Author: billrider2013

Kennet and Avon Canal

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Kennet and Avon Canal

It was time to leave London.

My hosts were about to return and their place was about to receive a visit by yet another antipodean guest.

I did my best to erase any evidence of my visit by vacuuming and cleaning the quest’s bathroom. I did however leave some Irises in the kitchen. Apparently that gets me brownie points from the one of my hosts.

Getting Out of London
The National Cycle Route 4 runs from London to Bristol via Bath. Over the years since 2012, I have ridden on this route. However, not on all of it every year.

While the route out of London along the Thames is very interesting, it can be a bit of a pain.

I decided to take the train to Reading. In fact, I wanted to take the train to Great Bedwyn and start riding from there. I have done that before. When I tried to book the trains on the Great Western Railway site, I found it impossible. There seemed to be no trains that allowed bicycles. This was inconsistent with my previous experience.

I ended up calling the ‘customer service desk’. The person on the end of the line had a strong ‘Georgie’ i.e. possibly indicating the call centre is in the North East of England.

I had a long discussion with the ‘service desk’. This discussion included me telling them that I recalled taking a GRW ‘commuter train from Reading to Great Bedwyn with my bike. They told me that the only way I could take a bike “was on a train the way going all the way to Cardiff and there were no slots avail for bikes on the day I planned to travel”.

I felt as though I may have been talking to some random person in the street.

Cutting to chase, I rode to Clapham Junction and caught Southern Railways train to Reading. There I found that I could take a local train to Great Bedwyn. There I picked up the National Cycle Route 4 to Wootton Rivers.

I have subsequently learned that the GWR Call Centre is in Runcorn near Liverpool. I suspect the staff in the Call Centre rarely, if ever, take a GRW train.

The Royal Oak
From Great Bedwyn I picked up the National Cycle Route 4 and rode to Wootton Rivers.
I had booked into The Royal Oak Pub and B&B. This is a great place to stay. I first stayed here in 2012.

That ride in 2012, was my first time on the Kennet and Avon Canal. It was the end of May and this part of the country was experiencing unusually heavy rain. I had had been riding from Reading in very heavy rain. It was so heavy that that the ‘tow path’ has so many puddles that it looked like the canal itself.

I had not made any plans as far as places to stay. It was a serendipitous moment when some locals suggested that I checked out of the Royal Oak.

It is the quintessential ‘Wiltshire Pub’ with a thatched roof and low beams. The B&B is next-door.

The pub serves great beers and the food is excellent ‘home style’ fare.
I have stay there every year since 2012.

Walkers
Over breakfast, I chatted to a couple who told that they were walking long the canal from Reading to Bristol.

They told me that they were walking to Devizers on this day. It was possible that we would meet somewhere of the path.

When I first rode along this part of the Cycle Route 4, the majority of the route was on the tow path by the canal. However, much of the tow path, particularly between Wootton Rivers and Devizers is just dirt and has not been paved or covered with gravel. This makes it unsuitable for non-off-road bikes. As a result, most of the route in this section has been diverted away from the canal onto lanes. This actually makes the ride interesting in that it takes you into villages a little way from the canal.

Notwithstanding the above, you are still able to ride on the canal in certain parts even though it is not officially on the Route 4. I cut off the cycle route at Honey Street and dropped onto the row path. Even thought my bike is fully laden, with its wide tyres and front suspension, it is still okay to ride on dirt and grass paths.

Not long after Honey Street, I came across the walkers from the Royal Oak. They had already covered 16 kilometres and were make good progress towards their destination.

There were also lots of other walkers on the path. Some were obviously just locals on a short walk, But there were a few with backpacks possibly also doing the length of the canal.

The Caen Locks
As I approached Devizers, the tow path started to be paved and was now formally part the Cycle Route 4.

I decided to skip stopping off in the town of Devizers continued on towards the camping ground which about 4 kilometres further west.

Before camping ground, the path leads you down the Caen Locks. These are amazing.

“The 29 locks have a rise 72 metres in 3.2 kilometres 1 in 44 gradient. The locks come in three groups. The lower seven locks, Foxhangers Wharf Lock to Foxhangers Bridge Lock, are spread over 1.2 kilomtres The next sixteen locks form a steep flight in a straight line up the hillside

Because of the steepness of the terrain, the gaps between these locks are very short. As a result, 15 locks have unusually large sideways-extended ponds, to store the water needed to operate them. A final six locks take the canal into Devizes”.

Check out the photos and video on Flickr.

My new Principal Place of Residence
I checked into the Devizers Camping Ground which, as I noted above, isn’t actually in the town of Devizers.

Anyway, it is good spot. Even though they were fully booked, I was able to get in because of their excellent policy of never turning cyclists or walkers away.

This was to be the first night in my new tent. I was impressed. It will be a very good principal residence at least for this northern summer.

Stirring up a Brexiteer
After setting up my tent, I headed off to the ‘Three Magpies’ Pub. This is good pub that serves basic, but tasty meals.

The publican is a bit of a Basil Faulty type of bloke. He is also a avid Brexiteer. He recognised me and recalled that I don’t share his views on Brexit. We had some interesting banter on the issue. I noted that there didn’t seem to have been too much progress two years after the vote to leave. I did, however, note that the GBP  was still significantly lower compared to the AUD than before the vote.

His comeback was a classic:
“the pound is still stronger than when we entered the EU”.
The UK entered the EU in 1973. That was before the introduction of the Euro. The Euro was introduced on the 1st of January 1999.

Talk about Brexiteers living in a parallel universe.

On to Bathampton
Leaving the campsite, I continued west along the canal to Bradford on Avon. This is great little town.

The next part of the canal to Bathampton is particularly picturesque. It also includes the viaduct at Avoncliff. This is another impressive piece of engineering.

As I was riding along I found an Apple iPhone. There is long story to this but not worth telling. In short, I handed it into the ‘One Stop Shop’ in Bath the next day. I hope they find its owner.

Finding yet Another Way into Marshfield
From Bathampton, I headed up the hill towards Marshfield.

This was the seventh time that I have approach Marshfield from the East. There are four road into the village. However, before you get to them you several options.

I think I haven’t taken the same way twice. How many more options are there?

Back in the Catherine Wheel Pub
Anyway, surprise surprise, I arrived in the Catherine Wheel in the early evening on a Friday night in June. This is eighth year in a row that this has occurred.

Some Days in Marshfield
I will post about this sometime.

