The new bike

I bought myself a new bike for my birthday and a new bike helmet for Christmas, continuing the lifelong tradition of combining birthday and Christmas presents (avoid being born on Christmas Eve – it sucks). The bike – a 29er – was to allow me to ride anywhere.

The first test was along the local rail trail. At 134km, it is the longest in Victoria and I can now say that I have ridden around 15km of it – leaving only 120km to go.

The summer holiday was at Phillip Island, where I intended to do some hiking but never did. There are a couple of walks I’ve been meaning to do for some time –Cape Woolamai to the Pinnacles and cliffs (I got halfway there once), the George Bass Coastal Walk from San Remo to Kilcunda. I also planned to ride the Bass Coast cycle trail, over the Kilcunda bridge to Wonthaggi. I didn’t do that either. Instead, I caught a few nice waves at Woolamai, my first surf in ages. It was hot, the waves were smallish but a light offshore gave them a bit of shape … and there weren’t too many people out. That, and a couple of short rides on the bike.

The first ride was around Ventnor, where we stay, mainly in search of wildlife to photograph. I spotted a few birds and a zillion rabbits. The nature park people have had a blitz on foxes, trying to completely eradicate them from the island. I guess they have had some success, which means that a major rabbit predator is gone and the rabbits can breed like rabbits. I went to the Ventnor nature reserve and waited around the bird hide, camera ready, and saw nothing. I then wandered over the road to the ‘common’ and found the birdlife.

The next ride was from the koala park to Rhyll, where we had lunch and coffee before cycling back. Around 10km in each direction, the ride was wonderful, taking in bush through the Owen Roberts Koala Reserve and then beside Rhyll Swamp.

Muscles in cycling mode, another summer trip saw me with my bike at Port Fairy. The Commonwealth Sheepdog Trials were on at the time; starting from seven in the morning there was a constant “C’mon, round back”, “back off”, “Round left” and so on accompanied by a variety of whistling, which continued until ten at night, rounding sheep under the footy ground lights.

Destination one was the lighthouse, via the wharf area. It isn’t a big distance but was fun. I learnt that there are two tracks to the lighthouse – one is easy and the other is along the beach. First we tried the beach and stopped when we hit the sand. Then we tried the easy track, took some pics, and headed back into town for an ice cream. Hot and sweaty, we ordered an ice-cream each to find I was a few dollars short. The ice-cream man smiled and said “Fine, bring it in tomorrow”.  

Destination two was Koroit via the Warrnambool – Port Fairy Rail Trail. The rail trail heads off through farmland and then continues through farmland, then there is a small section of forest, and then more farmland and then it reaches Koroit and lunch at the pub. The return trip was similar but with a head wind.

We slept well that night, dropping off to the soft sound of “Bessie! 'round back, ‘round back”.

Bessie does her thing ...