Lilydale-Warburton-Powelltown-Lilydale Bike Tour

For this post I'm experimenting with creating it just using my iPhone, using the Blogger app. My perception is that this app could do with some development, that it's too pared back and unreliable. Indeed just 5 minutes into typing this post, while multi-tasking with surfing the internet and texting, I returned to the post I'd been writing and it was gone. Disappeared! I don't want to have to be backing up my text manually all the time for fear it's going to disappear. Also, I can't see how to hyperlink using this app. I guess I will have to go back afterwards and paste in any hyperlinks I want to add. I may be able to do this using Chrome on my iPhone and accessing the blogger site. However that approach doesn't appear suitable for writing the entire post, as there is no mobile version of the blog editor, and uploading photos from the phone doesn't seem to work.

Blogging this way on my phone is going to back to the roots of the blog, which I started writing on my iPhone 4 when I was riding around Europe in 2010. Back then I had to type everything on my phone's touch-screen, which I find frustrating because it's just so slow! But now I have a great little bluetooth keyboard which is fantastic! I wish I'd thought of using a bluetooth keyboard back then! This method also means I don't need to turn on my desktop to blog (I don't have a laptop), which will save power. And the photos are already on my phone, so the process of uploading photos should be easier this way. Though I recall last time I used this app (in 2010), the photos I uploaded were heavily compressed and poor quality...so we'll see if this problem has been resolved.

This post is about a little bike tour that Josh, Alex and I did at the end of March 2015. After our Otways tour in January 2015, Josh and Alex apparently loved it so much that they both invested in quality touring bikes. Josh bought a Soma Saga, and Alex bought a Vivente, both from Commuter Cycles in Brunswick. We were planning a longer trip riding from Brisbane towards Sydney in late April, so we figured it would be a good idea to do a bit of a trial tour, to test out the new equipment, cycling fitness, packing methods and things to bring.

I came up with a rough idea of where we could tour. I was thinking Warragul across to Lilydale, but following a different route to last time I did it. However, we later had to change this plan and shorten it because Josh had been offered tickets for the Cricket World Cup final match between Australia and New Zealand. This meant that we had to get back to Melbourne before mid-day on Sunday. So we decided on a round trip, from Lilydale, past Warburton, across to Powelltown and back to Lilydale.

Alex on the left with his new Vivente, and Josh on the right with his new Soma Saga. Heading off from Northcote for our tour.

We left on Saturday morning, stocked up with food at Northcote Plaza on the way, and caught the train out to Lilydale. Josh hadn't quite finished fitting, tuning and adjusting things on his bike, so he continued doing this on the hour-long train ride to Lilydale.

We got to Lilydale at around mid-day, and hopped on the rail trail towards Warburton. The riding was pleasent, along what is probably the most popular rail trail in Victoria. 

Alex and Josh at our first lunch stop on the Lilydale-Warburton Rail Trail

Josh posing with the Autumn trees after lunch.

Stuck in traffic on the Lilydale-Warburton Rail Trail - behind a steam engine.

We stumbled upon a steam engin show in Yarra Junction.

There were a few bumps on this part of the trail, and Alex's sunglasses had jumped out of his shirt pocket, which had then immediately been run over by Josh following close behind. Alex was...disappointed.

We got to Warburton at around 3 pm, and by the time we'd had second lunch, the afternoon was really getting on. 

Alex sitting by the Yarra River for second lunch, in Warburton.

We continued up the main road east of Warburton for about 5 km before turning off the main road and heading south on some smaller roads. This was my favourite part of the ride, I liked the gravel roads through the bush.

There was a lot of climbing through this section, and Alex was struggling up some of the steeper sections on the rough gravel. 

Josh and Alex on the road between Warburton and Powelltown.

Alex on the road between Warburton and Powelltown.

Josh on the road between Warburton and Powelltown.

Ned on the road between Warburton and Powelltown.

Josh resting after a stint of climbing, Alex still catching up.

This area had apparently recentlly been logged. It reminded me of one of my favourite movies as a kid - Fern Gully.

At around the top of the climbing, we came across a little camping area (Starlings Gap) with a few groups of campers. 

Sterling Gap Campsite.

Josh and I decided to pull in for a look while we waited for Alex to catch up. We chatted for a while to some friendly blokes called Geoff and Chris, who had been hiking all day, but had gotten lost/taken some wrong turns, so they'd taken several hours longer than they'd planned.

We kept talking, and still there was no sign of Alex. I'd been keeping an eye on the road for him during the conversation, but hasn't seen him go past. Ten minutes, fifteen minutes, we started to get worried. Had he collapsed, gotten lost, or gone past without seeing us? We left the campground and gave Alex a call.

On the intersection near the Stirling Gap Campsite, where we phoned Alex to locate him.

He picked up and said he'd ridden past without seeing us, and was about 2 km past the next turn-off that he'd missed. We agreed to meet at that turn-off and continue on the right route together.

On the road towards Powelltown.

This part of the ride was the best, because it was a long descent on gravel roads. Some parts were particularly steep, and the speed was thrilling, if not a little risky. Half way down, there was some bunting across the road, and a few blokes standing beside us. They infromed us that there was a car rally being held just down the road from there, and were surprised that we didn't know that. They advised us not to continue in that direction, but if we insisted, then to be careful. A car rally, how exciting! We continued, of course. We didn't collide with a car rally, but we did see a few rally cars on the way. 

I got to the bottom of the descent, and waited a few minutes for Josh to catch up, and then another 10 minutes or so for Grandma...I mean Alex! From there, it was just a little further on to Powelltown, and it was also just about dark. 

We needed to top up our water bottles, but the pub didn't have any running potable water (they were on bottled water apparently, because consumption of the local water source had been forbidden due to recent high levels of bacteria). We stopped in at the local footy oval and reserve, and they had a water tank beside the club rooms, but that water appeared slightly brown, so we didn't trust it. We chatted to a bloke there who was running the barbie for the rally drivers. There were probably a hundred rally cars there, as that was the start and end point for the rally, which would be running until about 1 am that night, we were told.

We considered camping there up behind the club rooms, but figured it wasn't a great idea as we'd be kept awake by the noise of the rally drivers and their cars. So we rode on a little further and found a little area just off the main road at the start of a walking track. That would do just fine. We prioritised food over setting up the tents, so we grabbed some water from the creek and used it to cook pasta for dinner. 

Alex with pasta sauce on his fingers are clumsily half knocking over his bowl of pasta.

By the time we'd washed up and set up the tents, it was after 11 pm.

Our route for the first day: Lilydale to Powelltown.

We had a reasonably early start the next day as we needed to cover the remaining 60 km in good time in order to get back to the city by mid-day. 

Our campsite in Powelltown.

Our view from the breakfast table.

Josh at the breakfast table.

After a significant breakfast, we were on the road by 8:30 and riding towards Yarra Junction. 

Josh was leading the way, while Alex and I were mostly sitting in. The temperature was very brisk to start with, but we soon warmed up from the exertion, and soaked up the warmth from the sun. 

On the road between Powelltown and Yarra Junction.

We hopped back onto the rail trail at Yarra Juntion, and got to Lilydale by 10:50 am, exceeding our expectations and in time to catch the 10:59 am train back to the city.

Our route for Day 2: Powelltown to Lilydale.

It was a useful little trip, for each of us to gauge our capabilities. We came back with a mental (and digital) list of things to remember to do before or bring to the Brisbane trip (blog posts to come).