Flickr Link
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmmvZgqq

Garmin Links

Great Bedwyn
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2776689237

Wootton Rivers
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2776689326

Devizers
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2785712483

London

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London
My flight from Orlando was okay, however I didn’t get much sleep.
One positive was that I didn’t have to reassemble the bicycle. All I had to do was fit the handlebars and the peddles.

I caught the train to Clapham Junction. I noticed that good number of the passengers of the train were asleep. Clearly, they had had a bad night’s sleep as well. I wonder what their reasons were.

I rode from Clapham Junction to my hosts’ place.

Staying Awake
After an all-night flight. The trick is to stay awake for as long as possible and to wake up at a ‘normal’ time the next day. This gets your body into ‘sync’ and avoids jet lag.

I spent the day sorting stuff out like getting a SIM card and confirming the arrangements for my lock-up.

In the evening, my host cooked and excellent meal – baked salmon. After the meal slept in a very familiar bed. My Fitbit told me that I had three awakenings.

Starting the Rituals Stuff
The next I headed in the West End. I will never cease to enjoy wondering around

London, particular this part of the city. It is truly the ‘centre of the world’.
One of my annual rituals is beer in the St James Tavern on Shaftesbury Avenue off Piccadilly Circus. It isn’t nearly as good as it was in the late 70’s and early 80’s when it was my favourite ‘watering hole’ on Friday night. However, I still have very good memories of the place.

Another ritual I completed a couple of days later was eating a Welsh Rarebit and Fortnum and Mason.

Lord’s Cricket
In the evening headed to the Lord’s Cricket Ground where I met up with my host. We had tickets to watch the West Indies play in a T20 charity match against an ICC International XI. The proceeds of the match went the cricket associations in the Caribbean whose cricket grounds had been damaged in the hurricanes last year.

Before the match, Chris Gayle came across to the fence below where we were sitting to sign his autograph and have his photo taken with fans.

The Windies batted first. Gayle was in terrible form and couldn’t getting going.

Fortunately, the other batsmen were in good touch and WI’s got to 199 in their 20 overs.
This was to prove too much for the International IX.

Notwithstanding the match didn’t have an exciting finish, it was entertaining. Lord’s is great place to watch cricket. We were sitting in good seats. There were a group of blokes in our row who obviously worked together. They turned out to be very good patrons for the bar. As the night went on, the conservations got more and more amusing. One of the blokes, in particular, was very quick witted and had everyone within hearing distance laughing. The more he drank the funnier he got. Some of his funniest comments were about Nassar Hussein, the former England Captain who was an ‘on field’ commentator for the match.

Bill Burr
I always like going the Royal Albert Hall. I checked out was on. Curiously there were no orchestral concerts on in the week ahead.

One of the shows that was on was a American comedian called Bill Burr. I had never heard of him. Anyway, I thought he must be good if he was on at the Albert Hall and bought a last-minute ticket on-line.

As it turned out, the ticket was in a box. The other people in the box were a couple of Americans who were visiting London for a conference and some young English blokes. They were all fans of Burr.

The show was really good. Burr has a really sharp wit. His observations of American society and politics were very incisive. I particularly like his observations on the Americans’ obsession of lauding their ‘military’. Check out the You Tube video clip. He used these comments in his show.

The Future is Here at the V&A
Another thing I like to do in London is to visited the Victoria and Albert Museum. The ‘permanent’ exhibits are always good to see.

However, the ‘temporary’ exhibitions are often a ‘stand out’. Last year they had and exhibition on Pink Floyd. It was fantastic.

This year, one of the temporary exhibitions is called ‘The Future Here’ it is about the impact of technology on our lives. It is worth a visit if you are in London.

Servicing the Bike
I took my bicycle to BikeFix in Holborn. They are able to service the Rohloff hub and always do a good job.

APECer in Town
It seems that very time I am in London there are other people I known visiting the city.

This visit coincided with a visit by one my colleagues on the APEC 2007 Taskforce. She was visiting the city on holiday from New Delhi with her husband and young son. She is working in New Delhi at the Australian High Commission.
It was great to catch up with her and to meet her husband.

Seeing West End Shows
My hosts are good value when it comes to providing advice on which West End show to see. This year they suggested ‘Tina’. This is musical based on Tina Turner’s live and music.

I was able to get a ‘returned’ ticket.

The show turned out to be really good. The girl in the lead role was particularly good.

I also managed to see ‘Wicked’. This is a very long running musical. I finally got to see it.
Another show I saw was Oscar Wilde’s play the ‘An Ideal Husband’ – a political satire.

One the stars of the show in Susan Hampshire. Who can remember her in BBBC dramas like ‘The Forsyte Saga’ and ‘The Young Churchills’ ? She is still working and is 81.

Flickr Links

London
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmgRZ6Jj

Lord’s Cricket
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmkMBuXb

Royal Albert Hall
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmn4MXNT

The Future is Here
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmmcLkES

Tina and Wicked
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmmdZpSY

Bill Burr on YouTube
Making fun of the ‘Military’

Flight to London

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Bicycle on Norwegian Air

I had booked my flight to London before I left Australia. One of the reason for doing this was to avoid the nonsense with QANTAS who incorrectly demand that you show evidence of a return or onward ticket when boarding I flight from Australia to the USA.
I will post about that issue later.

Anyway I booked a flight with Norwegian Air from Orlando to Gatwick. I had read about this company before. They are one of the newer, and apparently very successful, ‘budget’ airline.

Their model is to provide ‘no thrills’ service and use the latest most fuel-efficient aeroplanes like the Boeing 787.

Before I made the booking, I confirmed that I would be able to carry my bicycle. At GBP 60, it was not only possible, but also reasonably priced.

As the time for the flight approach I contacted the airline to confirm the arrangements for carrying the bike. I don’t mind boxing the bike, but it can be a pain. In the past I have travelled in Lufthansa. They don’t require that bikes are boxed. That makes life easier.

Anyway, I contacted Air Norwegian using ‘Chat’. I find this mechanism useful, because it provides a transcript of the conversation you have had with the ‘help’ desk.
The upshot of my chat was that I would be able to carry the bike ‘unboxed’ and leave the wheels on.

I took the train from Winter Park to Orlando where I caught a bus to the Orlando International Airport. At USD 2 this is excellent value, particularly as you can carry a bike on the bus.

When I went to check in with Norwegian Air the clerk told me that I would “not be allowed on the flight unless my bike was in a case or a box”. I was told that another customer was refused permission to fly with an unboxed bike the previous day.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I was allowed on the flight with the bike ‘unboxed’. Having the transcript of my previous discussions with the ‘help desk’ proved invaluable.

