Victoria Bike Ride 2022

Continuing our run of very slow travel days, we rode with our friends and family along the rail trail, bike paths and quiet country roads around Rutherglen and Wahgunyah. A commemorative selfie at the start of the day's ride seemed appropriate, so we took one.  A selfie seemed appropriate We made our way down to the start of the Rutherglen to Wahgunyah rail trail, and pootled along at a gentle pace. With eight of us in the group there was plenty of opportunity to mull over all manner of important topics as we ate up (very slowly) the kilometres.  Discussing the important issues, eg "is pootling really a word?" It wasn't all about the cycling, of course. There were frequent stops to examine scenes of interest.  A trailside teddy bears picnic was an early highlight We highlighted our slow travel credentials by being overtaken at one point by a jogger. It appeared to be a highlight of her day - she commented that she had never overtaken a cyclist before.  Being overtake...

In what was almost a rest day, we cycled 24 kilometres today between Chiltern and Rutherglen. We started in mid-morning with a short spin around Chiltern, which took us to the village bakery. We enjoyed our morning coffee there, along with some healthy fruit and nut pastries.  An early highlight of today's ride After that welcome stop, we headed out on the road to Howlong. Not for very long, as we soon turned off to ride through the forested Mt Pleasant Road.  A last look at Chiltern Pleasant riding on Mt Pleasant Road We have been embracing the principle of slow travel on this trip, and we found ourselves travelling particularly slowly today. We stopped on numerous occasions for a variety of reasons.  Like sketching a tree, for example Or admiring some art Or looking at some signs Or looking at some sheep As on previous days, many of the impromptu rest stops involved bird watching.  We watched these birds And we watched these birds And also these birds With the sky ...

Our run of fine days ended with a day of grey skies and drizzle. We only had a short hop down to Chiltern, so we had a good wander around Wodonga before packing up and riding on.  Among the art in Wodonga Wodonga is well supplied with walking and bike paths, and we managed to avoid the streets as we navigated our way through the town.  Through Wodonga on the bike paths When the paths ran out, we were on the sealed Felltimber Creek Road, which we decided to follow despite the advice on Google Maps that it contained a "moderate hill". We passed a few kangaroos before we were confronted with an ominous sign.  A few kangaroos An ominous sign It didn't take long for the road to go upwards, and then even steeper upwards.  At the top of yet another climb Shortly after a very steep (around 25% gradient) hill, we turned a corner to be confronted with an even steeper one.  We rode the first half of it, but conceded defeat and walked the bikes up the last 200 metres or so....