Tuesday 29 September 2015

Day 19 - Booze - Rutherglen Wine Tasting

Links between cycling and wine go back for centuries. In fact, alcohol was the original performance enhancing drug. In early editions of the Tour de France, domestiques would stop at hotels and commandeer whatever alcohol they could for consumption by the team, while they raced. Even now, who hasn't raced their bike home from the pub after a few beers. It works!!

We will we be testing out this theory today.

First stop was Stanton & Killeen.  What a fabulous lineup of wine and fortifieds,  very ably promoted by cellar door guru,  Joe Duncan. Joe is a wonderful ambassador for his organisation.

While all the grog was of a high standard, the highlight was some of the age ports together with a side-by-side tasting of the muscats through regional, classic, grand and then rare. The Grand and the Rare muscats in particular had an intensity and complexity that is difficult to describe.

Then it was across the road to Campbells. They have a larger selection of white and red wines, and varieties that you don't see everywhere, which made for some additional interest.  I thought their Cabernets were great, but the highlight was the Rare Muscat, which retails for $120 for 375 mls. The best Muscat I can remember in some time.

Back to reality tomorrow, with three, maybe four, days to go. A little bit anxious about the amount of climbing to be done. 500 m over 100 kms tomorrow, then 1500 m over 90kms on Saturday and 2500 metres of climbing over only 75 kms on Sunday. That will be an intense day, I'm tired just thinking about it.  

Different vintages to compare

Regional, Classic, Grand and Rare

Joe is a great host


Doing my best work

Everybody should have one

A muscat convert

Day 18 - Cobram to Rutherglen - Yabba-Dabba-Dooo

Distance - 89 kms
Climbing - 129 metres
View the ride here:

Two riders are keen to have a day off tomorrow. 

Just been to the happy hour at the Rutherglen CP and got the good oil that Shark and Tatties are the go at the "Poachers Paradise".

The dead trees at lake Malwala (Yarrawonga) were the feature of the day. I have hypothesised that poor old SA may have a bit more water in the Murray if they could reduce the evaporation from this part of the system. Everything is nice and green though.

At the happy hour, we directed discussions towards fishing. We found out that the best bait for Murray Cod is golf balls and mozzarella cheese. Who'd have thought.

As far as cycling goes, we have just finished the pre-season. The real event happens this weekend. Another 4000m of climbing will see the job done.

We had a brief discussion regarding towing the trailers to the top. The first few bumps at Rutherglen put paid to that idea.

A mechanism to waste water


Over the Murray once again

Bring it on


Is there anything these trailers can't do

Many square kilometres of these

Paying to fish, c'mon!!

Day 17 - Lost - Echuca to Cobram

Distance - 116 kms
Climbing - 112 metres
View the ride here:

An upside of exercising hard for seven hours a day is you get to eat whatever you want.

I like that. 

For example, for breakfast I had a bacon egg and cheese sandwich on thick white bread, a doughnut and a coffee with extra chocolate. For my first morning tea I had a Magnum ice cream, for my second morning tea I had a sausage roll with sauce. 

No guilt whatsoever.

Another advantage of travelling out in the middle of nowhere is the people you meet. Every single day we have run into a character or two. For example, today we met Mac Nye while we were waiting for the Cobram caravan park manager to come back from whatever the fuck he was doing. Mac Nye is 89 years old and loves a chat. He was a very successful Murray Cod fisherman in his day that conveniently had a photo album of the monster fish that he'd caught over the years.  It was actually very interesting, he is a ripper bloke and he is caught plenty of big cod.

This all happened while we were waiting for the caravan park manager to turn up. I'm not quite sure how long that took but we were able to drink six beers in between the time we got at the park and when he arrived. And I'm not quite sure if Brian (the caravan park manager) gets much social interaction  because he seemed to have a lot of stories he wished to share with us as well.