The flight turned out to be okay. The configuration of the 787 seemed to be very similar to the Scoot planes that also use these planes in ‘budget’ mode. The seats have thin cushioning and are packed closely together. They hardly recline at all and you are sitting very upright.

My flights on Scoot have been during the day between Sydney and Singapore and vice versa. You don’t need to sleep on those flights.

This flight from Orlando to London was overnight. I found it very difficult to sleep.
Apart from that the service was efficient. You have to pay for food and drinks, but that is what happens of budget airlines. At least the air was included in the fare.

Notwithstanding the lack of sleep, I managed to stay awake until quite late on my first day in London, thus managing to avoid serious jet lag.

To El Paso

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To El Paso
The train left Union Station at 8.30. It has been my experience that the only time that Amtrak trains are on schedule is at the time of departure. After that they are typically delayed and rarely make up time.

This is because Amtrak does not own the tracks. They are owned by the freight companies and Amtrak trains have to give way to the freight trains even though under the law, passengers trains have first priority to use the tracks. The freight companies simply ignore the law.

Across Arizona into Texas
The train headed off into the night.

When I woke up in the morning, we had crossed the border into Arizona and where heading to a major stop at Tucson.

The view from the train was interesting, but like the train across the Nullabor in Australia, it is very similar for a very long time.
We had a long stop in Tucson, which provided the opportunity for the passengers to stretch their legs. A number of passengers also took the opportunity to smoke. A surprisingly large number of people in the USA still smoke.

Arriving in El Paso
I arrived in El Paso in the late afternoon and headed to my hotel, the Gardener, that is located in the ‘Old Town’ area not far from the station.

The Gardener Hotel is a classic. It was like walking back in time. Check out the Flickr photos.

Remembering my Last Visit to El Paso
This was my second visit to El Paso. The last time was in July 1979 when I was travelling in the USA on my way back to Australia after living in London. I had a Greyhound bus pass and was trying to see as much of the country in fairly short period of time. I will post about that trip one day.

Anyway, part of that trip was from Los Angeles travelling east. I found myself travelling with a group of people of various nationalities all around the same age. Among the group were two sisters form Sweden.

We stopped in Las Vegas and Phoenix Arizona. For some reason the Swedish girls and I decided to stop in El Paso. I have quite vivid recollections of when we cross of the border from El Paso into Mexico. The girls with their blonde hair and height caused quite a stir. As we walked around we were followed by an ever-increasing number of young children and some, not so young men.

I recalled that it was a bit of a relief when we got back over the border in to the USA.

Checking out the Town
In the morning, I walked around the area close to the hotel. This included going down to the border crossing with Mexico.

As is the case with crossing near San Diego, there was a constant stream of people crossing in both directions. I decided to wait until till ne next day before crossing the border.

In the afternoon I took a bus took a outside the downtown area to visit a bike shop that advertised group MTB rides. As it turned out, they weren’t offering the rides on the days I was in town.

Baseball Game
Back in I stopped briefly at a AAA based game. The local team plays in the league which is below the Major League. However, the game still seemed to attract a reasonable crowd

Craft Beer and Chat about being a ‘Digital Nomad’
In the evening I had a meal in the bar next to the Hotel. As well as reasonable food, it served good craft beer.

In the bar I chatted with a bloke I had seen in the hotel. He told me that he was a musician but also did “other stuff”. The other stuff was a couple of jobs he did on the internet.

One of these jobs was being an “evaluator” for a record company.

The company gets him to listen to, rate and make comments on music that potential recording artists have sent them. He gets paid by the hour for this work. He told me that there are four levels of ‘evaluator’ and it is a filtering process. If a song or piece of music is rated ‘good’ at the bottom level is passed up the line to the next level and so on.

At the higher levels, the ‘evaluators’ are expected to make more detailed evaluations and make suggestions on improving the music. They are also expected to make suggestions at to who the candidate may think about collaborating with. The higher level ‘evaluators’ also get paid more.

This bloke is a ‘level 3 evaluator’ but expects to move to ‘level 2’ soon.
He told me that his other ‘job’ was writing articles for an on-line music magazine. These articles are mainly about music venues that he visits. He is “paid by the word” for this work.

He also told that he gets some work as a ‘musician’ – guitarist and singer. However, most of his income is doing the internet stuff.

He told me that he would be staying El Paso for at least two week because “it is cheap, the internet was okay and there were some music venues to write about”.

This bloke is one of many ‘digital nomads’ I have met. These people make a living working on the internet. They often have no permanent place of residence.

An example is a Brazilian couple would are travel writers. I met them in Chiang Mia. They travel the world and write about their travels. Their stuff is published magazines like the ‘Gourmet Traveller’. They also have a blog that makes money. They write in both English and Portuguese.

Another example is an English girl that I met in Santiago in Chile. She writes about wine.

She also writes for well known magazines, but also makes money from a blog.
Other people I have met do editing for publishing houses.

It is all very interesting.

Ride up Mount Franklin
The next day I went on a ride on my bike up Mount Franklin that towers over the city.
The ride was spoiled by a very strong wind that got stronger as the day progressed.

When I got back into the ‘Downtown’, the weather was so crap I decided to skip the border crossing into Mexico.

Tram
One other thing. El Paso is putting in the tram system. It is being done on a very low budget – less that USD 100 million and is mainly designed for use by tourists. Anyway, it is a good initiative. I hope it goes well.

Flickr Links

Train to El Paso
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmb1aBsA

El Paso
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmf5NdKy

Garmin Link
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2670906036

About the Tram Project
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Paso_Streetcar

Back to LA and a Visit to Newport Beach

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After a very pleasant stay it was time to leave San Diego.

Ride to Train Station

I rode down to the waterfront, rom my hostel and around the harbour to the Amtrak railway station.

Great Rail Journey

The train ride up the coast to Los Angeles turned out to be one of the great train journeys of the world.

Check out the Flickr photographs and video.

The train closely follows the coast and is sometimes right on the beach. In my experience, this is very unusual. Another place where I have seen this is, part of the line running along the south coast of England through Dorset and into Cornwall. This line was engineered by Isambard Brunel the famous railway and bridge engineer of the Victorian era.

I suspect that nowadays it would be impossible to build such a line because of environmental concerns.

It was a short ride from Union Station to my hostel.

Day in Newport

Next morning, I returned to the station catch to a train to Santa Ana where I was met by an old Caltex colleague and mate who lives in Newport Beach.

I caught up with his bloke and his wife last time I was in LA. However, this time I was going to be able to see them on their home patch.

