A trip down the coast

Squeezed the bike into the train.

Near Anglesea on the....

Great Ocean Road

Edible Brassicas thriving.

Hi

At the end of last week I had finished a slab of writing for a conference paper and so planned to get away for a few days. Very fortunately my family has a place to stay on the West Coast of Victoria.  I wasn't pressed for time so planned to go there by bike, and it all went well! I took the bike I had repaired a few days earlier, no problems with the repair or the bike at all.

There was some traffic congestion heading into the city, and I made my planned 12:30 train from Southern Cross station to Waurn Ponds with about a minute to spare.  Whew!  That meant I didn't get to the right carriage to accommodate my bike, but I managed to make do with an empty corner of the carriage I got into. All this was less drama than I had on a similar trip 18 months ago: then the side panel of my bike fell out, and I needed to buy more bulldog clips to hold it together!

Navigation from Waurn Ponds was better too.  Turned left instead of right at Ghazepore Road, and it runs almost all the way to Bellbrae, but with the odd gravel section (Ok) and hilly gravel section (get off and walk the front wheel drive leaning trike, no real drama).

Quite hungry by the time I reached Urquarts Bluff, and I wolfed down some left over Thai takeaway, then it was on to Airey's Inlet where I was staying. The bakery (woohoo) was open and I bought donuts, cheesecake and bread.  The donuts were enough to stop the immediate hunger.

After a day or so (I managed to get some surfing in and caught up with a few friends out in the water) it was time to head back, and took a few photos on the way.  The potential roadside free feed this time is the Brassica weed as discussed in a previous post.  It seems to be everywhere from the empty railway land near Southern Cross station to the roadsides of the Great Ocean road, and my pic is of it thriving in a small crack near the Bellbrae roundabout.

Uneventful trip home, with plenty of time for correct bike stowing on the train, I got back quite refreshed.

Regards

Steve Nurse