Anyway, back to today's ride. We decided to take some of the secondary roads because the main highways are pretty busy. The downside is you can get lost, which I managed to do. The result is I travelled 12 kilometres more than Brian and he is quite disturbed by that. I'm not sure why. He reckons it's not a competition, so why would it matter.

It was another fabulous day for cycling - good quality roads, temps in the low 20s, no hills, low traffic, lovely scenery.

Sadly, early next week this is all going to end.

A shorter day tomorrow at about 90 kms into Rutherglen. We are going to have our only real rest day when we get there, preparing for 3 days of very big hills. But there will be no rest. There is plenty of plonk here that requires tasting. Look forward to our tasting notes and recommendations in tomorrow's blog.

Just out of Echuca, great town




Nathalia, at that stage didn't realise I was lost

Legend!!





Monday 28 September 2015

Day 16 - Does the cycling God have a conscience? - Swan Hill to Echuca

Distance - 156 kms
Climbing - 135 metres
View the ride here -

After the cycling God gave us a pasting north of the Murray, he/she has finally shown us some compassion. He/she might be playing tricks?

 I have ridden this particular stretch  of the Murray Valley highway at least 7 times, during my participation in the Port to Port ride with the Tasco team from Mildura. Never with conditions so good.

We felt violated by the experience at the Big 4 Riverside Park at Swan Hill, so we had planned a shorter day and spend the night out in the sticks camped at the Gunbower caravan park. We were also keen to sample the wares of the Gunny pub. On arrival however, not wishing to offend the gods, we pressed on to Echuca. We lucked on the happy hour schooners and the $12 pot and parmi deal at the Shamrock Hotel. Had to eat broccoli and cauliflower however. 

Broke another Kracka LFL record with the flat terrain suiting our level of fitness.

Tony, with suitable Mangina care, is proving to be the cycling powerhouse under these conditions. We cracked 33kph going through Torrumbarry!

Had a few interested punters in our journey today. A lawyer from Melbourne and a Sydney to Hobart sailor from Tassie.

Looking forward to a date with the Beechworth Bakery tomorrow morning.







Sunday 27 September 2015

Week 2 summary

Distance - 613 kms
Average distance per day - 87.53 kms
Time - 37 hours 31 minutes
Average time per day - 5 hours 21 minutes
Average speed - 16.33 km/hr

Saturday 26 September 2015

Day 15 - Big Chain Rings - Robinvale to Swan Hill

Distance - 135kms
Climbing - 126 metres
View the ride here:

A fabulous day for cycling - light winds, blue skies, temps in the mid 20s, no hills and bitumen roads.  When conditions are like this, you grab the big chainring and turn as hard as you can for as long as you can. For us, that meant 135 km in about 6 1/2 hours at an average of better than 20 km/h. I've never travelled that far towing before, neither has Brian. Of course it was a pleasure to be towing the Kracka Adventure Series Looking for Ludwich Lychardt model bike trailer.

Robinvale is a top place. There are many first and second generation Australians here which makes it interesting. The road out of Robinvale has vineyards and orchards either side, all meticulously maintained. Seems to be a lot of money here. 

When you get past Boundary Bend there are kilometres and kilometres of almond orchards, cereal crops, even rice. 

Plan for tomorrow is to get to Gunnower, which is about 110kms. Winds have a bit of Westerly in them tomorrow, so that could help.

Boundary Bend




135 kms, long day


Friday 25 September 2015

Day 14 - Walking the Line - Mildura to Robinvale

Distance - 85 kms
Climbing - 138 metres
View the ride here:


The 5.30am roll call revealed that the sun gets up later in NSW. I packed in the dark whilst brother Tony made himself beautiful for the day ahead (you never know we might run into).

The day ahead would take us from NSW back into Victoria. The view out of the window was largely the same as the previous 1000kms except for the number of vehicles. We had gone from Prado country to multi-wheeler territory.