We drove from Santa Ana through, what my mate described as being, “the Orange Curtain”. This is a border between the very affluent Newport Beach the less desirable area just a few kilometres inland from the coast.

We stopped briefly at my mate’s house by before taking ‘his ferry’ across to Balboa island. The ferry was the same one that I crossed when I passed through Newport Beach on my way to San Diego.

On the island we had lunch at my mate’s yacht club. It was a good place and there was lots of chat, including our experiences working for Caltex in Australia and his experiences working for the company in Thailand and Sri Lanka.

I told him that my decision to resign from the company after the merger of Caltex with Ampol in 1996 probability wasn’t one of my best career choices.
After lunch, we drove around Balboa Island and the suburbs adjoining nearby beaches.

This is a very nice place to live and it is easy to understand why the property prices so high.

Leaving Newport, we drove south to Laguna Beach where my mate took me to one of his favourite drinking spots. It is a roof top bar overlooking the beach.

After working for Caltex my mate transferred over to Chevron and worked for them in California when he and his wife returned to the USA. After leaving Chevron, he continued to work in the energy industry. He is now “semi-retired” but still has an involvement in the energy industry. In particular he is interested in “energy storage”. It was very interesting to hear what he had to say about energy storage and its relationship with renewable energy sources including solar and wind.

After a few beers we headed back to Newport Beach for dinner with his wife.
It was a fitting end to a great day.

Back to Santa Monica

The next day I took the train from downtown LA out to Santa Monica. As readers may have guessed by now I really like Santa Monica.
I went for long walk along the beach through Venice Beach. It is a bit seedy but there is always something interesting to see there.

Some ‘Culchta’

On my last day LA, I decided to get some ‘culcha’.

My first shop was the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown LA. This wasn’t as good as I expected. However, there was one painting by Jackson Pollock, albeit not as good as ‘Blue Poles’.

My next stop was Los Angeles Country Museum of Art on Wilshire Boulevard
This turned out to be really good. I was fortunate enough to be there when there was a special exhibition of portraits by the English artist David Hockney. This particular exhibition has been touring the world. It is a series of portraits that the artist painted over a period of think 60 days. Most of the subjects are just ordinary people that he had met or new.

However, one of his subjects would be well known to all Australians and people from the UK. That person is Barry Humphries.

I asked a couple who were looking at the portrait of Barry Humphries if they could take a picture of me standing next to the portrait. They told me that they have noticed that this painting was on the banners that were on poles around the city advertising the exhibition. They asked me who Barry Humphries was.

I told them he was an actor who had a number of characters including Sir Les Patterson. I told them to look him up on YouTube, in particular, his appearance on the Michael Parkinson Show.

Check out the link below. I wonder what made of the show, if indeed they bothered to watch at all.

Another interesting exhibit at this Museum was a sculpture about transport.  Check out the Flickr photos and video.

Catching the Train West

After getting back to the hostel, I packed up my bike and headed to Union Station.

There was another cyclist the queue at the check in.
After checking in, I headed to a nearby restaurant for quick snack before boarding the train. As I sat waiting for my order, and the other cyclist approached the restaurant. I saw the waiter talking to the cyclist. When the cyclist joined me at my table, he told me what had transpired in the conversation with the waiter.

Apparently, the waiter and told the cyclist that he couldn’t come into the restaurant unless “he was a customer”.

I guess I was lucky that this particular waiter didn’t see me entering the restaurant.

The cyclist explained to me that this often happened to him and cyclists he knew.

Apparently, a lot of restaurants staff, when seeing old men with bicycles that have bags on them, assume the cyclists are homeless people in refuse them entry to the restaurants.

Unfortunately, this tells you a lot about the state of the nation.

Flickr Links

Train to LA
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmeMfKFN

Day in Newport
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmeSuFCu

Last Days in LA
https://flic.kr/s/aHskxgiXJp

Les Patterson on the Parkinson Show

San Diego

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San Diego

The place where I stayed in San Diego turned out to be really good. It was close to the beaches and not too far from the harbour and downtown.

Laughing to Danish Jokes

In the night I arrive there was also a group of Danish university students staying in the hostel. One of the girls in the group was celebrating her birthday. The rest of the group organised a party for her. A number of the group gave some speeches. I have no idea what they were saying, however, whatever it was, it certainly amused the others, if not her.

The laughter was infectious, and I other non-Danish speaking people in the room were laughing along with the group.

Bike Ride

In the morning, I booked into a bike ride offered by the hostel. The ride took us to the end of Point Loma and through the Cabrillo National Monument.
The guide was a girl who works at the hostel, she was a real character with a personality ideally suited to the hospitality industry.

One of the other people on the ride was young South African bloke. It was interesting to chat with him over the next couple of days.

The view from the lighthouse of the point was spectacular. San Diego has a great harbour. Unfortunate the photos do not do it justice as it was a bit foggy.

There is museum near the lighthouse with information on the early Spanish explorers that visited this part of the country.

Leaving the end of the point, we rode down to the ocean to see some tidal rock pools.

There were lots of people doing the same thing. The pools are known for their sea life including octopuses and crabs.

We rode back up the hill to the Cabrillo National Monument. This is a cemetery for naval ex-servicemen and their families. The US services may not look after their current servicemen and women too well, but they certainly look after their dead.

Down to the Waterfront

As we headed back to the hostel, I left the group and rode down to the waterfront. I stopped by the San Diego Yacht Club. It is famous for having hosted the America’s Cup between 1988 and 1995.

Yacht clubs of this type never cease to amaze me. The moorings always seem to full with few, if any, of the boats actually sailing. I guess its proof of the old adage: ‘the two happiest days of yacht ownership are the day you buy one and the day you sell it’.

However, I suspect that most of the members of this yacht club are so wealthy they don’t care.

Further along the waterfront, I found a fish restaurant and had a very good, if somewhat expensive lunch.

After the lunch, I continued onto the ‘downtown’ area. I rode up to the USS Midway aircraft carrier museum. This is one of the most popular tourist attractions in California.

I had been told that you need to set aside the best part of a day to see it properly.
That was to be my task for the next day.

An Uber Ride

I was looking forward to seeing the Midway and walked down to the main road near the hostel to catch a bus into the ‘downtown’. I was mortified to find that the buses were only running every 45 minutes.

I decided to catch a ‘shared Uber’. The quoted price was USD 4.64 which was not much more that the bus fare. I booked a ride and within minutes the car arrived. It already had one passenger and, after picking me up, stopped for another.

