Tuesday, September 30, 2014

#microadventure weekends

In amongst some weeknight 5-9 microadventures (as inspired by Alistair Humphreys), we've been doing a lot of weekend microadventures too.

Here's the last 4 weekend microadventures...


Thursday 4th - Sunday 7th September


Caught the train out to some bushland on Thursday night, arriving in the dark and camped overnight. Went to sleep with Mopoke owls hooting. Woke to find ourselves surrounded by brilliant yellow wattles in full bloom in the early morning auburn light.

Later... rode along the Bellarine Rail trail to Queenscliffe and kept riding to Barwon Heads where we camped two nights, enjoying the coastal scenery.

 Finally, on Sunday, rode back along the Bellarine Rail trail - racing the steam train between Queenscliffe and Drysdale -- we won! - and headed home.

















Friday 12th - Sunday 14th September

Friday night caught the train out to Colac, rode a few km in the dark out to Meredith Park where you can bivy on the sandy edge of the shimmering Lake Colac.

Saturday morning, caught up with friends in Colac and rode the Colac to Beech Forest rail trail. Saw a few swamp wallabies on the way. Camped over night in a cricket oval under some great stars. Went for a walk that night and spotted some glow worms in the railway cutting.

Rode back to Colac and trained home on Sunday.







Thursday 18th - Sunday 21st September


Caught the train out to Woodend and enjoyed a couple of dark beers at Holgate brewery. Camped in the nearby oval with brilliant stars. Saw a single shooting star before drifting off to sleep. Woke with frost on the bivy. Rode out to Hanging Rock after some bakery breakfast(s), managing to time it so we were walking out when a school group walked in so we had the place to ourselves.

Rode back into Woodend and then headed out to Wombat State Forest on some great fire trail type roads. We camped overnight in the beautiful forest. 

The next day we found a great billabong. We kept riding, stopping at Trentham for lunch. Riding the Domino rail trail into Lyonville, to visit a friend at her rural property. Dinner at Radio Springs and camped overnight.

Rode back along the rail trail, another lunch in Trentham, and back to Woodend for the train home.













Friday 26th - Sunday 28th September

Caught the train out to Frankston and rode along the Baxter rail trail to some bushland where we camped over night. Woke to a beautiful sunrise. 

Rode to Flinders to eat fish burgers above the pier for lunch.

Rode onto Dromana right when it was Grand Final time for the quiet roads. Stopped at Red Hill Mont cidery on the way. Rolled rather quickly down Arthurs Seat road with a very nice dry cider in the belly, putting the fun into it. 

Enjoyed a friends raucous birthday party at Dromana. Camped overnight in backyard.

Rode to Bittern (via lunch at Red Hill) to catch some trains back home.