted together and covered with chicken wire for grip.
I get to the finish in about an hour, the ride is to take between 4 and 7 hours. Given how late it was, I was almost relieved. In waiting for Tom to pick me up, I ride out to Carter Rd, 3km up the trail I was supposed to come down. Some nice boardwalk sections over dry wetlands and while up and down no real hills to climb. We end up driving all the way back to Melbourne with the plan to get up early and return the next day - another 5 hours of driving. Which we did.
And it rained almost constantly the whole way back to Manesfield the next morning. We had lunch and were back at the top of the mountain by around noon. In the cold and drizzle, 16 degrees, we dropped in on the mountain bike centre there and spoke to one of the guides. She, at no point, said I should not go. So, despite the cold and the wet, at 12:30 I rode off. This time taking a bit more care about making sure I was on the right track. The trail is divided into many smaller sections with only one labelled 'advanced', Stonefly, 7km long and savage and why I will not do this again. Big, wet rocks and tree roots, I was clipping in and out all the time and it was very slow going and very tiring.
Towards the end of Stonefly, it appeared they had run out of rocks.
That morning Tom had made me a big bowl of porridge I was never going to get through. But I did, and what an investment. Just after the hideous Stonefly, I came across some horse riders and spoke to their leader while I walked the bike past them. They are big animals and I do not trust them to behave. I rode slowly up the highest point and was taking a photo when another pack of horse riders came past. Their leader was an old man who asked what I was up to, I really did not want them there. I mumbled something about the Telephone Box Junction and I had to wait while he gave me instructions. They actually seemed to follow the signposts on the trail.
It was windy and still cool at the highest point, near Bluff Spur Hut.
As the ground was going mostly downhill, I just sat back and rolled my way to the Telephone Box Junction, the trail now quite dry and fast.
There is a cafe there but I got there half hour after closure. On the climb out of there, the first group of riders overtook me and the leader expressed surprise that I had gotten there so quickly. Hey, wheels you know. Still, not quick enough for lunch!
However, the sun had come out, and I was getting warmer but ever so weak uphill. I ate but not enough. I ended up walking the last few hundred metres to the final summit.
Above, the long climb to the final summit had a fantastic view through a thick forest of dead snowgums, recently killed by bushfire. Then the summit, with bike parking in a log, below.
A gorgeous 600m waited. And I rode it fast. Initially, it dropped very quickly.
A signpost and a break in the single track downhill.
I had been warned about the last bit, a 4WD track with massive gutters but after 45min of intensive, rocky, up down, left right single track down the side of the mountain, it was a fun piece of cake. At 22 degrees, it was almost hot at the bottom.
And Tom was waiting for me, bless him, at Carter Road. I had already done that bit of track twice, so no need to go further. While I am proud of my persistance, toughness and my courage (the rain, the cold . . . the distance . . . the doing it on my own), I am also a bit annoyed at my lack of discipline. I still had an apple and one other item of food when I got to the final summit. I should have eaten that apple at 'lunch' at the Telephone Box Junction. I might have been able to ride some of the uphills I walked. I need to focus more on the fun than just simply mundling my way through, by being smarter. Had we stayed at some accommodation, even halfway to Melbourne, then I would have started earlier, had lunch at the cafe, been quicker uphill. But then I might have missed out on the fine weather. Ah, whatever, job jobbed.
I spent the Sunday cleaning the bike and recovering, including watching a bunch of short sci fi films on Netflix with Tom - Robots, Death and Sex.
Suz picks me and we have the house to ourselves for a night. She had spent an intensive two days with Adam the carpenter in fixing up the kitchen, almost there, he turns up next week for another crack at finishing. It is then that we realise that the leftover Cannelloni I had cooked the Saturday night before I left for Melbourne was still in the oven. Eight days of even vegetarian food without refrigeration is seriously not good, we spent hours cleaning that out, the funny little maggots and that smell . . .