Interesting job for a Young Female Sailor

The other passengers turned out to be sailors – one bloke and girl. Their ships were in San Diego being repaired. It was interesting to hear them chat about their experiences.

The girl said that one her jobs was to stop “contractors of her ship from ‘dumping’ in the ‘bathrooms’ on the ship”. Apparently, the sewage system had been switched off during the refit. However, notwithstanding numerous instructions and signs, the contractors apparently continued to want to relieve themselves in the toilets. Her job was to put a stop to that.

I guess you get some interesting jobs in the navy.

A Comment on Uber

The Uber thing is interesting. I have used it and similar services in South Africa, India and Australia as well as the in the USA.

Unfortunately, in South Africa it is being for security reasons as well as for convenience. In India it is good way of not being ripped off by the taxis or Tuk Tuk drivers.
The use of the Uber is a city like San Diego is almost a necessity because of the poor state of most of the public transport. As I noted above, the buses are very infrequent. This encourages the use of Uber. However, it also reduces the patronage on the buses. It becomes a ‘vicious circle’ with less people using the buses and less incentive to improve the services, driving even more people to use Uber.

USS Midway

If you are ever in San Diego, I can highly recommend a visit to the USS Midway. It is fascinating.

The building of the USS Midway aircraft carrier was commenced in 1944 and she was commission right of the end of WWII.

She was in active service for 42 years and saw action in Vietnam and the ‘first Gulf’ war.

My tour of the ship started with a video of the ‘Battle of the Midway’, after which the ship is named. This battle took place in the Pacific after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour.

It was to play a crucial role on the outcome of the war in the Pacific.

I then started the walking tour of the ship will the aid of an ‘audio set’. The set was activated at various points on the tour. What is really good about audio set is that the people describing the points of interest are former sailors that served on the ship.

In addition, at various points along the tour, there are volunteers who are able to tell you more about the ship. Many of these volunteers are also former US Navy sailors and some also service on the Midway.

One of the things that really struck me is the sheer scale of the ship. When it was built, it was the large ship that had ever been built. When it was operational over 4,500 sailors and aircrew lived and worked on the ship. As they say, it was ‘floating city’.

Another thing that was interesting, was how the various groups on the ship were accommodated and the interaction, or lack of it, between the groups on a day today basis. The living quarters for the officer and the men were totally separate as were the living quarters for the sailors and the aircrew.

A number of people speaking on the ‘audio sets’ spoke about the fact that they only “met and interacted with people in their own teams or groups and there was limited, if any interaction” with other people on the ship. One bloke talked about “going for days on end without going above deck and the only way of knowing if it was day or night were the meals he was eating”. “I am eating breakfast so it must be morning”.

The comments by the pilots are particularly interesting. Some of the experiences they describe are quite harrowing, particularly when comrades were lost.

There are a lot of planes on the ship covering the period that it was in service. Part way through its service it was extensively modified to enable it the carry the newer planes including the marine version of the FA18.

At the end of the tour I went up to the bridge and the flight control centre. This it a good idea to leave this part of the tour to the last.

Australians Onboard

As I was headed to the exit, I came across some servicemen practicing a drill. The instructions were being ‘barked’ at them in an unmistakeable accent. They were Australians. They were rehearing for an ANZAC Day ceremony has was to take place the next day. I chat will them for a bit. All of them were on temporary attachments to the US Navy in San Diego.

I didn’t tell them about my ‘Alien’ experience at Camp Pendleton on my ride to San Diego.

‘Shelias’ built the Ship

I have neglected to mention probably the most important fact about the USS Midway. That is. The vast majority of people involved in its construction were women. This was of course because most of the able bodied men at the time were serving in the armed forces and women were conscripted to do the work. This fact was mentioned a number times on the tour. Comments were also made that, “because the women built it, the ship was completed on time and under budget”.

Down to the Border

Next day, I went for a long walk to the ocean beach near the hostel. The area close to the beach was a bit shabby, but interesting.

I also took the ‘trolley’, i.e. train down to San Ysidoro which is on the Border with Mexico. I understand that this is the busiest international border crossing on the planet. While I was there, there were hundreds of people streaming in and out of Mexico.

I wonder if Donald Trump has ever visited this border crossing. There seemed to plenty of wall and razor wire. I am sure that has been there long before Trump.

Gaslamp Quarter

Another interesting area in San Diego is the Gaslamp Quarter. It is full of trendy bars and restaurants. It is very ‘touristy’ but good.

Old Town

Another area is the ‘Old Town’. I was underwhelmed by it.

Interesting Chats

Once last comment.

I mentioned that one the people staying at the hostel was a young South African bloke. He is from Durban and is on a gap year before attending University in Stellenbosch. He was very social and chatted to just about everyone.

The tables in the common room in the hostel facilitated interaction. It was fascinating to participate and listen to conversations.

The South African was particularly interesting. I had worked out that he was from a very wealthy Afrikaans family. His father owned a chain of Spar Supermarkets and they travelled extensively overseas. His also confided that “Dad has moved most of his wealth to London and Australia” in the expectation that things will go ‘pear shaped’ in the RSA.
It was interesting to hear his young bloke talk to other guests in the hostel including people from the USA, China, Germany and some of the Danish students.

Two of the ‘locals’ were very surprised that there were any white people in South Africa. The other nationalities at the table rolled their eyes and moved on.

Flickr Links

San Diego
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmiiBpP9
USS Midway
https://flic.kr/s/aHskzZRUku

Garmin San Diego
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2647595793

About the USS Midway
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Midway_(CV-41)

Los Angeles to San Diego

billrider2013Leave a comment

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My original plan was not to travel to the USA on my way to the UK and Europe this year. I had planned to take the bicycle to Japan and ride there before flying to London. However, the cost of taking the bicycle on that route was prohibitively expensive – over AUD 1,800.

I changed my plans and decided to fly the Los Angeles with an onward flight from Orlando Florida to London.

Leaving Brisbane

My flight to LA was from Brisbane.
In a separate post I will talk about my experience with QANTAS and the ‘alleged’ need for Australian travellers to the USA to hold onward for return flight tickets.

Some time in LA

The flight to LA was absolutely full.

After landing, I caught a ‘Super Shuttle’ into Downtown LA and my Hotel/Hostel, The Freehand. This place turned out to be very good.

The Downtown area of LA is undergoing a bit of a resurgence, albeit progress is a little slow. The Freehand is an example of new businesses establishing themselves in the area. It is in an old hotel building and offers a mixture of hostel and hotel accommodation. It has a good restaurant and bar on the ground floor and a roof top pool and bar. It is very popular with the ‘Millennials’.