The redeeming feature was that the road is smooth and the good people of NSW have placed a convenient continuous white line to follow. When out in the sticks, you need to focus ahead to select the smoothest line.  On national highway 20, a few meters ahead is enough. I kept a good distance from Tony's rear wheel so that I didn't accidentally run up his "Kracka LFL"

A slight breeze over the left shoulder allowed us to take our first fuel break at 40 out and enter Robinvale over the Murray at 12.30.

Being a windmill admirer from way back, I'm pleased to announce that Robinvale has "the largest windmill in the Southern Hemisphere"

A group of "adventure" motorcyclists have just rocked up on the adjacent camping spot. It turns out that they are riding the same route as we have taken. I have included a photo for Kaths' benefit.


Follow the line


More lines




Cracking camp site on the river


For Kath's benefit, she could be a half owner in one of these



Day 13 - Rest and Repair - Wentworth to Hudacks Bakery (Mildura)

Distance - 30 kms
Climbing - 41 metres 
View the ride here:

Just a quick blast to Mildura today, for breakfast at houdacks bakery amongst other things.  Today we would get some rest, sort through gear, get rid of everything no longer needed (since we're now on bitumen) and do a bit of bike repair. My bottom bracket has had some movement for several days now so Tracie has sent a new one from home to the Mildura post office for me to pick and get fitted somewhere in town.

Lovely early ride in through the vines and orchards.

Mildura is boot scooten' central with the Country Music Festival in full swing.  There was some dude yodelling in the mall, there were thousands of people there to 'enjoy' it. We are tempted to ride back to Wentworth tonight to see the line dancing competition.  

We were lucky to walk in to THE BEST bike shop in Mildura, Cycling Mythology, run by Richard Hale.  Richard is just not running a bike shop, he is part of the cycling family. He dropped what he was doing to help us out. As it turns out I have lost a self extracting bolt somewhere between here and Timbuctu making it impossible to remove the crank. Thanks Richard for your help, he gave the bike a bit of a tune anyway pro bono. Much appreciated Richard. Cycling Mythology website is at: http://www.cyclingmythology.cc
Check it 

Then off to Brians mates place, Evan Newell, to sort through all of our crap. Thanks Evan. We left a heap of gear there that we no longer need eg sand tyres.

Last stop was camp for the night at a park on the Murray River.

We reckon we have 10 more days riding to complete this trip. The conditions look quite favourable for the next week (light winds, temps in the mid-20's) so we may be able to shorten that. Our route will take us through Robinvale, Swan Hill, Echuca, Yarrawonga, Rutherglen (a day off there to drink booze) before we tackle the last three days of climbing to Mt K.

Tomorrow is Robinvale which is about 90 km. If conditions are good, we will try and do a few more.


Yodelling not far away

Thanks for your help Evan

Best bike shop in town

Restocking

All the major food groups

Mildura CP

Thursday 24 September 2015

Day 12 - Barry Crocker - Lake Victoria to Wentworth

Distance - 78 kms
Climbing - 43 metres
View the ride here:

"Make the wind your friend" is an old cycling adage. I wish I knew how to do that, because today, it was a prick.

I've had an absolute Barry Crocker today. The wind was strong and into our face. No energy whatsoever and I just could not get on top of it. 5 1/2 hours of this crap and my patience is wearing thin.

Brian on the other hand looked like a spring chicken. I thought he was going to go no hands there at one stage, just to rub it in.  

Anyway, after about 1000 km of dirt, we saw the end of it today. It's bitumen all the way to Mount K. I'll be putting two slicks on the bike tonight, and pumping the buggers up as hard as they'll go.

Chicken snitty at the pub tonight, with a chance of a cold beverage or two. Just part of the hydration program.

A short 25 km ride to Mildura tomorrow, followed by a peaceful afternoon down by the river for some will earned rest.

Unbeknown to us, the country music Festival is on at Mildura this weekend, that will make accommodation, even a camping spot at the caravan park, difficult to find. Brian has a couple of mates in Mildura so it might mean that we end up camping on someone's front lawn. Fine by us.


Camp, luxurious


Happy days - last of the dirt roads

Darling River


The first beer in several days