An Antipodean Pootle

A while ago over a few beers a mate and I decided it would be a good idea to go and do a multiday trip. Both of us agreed we were too soft to forego a bed and would therefore need to be able to find a pub or hotel for the night.

I forgot all about it till an itinerary dropped into my inbox a few weeks later. Quick scrabble around the internet found some bike packing style bags winging their way to me and there was no longer any way of backing out.

The route was to be the Goldfields track that winds across the area of Victoria that was the centre of the 1850s gold rush. Starting at Mount Buninyong near Ballarat and finishing at Bendigo via some pretty rugged country. We spit it into three legs. Leg one 100KM (first possible stop) and then two 60KM legs.

We set off on Friday morning following the river upstream and it was not long till we had a lesson in prospecting from a really interesting guy.

This aint no rail trail. there was was some real challenging sections including dicey bridges.

Rotten bridges.

Abandoned mine workings
Not forgetting prickly natives

More to come if there is any interest

Plenty of interest here.

That’s pretty cool, the mine workings have got my geologist side twitching though- there’s be all hell to play over here if that was left like that and people knew about it!

@Munroebiker There is an odd sign warning of old mine workings when you are near a town. God help the unwary who goes to relieve themselves in the undergrowth as they are everywhere and some of them are deep!

So on with the journey. What would an epic Pootle be without a major mechanical? Lots of deadfall around after some big winds a month or so ago had to climb over a lot of down trees and I think they took offence as one branch leapt up and boom.

Pretty much 50 km from anywhere. No phone signal. Bugger, Bugger, bugger.

God help the unwary who goes to relieve themselves in the undergrowth as they are everywhere and some of them are deep!

Wandering off into the undergrowth this time of year is asking for trouble from the local reptiles anyway

It’s actually the ants I’d be worried about.
Camped next to a bull ant nest on the weekend. Though they’re probably more docile than jack jumpers, they do bite hard.

next instalment please, what did you do without a rear mech? single speed it?

@Kiwi John. The Bull ants sting a bit but some of those legless bastards are lethal. Especially when you are a long way from roads/phone signal or infrastructure of any kind.

round mine works were dug by the chinese immigrants, square by european ones, interesting, eh?

So without a rear mech we decided to carry out the usual and oft quoted “single speed it”.
Well let me tell you a 140 travel bike with no lockout will not play that game. if we had the whole mech it might have worked with zip ties and a few bits of twig. In our case the top jockey was all we had. Chain tight enough to stay on snapped due to chain growth and slack enough not to snap only stayed on the block for one to three pedal strokes. This was not a nice smooth rail trail.

So we looked for the highest point we could see and prayed for a phone signal. It was piss poor but intermittent enough to get a text message out. Did we text SWMBO? no, the couple we had arranged to transfer us back from the end of the trip to back to my car at the start. Text read as follows “major mechanical need 10sp derailier and chain. located XXXXX any ideas”

Off to sleep now. More in the morning when I wake up.
Knackered………….

This is the part that restores your faith in humanity. We had arranged a lift from the finish back to the start from a couple called Paula and Andrew who run accommodation/cafe at a place called Tread in Harcourt. Paula said she would drive to the nearest bike shop pick up some parts and meet us at a certain point. Only about an hour and a half driving for her. For two random blokes who she had never met other than a couple of emails asking about the bike transfer.
Here she is, a true heroine.

One XT derailier and new chain fitted at the roadside we were ready to roll again with most of the ratios available due to a suspect hanger.

We had burnt a lot of daylight with messing about trying to get the singlespeed thing going, riding down the hills, walking up them and Tony pushing or pulling me on the flat bits. Paula offered to drop us off at a point closer to our destination that would allow us to still get to our accommodation in daylight.

So we arrived at the the house we rented for the first night via the bottle shop.

V nice… 😎

Brings back memories…

Miss it.. 🙁

Brilliant stuff!

Day two started with a hangover but soon were on our way.

There were streams cross. Deeper than it looks

Fords to negotiate

Mini grand canyons

remnants of quartz crushing

and the water wheel to power the crusher

To finish a microbrewery

Time for bed and look forward to the last day

Day three. After Bacon and Eggs we set off on the last leg.

Heading for the “nipple in the distance”

We were joined for the last 30K by Andrew (partner of the saviour Paula who took us off route and down some nice back country singletrack. Rocky, loose quartz and fun.

Got to the end

and went for a beer

Wow. Tough crowd tonight. Not even a “loose some weight fatboy”

Sorry, I’ve just been for a beer.
Is it just me, or do you need to clean your camera lens?

Phone on stem for mapping and other such stuff. Most likely very dusty from the trails.
I know the words and pictures are not up to normal STW standards but I really wanted to share the experience with you lot.

good ride report. Any other anecdotes about animal encounters?

Good ride by the look of it. I miss that sort of ride.

Your mate’s derailleur gave me a wee smile. When my brother dod the Bicentennial trail he got through 3 of them, not counting the spare he was carrying at the end. He’d started off disdainfully calling my brother’s Rohloff an overpriced heavy lump. Guess what he bought at the end of ride? 🙂

Nice little adventure that, always amazes me how friendly strangers can be.

Sitting here in the UK on a freezing, if sunny day I have to say I loved the pics and words!

Well done guys, looked like a blast!

Thanks guys.
The guy who rode with us for the last bit was very surprised neither of us had torn a tyre sidewall. Everyone round there runs the toughest ones they can get hold of seemingly. The trails can be very loose and rocky with lots of that rock being quartz.

Jealous! Looks like a good few days!

A brilliant write up thank you, love the different scenery compared to here in Europe.

Mrs Pepper and I only do gentle pootles along French canals last year we did the Nantes-Brest canal and had an awesome time covering about 100k a day.

I see STW just published a more accomplished set of words and pictures about the very same ride.