This was my third visit to LA in four years. I have done most of the tourist stuff – Hollywood, the Getty Center, Disney Theater etc.
However, I do have a ‘ritual’. That is to visit to Santa Monica. I took the ‘Expo’ Train out to Santa Monica. One of my stopping off places was the Ye Olde King’s Head. I have posted about this place before. I will always remember my first visit there in 1979.

Problems with a Train Pass

I decided that before I left LA to head south on my bike, I would purchase a Train Pass to take me across the country to Florida.

It took me a quite a time to sort out the Train Pass. Apparently, Amtrak have recently changed the process for the purchase and activation of the pass. These changes have not been properly communicated to staff on their ‘helpline’ or staff in LA Union Station. The upshot of this was multiple charges being made to my credit card that were reversed minutes later. Anyway, this put Westpac into a real tis. It was several hours before the whole mess was sorted out and I was able to pay for the pass and reserve the first leg of the trip.

Looking around Downtown LA

While staying in Downtown LA, I took the opportunity to wander around. This included going to the Angel Steps and the Grand Central Market.

As I noted above, the resurgence of the area is a bit slow. There are a lot of ‘homeless’ people wandering around. One result of this is the need for pharmacies to put shampoo under lock and key. I have never seen that before.

Heading South

It was soon time to head south towards Long Beach. This is part of the Pacific Coast I haven’t visited. I had book my first night’s accommodation in a motel in Huntington Beach and my plan was to take the train to Santa Monica and ride from there. Four years ago, I started from Santa Monica on my ride north to San Francisco.

When I pulled the bike out of its box to resemble it, I noted a couple problems. One was that the front shock absorber was completely deflated and the other was an issue with the front rack. I won’t bore you with the details, but the net result was a visit to a nearby bike shop.

By the time both problems were fixed, was well after midday. I decided to take the tram to Long Beach and start my ride from there.

Long Beach

When I got to Long Beach I discovered that my phone was not working properly. It was either getting the internet or telephony coverage, not both. At other times it was not working at all.

I found a T Mobile shop and ask them to look at it. After a lot of mucking around, with ‘resets’ etc it seemed to have been fixed. The so called ‘expert’ told me that the problem was probably due to the fact that it was “a UK” phone. He told me to “get and Apple” and they could “do me a deal”.

I didn’t take his advice.

I left the T Mobile shop and headed south. The route took me on a path along the beach. I could see the Queen Mary on the other side of the harbour. In its day, it was that largest ship in the world. Of course, now it is tiny compared to the modern cruise ship.

I have been on the Queen Mary twice.  The first time in 1979.  It is good to see the it is still a tourist attraction. However, I am sure it hasn’t change since my last visit.

Scottish Couple

Leaving the beach, the route took me slightly inland. I came across two cyclists at a set of traffic lights. They turned out to be Scottish couple who were on big tour of the west of the USA. They had started in San Francisco and were heading to the Mexican border. Their plan was then to ride inland back up to Canada and then down the coast back to San Francisco.

The girl told me that, “Angus was very well organised that the all their accommodation was booked in advance and he didn’t like to vary his plans”. My brief chat with him made me think he was the epitome of the ‘dour Scotsman’.

It turned out that I had booked a reservation at the same ‘budget’ motel in Huntington beach as the Scottish couple. I was pleased to know that I too, had found that cheapest place into town. Angus struct me as bloke who would have searched for hours to save a dollar,

After we checked in, that was that last I saw of the couple. I suspect that they left before dawn to lessen the risk of not making their planned destination for the next day.

Onto Dana Point

Leaving Huntington Beach, I continued along the coast towards Newport. Much of the route was on dedicated bike paths right on the beach. This was really good to see.
As I came into Newport, I got a little lost. Some locals gave me a really good tip, “ride back to the beach and head along the boardwalk and take the ferry across to Balboa Island.

I took their advice. I turned out that that was where I should have been heading.
I was to return to the same area a couple of weeks later in the company of an old friend from my Caltex days. I will post about that later.
Anyway, I found the ferry and stopped off the really lunch at really good fish restaurant nearby before taking the ferry across to the island and then a cross a bridge to the mainland.

Camping at Dana Point

Leaving Newport, I continued onto Dana Point where I had booked a night in camping ground. This turned out to my first and only night under canvas on this trip. Staying in camping grounds in the USA can be very expensive. The pitches are typically for up to 12 people and they are the same price irrespective of the number actually staying there. It is not very cost effective if you are just a single bloke on a bike.

I was also having problems will my tent. As is the case with all tents of its design, the poles eventually break. However, it has turned out to be impossible to get replacement poles for this particular Northface model. This is notwithstanding the so called, ‘lifetime guarantee’ and the promised availability of replacement parts.

I will not be getting another Northface tent.

On towards Carsbad

The route from Dana Point took through Laguna. Again, I was to visit there a couple of weeks later and will post about that.

After Laguna, the countryside becomes a bit bleak. It is very dry.
I was aware that I was approaching a Marine training camp called Camp Pendleton as it is mention in my guide book. As I rode along, I saw a really strange aircraft in the air. It looked like a mixture of a plane and a helicopter. Check out the video. Some Facebook followers told me that it was an Osprey. Check out the Wikipedia link.

As I got close to Camp Pendleton, I came across a group of cyclists. They told me that it was possible to ride through the camp to the town of Oceanside and this would avoid having to travel of the Highway 5 (I5) Freeway.

As I was chatting to the cyclists we heard a lot of the yelling. It turned out to be a group of Marines on training march.

I asked the bloke, who was obviously, a trainer if I could take a picture. He said no problem. Check out Flickr.

The cyclists were clearly impressed by the sight of the Marines and called out. “thank you for your service” many times as the line passed.

I have no problem with recognising what people of the armed forces, or ‘military’ as the USA people prefer to call them, do. However, I think it should be recognised that the USA Government does not treat its armed forces personnel well. For the most part they are poorly paid and get very poor ‘post service’ benefits in terms of pensions and healthcare.
The lower ranks of the US military are disproportionality drawn from disadvantaged groups like minorities and people from economically depressed regions. After a short period of service, they are effectively ‘thrown of the scrape heap’. Many of them end up homeless.

No Place for Aliens

Not long after seeing the marching Marines, I came onto a road that led to the entrance to Camp Pendleton.

