Photos and text by Paul.

From 11 to 23 October 2019, Robyn and I organised a tour of Melbourne, Warburton and Leongatha for the South Australian Recreational Cycling Club (SARCC).

Below are links to my daily Strava feeds and slideshows of the photos that I took of this adventure.

Day one, Saturday 12th of October 2019, we rode from the caravan park to Williamstown for coffee and then back to the Scienceworks jetty to catch “The Punt” across the Yarra River. We then rode the Bay Trail to the “Spirit of Tasmania” jetty for lunch. From here we rode back to the caravan park via Docklands. For Route details, please see my Strava feed. For photos, please see my slide show.

Day two, Sunday 13th of October 2019, we rode from the caravan park to Tottenham Railway Station to catch the train to Flinders Street Railway Station. We had to split the group in half to fit on the trains, which were both packed, even though it was a Sunday! We rode to St Kilda beach for coffee and had lunch at Picnic Point. Half the group rode back along the beach to the caravan park, while the other half rode back through the suburbs to Middle Brighton Station. For route details, see my Strava feeds of the before lunch and after lunch components of the ride. For photos, please see my slide show

Day three, Monday 14th of October 2019, we rode to Brimbank Park. For this ride, we made our way to the Sunshine Footscray Trail along the railway with the aim of connecting to the Kororoit Creek Trail. Here there was some geographical embarrassment before we finally found the Kororoit Creek Trail. We followed this to the Western Ring Trail and then had a steep decent to the Maribyrnong River Trail. One rider fell off twice on the decent, fortunately only injuring her pride. Once in Brimbank Park, we made our way to the Lumbar & Co coffee shop for coffee and lunch. We then did a loop of Horseshoe Bend Farm, before rejoining the Maribyrnong River Trail back to the Caravan Park. For route details, see my Strava feed. For photos, please see my slide show.

Day four, Tuesday 15th of October 2019, we drove our cars, and the trailer, to the car park at Ramsden Street Oval. From here, we followed the Merri Creek Trail to CERES Community Environment Park for Morning Tea. We then backtracked to the Capital City Trail and rode through Docklands to Abbotsford Convent for lunch. We then continued back to Ramsden Street Oval for the drive back to the caravan park. For route details, see my Strava feed. For photos, please see my slide show.

Day five, Wednesday 16th of October 2019, again we drove to Ramsden Street Oval. We then rode up the river following the Main Yarra Trail to Heide Museum of Modern Art at Heidleberg for morning tea. Then we rode on alongside the river until we reached Wombat Bend at Templestowe, our lunch spot and turn around point. From here, we rode back through the Ivanhoe Golf course and back along the Yarra River including across the iconic Kanes Bridge at the Boathouse in Studley Park at Yarra Bend and back at the cars. For route details, see my Strava feed. For photos, please see my slide show.

Day six, Thursday 17th of October 2019, we drove to Seville for a ride on the Lillydale/Warburton rail trail. After a short ride to the trail, we had morning tea at the Carrage Cafe. This was our wettest day, so we opted for a shorter ride along the trail towards Lillydale. (The tail ender, and another rider rode in the other direction towards Warburton!) Our turn-around point was a “tunnel”, which turned out to be a pipe under a cross-road. We then rode back to Mt Evelyn for lunch. While writing this report, I noticed that there is the “Mt Evelyn Aquaduct Trail” marked on the map. This may have made an interesting loop ride from our lunch spot. We then retraced our tyre tracks back to the cars and drove to the Lilydale Pine Hill Caravan Park, our home for the next two nights. For route details, see my Strava feed. For photos, please see my slide show.

Day seven, Friday 18th of October 2019, we drove to Warburton to ride the aqueduct and rail trails. We started the ride at the O’Shannassy Aqueduct Trail carpark at the top of Yuonga Road, after a car shuffle to the township of Warburton (i.e. it was a downhill ride). We were met by two rangers, who were there to clear away trees that had fallen over the trail. All was going well up to Dee Road, with a few fallen trees across the track, which we managed to negotiate without too much trouble. From there, there were several more fallen trees across the track, but we eventually made it to Don Road, where there was a long downhill ride to the Warburton Rail Trail. On the way back to Warburton, we stopped at Yarra Junction for lunch and coffee. For route details, see my Strava feed. For photos, please see my slide show.

Day eight, Saturday 19th of October 2019, we drove to Leongatha via the Noojee Trestle Bridge. Some of us rode, some walked and some just stopped to look at the Trestle Bridge. I think that most of us had lunch, and coffee at the Little Red Duck Cafe. For route details of the short bike ride, see my Strava feed. For photos, please see my slide show.

Day nine, Sunday 20th of October 2019, we drove to Inverloch and then rode to Wonthaggi (via the coast) for lunch, and coffee, at a bakery under new management. We then returned via an inland route, which involved some good dirt roads. For route details, see my Strava feed. For photos, please see my slide show.

Day ten, Monday 21th of October 2019, we drove to Smith’s Beach on Philip Island and rode to the Philip Island Nature Park – Summerlands at the south-western tip of the Island. The plan was to ride an anti-clockwise loop in the park, as part of the road is one-way. Unfortunately, the Garmin lead us clockwise, and so we had to cut the loop short. We did, however, still have a coffee, at Nobbies Centre at the south-western tip of the island. We then rode to Cowes for lunch on the foreshore, before heading back to the cars, and driving back to Leongatha. For route details, see my Strava feed. For photos, please see my slide show.

Day eleven, Tuesday 22th of October 2019. After a car shuffle, where we left two cars and the trailer at Foster we rode the Great Southern Rail Trail from Leongatha to Foster. On the way we stopped at Meeniyan for coffee and Fish Creek for lunch. The opportunities to purchase food for lunch were somewhat limited at Fish Creek. Once at Foster, we loaded the bicycles onto the trailer and car and returned to the caravan park at Leongatha. For route details, see my Strava feed. For photos, please see my slide show.