As I approach that guard house, a soldier called out and told me to “dismount”. When I got closer he asked me if I “had a pass”. I told him I didn’t. He asked my for ID and I gave him my Driver’s Licence. He said, “you are NOT from this country….even if you want a pass you are NOT able to get one as you are an Alien”.

I ask him how was I “to get to Oceanside”? He “said you will have to take the I5”.
With no other option, I headed back down that road to freeway. I was not a very pleasant 16-kilometre ride into Oceanside. Checkout the video.

Motel 6 in Carlsbad

After a late lunch in Oceanside, I continued to Carlsbad, where I stayed in a Motel 6. These are basic, but very clean motels that are reasonably priced.

Riding into San Diego

The next day was to see me in San Diego.

The route took me through Ecinitas and over a big hill through the Torrey Pines Reserve. I took the obligatory video of the descent.

A bit Lost

I got a bit lost, on my way into San Diego. Getting on the wrong side of the freeway in city in the USA is always a pain. Finally, I found my way to my hostel in Point Loma. I was glad to be there.

Flickr Links

Long Beach

https://flic.kr/s/aHskwv5nZv

Dana Point/Dohoney Beach

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmgr6gfk

Carlsbad

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmj9uEap

Into San Diego

https://flic.kr/s/aHskwHfspR

Garmin Links

Long Beach
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2634795467

Huntington Beach
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2639485410

Dana Point

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2639485443

Carlsbad into San Diego

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2644344246

About Camp Pendleton

http://www.pendleton.marines.mil/

About the Osprey

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Boeing_V-22_Osprey

 

Grafton to Brisbane

billrider20131 Comment

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It was time to leave Sydney and head north.

Train to Grafton

This time I decided to take the train as for as Grafton. As readers many have ascertained, I actually quite like traveling on NSW Trains, albeit there are a lot of improvements that could be made to the service. At some point they will have to replace the old XPT rolling stock.

The Australian Hotel

I had made a reservation in the Australian Hotel which is in South Grafton. Previously, I have stayed in the Royal Hotel which in on the other side of the Clarence River.

I am not an expert on Grafton, however I suspect that South Grafton is probably thought to be  ‘less desirable’ compared to the part of town that is on the northern side of the river.

Cold Chisel Tribute Band

Refer to separate post.

Along the Clarence to MacLean

Leaving Grafton, I rode along the western side of the Clarence river towards MacLean.
Last year, I had continued past MacLean to Yamba. I really like Yamba. However, this year I was running out of time and decided to skip Yamba and stay overnight in the MacLean Hotel.

Woodburn

The next day, I headed up the Pacific Highway to Woodburn. This was not very pleasant. This part of the highway is being rebuilt.

I stayed in a bit of a dodgy motel. It is doing good business housing the roadworkers. They are ‘making hay while the sun shines’. That won’t last long. I suspect that the place will close when the town is bypassed

Ballina

Next morning, continued on to Ballina. As I entered the town, it started to pour with rain. I decided to stop and booked into another ‘The Australian Hotel’.
When the rain cleared. I went for a walk along the river foreshore to the local ‘club’.

These places are ‘so the same’ irrespective of the town. They all have shocking carpets and a seemingly never ending supply of old people to rip off with their poker machines. It is rather depressing.

Old Friend in Lennox Head

In the morning I made the short ride to Lennox Head. I had arranged to meet an old school friend in the town.

We met in the main street and after a coffee, we headed up a very steep to her house where I met her husband. She told that they had owned the house for a couple of years and were now sharing their time between Lennox Head and Sydney. She is retired, however, her husband is still working and is able to operate his consulting business from both locations. It seems to be an ideal arrangement.

It was great to catch up with her.

Byron Bay

Next stop was Byron Bay. Readers may have guessed that I quite like the place.

The Blues Fest

One of the things I did on this visited was to go the ‘Blues Fest’ music festival. This is a major event that is held on property about 10 kilometres north of the town every Easter.

I bought a ticket for the day that Robert Plant, formerly of ‘Led Zeppelin’ was playing. He was due to play at 9.30 p.m.

In the late afternoon, I caught a shuttle bus that was running between Byron Bay and the festival. As you would expect, there were lots of signs directing traffic to the festival site.

Notwithstanding this signage the driver managed to miss the entrance to the festival and we headed back on the road to Byron Bay.

Fortunately, none of the passengers were fussed and on his second attempt we were dropped off at the festival.

I have been to a few of this type of event over the years. This one seemed to be very well organised.

One feature of it was the wide range of ages of the patrons – including families, ‘millennials’ through to ‘baby boomers’. The music on offer catered for all the ages.

There were plenty of food and drink outlets. However, I was disappointed to find that the ‘craft beer’ tent only sold ‘industrial craft beer’ e.g. James Squire and not real ‘craft beer’.

I wondered around the various venues before Plant was due to play. Finally, it was 9.30 p.m. and I headed to the tent where he was on.

It turned out that I was one of the younger people in the audience. It reminded me of being in Alnwick in the northeast of England last year. I went to the screening of a film of a concert that David Gilmore gave to commemorate concert that Pink Floyd did at Pompeii. The film was screened at cinemas, and other venues, at the same time and on the same day at venues around the UK. I saw the film at the Playhouse in Alnwick. I was very much one of the youngest in the audience. Many of the other patrons had Zimmer frames.

The Plant show was okay. I was disappointed that the only Led Zeppelin song he did was ‘Whole lot of love’.

Once the show was over I joined the crowded heading back to Byron Bay. There was a very long wait for the shuttle buses.

Kings cliff

Leaving Byron Bay, I rode north to Kings Cliff where I stayed one night before continuing on to Main Beach in Surfers Paradise.

Commonwealth Games

The night I arrived in Surfers Paradise was that start of the Commonwealth Games. There were lots of people around.

I ended up watching the ‘Opening Ceremony’ in a bar in Main Beach. Surprising few of the locals seemed to be interested in watching the ceremony.

Riding towards Brisbane

In the morning, I head off towards Brisbane.

This involved riding passed the swimming centre. This was very impressive with huge temporary stands that were full to capacity. The use of temporary stands is such a good idea.

The main road through Southport was closed off for the triathlon. I got to see some of the athletes running.

I was trying to follow the ‘One Bike Route’. When I got to Coomera I completely lost the trail and headed to the train station. I had previously been advised that no bikes were to be taken on the trains between the Gold Coast and Brisbane for the duration of the games.

As it turned out getting on the train was no problem and I was soon in Brisbane

Back in Brisbane

It was good to be in Brisbane. I caught up with a couple of cousins and visited my aunt who is in her 100th year.

I also caught up with the Cooma girl with an unusual name. That is always good.

Flickr Links
Grafton to Byron Bay
https://flic.kr/s/aHskzkjEEy

Byron Bay and Blues Fest
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmdYRdvd

To Brisbane
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmjDaUxM

Garmin Links
Grafton
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2577944815

Maclean
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2580075743

Woodburn
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2583634462

Ballina via Lennox Head
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2597483353

Byron Bay
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2597481686

Kingscliff
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2605887745

Surfers Paradise
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2605887792

Remembering Cold Chisel

billrider2013Leave a comment

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On my trip from Sydney to Brisbane, the first leg was the train to Grafton.
I had booked into the Australian Hotel in South Grafton.

After settling in, I decide to walk across the river to the main part of the town.
I stopped into a pub that I been to before. I noticed that there was going to be band plat there that night.

The band turned out to be a Cold Chisel and Jimmy Barnes tribute band. For most Australians of my age, ‘Chisel’ songs are very much the ‘soundtrack of our generation’.

The band turned out to be really good. Listening to them brought back memories seeing the real ‘Chisel’ live. I have seen them in many places over the years including: Jindabyne, Canberra, the Entertainment Centre in Sydney and in London.

The London experience is worthy of more explanation.

It was November 1982 and the band had been touring Europe. London was the last stop on the tour. An American friend of mine was in London at the time studying at the LSE. She noticed flyers for band’s appearance at the Marque Club in Wardour Street in Soho.

The Marquee club was very famous as noted in Wikipedia:

“In March 1964 the club moved a short distance to what became its most famous venue at 90 Wardour Street. Here, almost every major rock band of note played over the next 25 years on the tiny stage. Residencies during the late 1960s alone included Alexis Korner, Cyril Davies, Chris Barber, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, The Who, King Crimson, The Syn, Mabel Greer’s Toyshop, Yes, Jethro Tull, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Pink Floyd (who played on Sunday afternoons as part of the Spontaneous Underground club).[5] Another band that made regular appearances was The Manish Boys featuring David Bowie, who first played there in November 1964; and Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac gave their first performance there in 1967.[4] To find out who was playing on any given night, you could just call in at the ‘Ship’ pub a few doors away”.

Clearly, Chisel wanted to be added to the list of bands that had played there.
My friend was, and still is, a fan of ‘Australasian’ music (she is a huge fan of the Finn family, particularly Neil) including Cold Chisel. She went to the club and queued for tickets.

The night was memorable:

The club was very small, and it was packed. Most of the patrons, including myself, were smoking. They all seemed to be Australians. In fact, I think my companion was provably to only non-Aussie in the place.

Chisel played loud and long, belting out all their songs. Jimmy was drinking heavily from a bottle that contained clear liquid – almost certainly not water.

Towards the end of the show, my companion, who is quite petite, sat on my shoulders to get a better view. Just as the band started to play ‘Cheap Wine’, she fell backwards onto the people behind. Fortunately, they caught her and helped me carry her away from the heaving mass of Australian humanity. She had fainted.

A couple of days later the band was playing again at the much larger, ‘The Venue Victoria’.

My American companion and I also went to the show. Again, she was probably one of the very few non-Australians there.

Cold Chisel were (and still are) a great band. It is a pity that they could not crack the international market.

Seeing the tribute band in Grafton coincided with me reading Jimmy Barnes’ autobiography, a thoughtful gift from my daughter.

It is interesting that Jimmy on makes a passing reference to Cold Chisel’s tour of Europe in 1982 and makes no mention at all about their time in London at the end of the tour.

Flickr Link
Cold Chisel Tribute Band
https://flic.kr/s/aHskv5TDvV

About the Marquee Club
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquee_Club

Working Class Man
https://www.jimmybarnes.com/books/working-class-man/

 

East Gippsland Rail Trail

billrider20131 Comment

I left Marlo and headed along the Snowy River to Orbost.

On the East Gippsland Rail Trail

From Orbost, I headed on to the East Gippsland Rail Trail. This is the second time I have been on this trail. The last time was back in 2010.

The trail is 95 kilometers long. The last time I did it, I travelled the whole distance in one day twice – Bainsdale to Orbost and back the next day. This time I was taking three days in one direction with a rest day.

Nowa Nowa
My first stop was Nowa Nowa. The route took me across the Snowy River and along a relatively hilly part of the country. It can’t have been easy to build the rail line here. A feature of this part of the trail is a series of timber bridges. These are amazing structures. Check out the photos.

As I was riding along I came across an Echidna. These guys are so funny. It was in the track and when it saw me it headed into the bush. However, it only moved into the bush about one metre where it curled itself into the ball. Check out the video.

I stayed a camping ground in Nowa Nowa. The business has recently been taken over by a new owner. He charged $30 for the night. I thought this was a bit rich for my little tent. My neighbour was a ‘long term stayer’ in a caravan. He told that “the new owner is a ‘rip off merchant’ and the pervious owner only charged $10 for small tents”.

Old farts on the Trail
As I was leaving Nowa Nowa, I came across a van towing a large trailer with lots of bike racks. I stopped to chat with the driver. He told me that he was the “support crew for a bunch of ex-servicemen who were riding the bike trails in Victoria”. They had done the ‘River to the Mountains’ in the North East, the Gippsland Trail and now this one. He was waiting for the riders to arrive from Bruthen.

As I headed off, I came across the first of the riders. They were travelling quite quickly. There was a very long gap before I came across the next rider and an even long gap before next lot. It was extraordinary how spread-out they were over. Clearly, there was ‘fast’, ‘slow’, and ‘very slow’ in this group.

Bruthen
When I got to Bruthen checked into the Hotel. At $40 for a single room, this was excellent value compared to the campsite in Nowa Nowa.

The big attraction on Bruthen is the Brewery. It has a good selection of beers including a ‘sharp’ IPA. The food is also good.

I decided to stay a day in Bruthen.

Bairnsdale
It is relatively short ride from Bruthen into Bairnsdale.

Into Melbourne
From Bairnsdale I caught the train into Melbourne. The service is an old 1960’s train. However, it does have the advantage of having a freight car. This enables you to simple roll a bicycle onboard without having to detach the panniers.

It was good to be back in Melbourne.

Flickr Link

https://flic.kr/s/aHsktU7i7M

Garmin Links

Marlo
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2527461064

Nowa Nowa

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2527461104

Bruthen

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2530615498

Gippsland Rail Trail
http://www.eastgippslandrailtrail.com.au/