We took the tandem, got one of those great Sunday Saver tickets, and caught the train to Gardiner Station. Along Gardiner's Creek path till a path with a sign Anniversary trail 2.5 Km appeared. Headed off along this, which turned into a gravel path, which then split into multiple paths with no signage as to which was the one to follow. Grrrr. Signage on Melbourne bike paths can be pretty dismal in my experience, but I suppose it adds to the sense of adventure. The one we chose ended abruptly, so we ground up hill through the leafy suburbia till we hit the trail.
Ride a tandem through this?
The number of intersecting roads and totally un-navigable obstructions for tandems on this trail made us realise how lucky we are over in the west - our trail builders seem to assume that if you are silly enough to ride onto a road then its your problem - which makes for much less getting on and getting off.
There are some lovely bits of the trail, through the cuttings of the former train line. We took a thermos and sandwiches and enjoyed them mightily in a nice little park near Burke Road.
Across High Street, the trail goes through some nicely landscaped
plantings of Australian native shrubs and trees, till it crosses the Eastern Freeway.
A bit bleak out there waiting for the interminable traffic lights while
the cars whoosh past, along the freeway, off the exits, over the bridge. So many of them, so few of us. We followed the signs to the Main Yarra trail, which meant that we rolled down a steep hill, went under the bridge, then had to schlep the tandem up the steps on the other side. Smart money would be to go directly across the road, but nothing to suggest that.
Headed round the Yarra Boulevard - again getting moderately confused by the signage. A sign saying "Main Yarra Trail - Fairfield" looked very tempting, especially as it was down hill, but we debated for a while and decided to continue on the Boulevard. We were rewarded by passing through a small flock of Black Cockatoos. Lots of screeching and swooping. Got passed by groups of people on mountain bikes with damp streaks of mud up their backs. Looked uncomfortable but I'm sure they were having fun.
Crossed the bridge over the Yarra onto the Capital City Trail in Abbotsford. Rotten stairs again - they definitely aren't designed for Tandems - we had to practically carry the old thing down the stairs as the cranks would crunch onto the concrete at each landing otherwise.
Had a coffee and reviving muffin at the Collingwood Childrens Farm, then continued along the
Capital City Trail round the back of Carlton and Parkville, past the back of the Zoo - ah, the heady pungent whiff of exotic animal urine - till Kensington, where we sprinted over the hill and down to South Kensington station just in time to catch our train home. All up the trip took a bit over 4 hours.
Its great that our bike paths are there, and there should be more of them. A ride like today shows how great they can be, but also that there is plenty of work still to do.
1 comment:
Nice post. And you're dead-right about some of the eastern suburbs trails--the local councils seem to take an overly cautious view, to the point that some gates are hard for a single bike to get through. You must have had some "fun" on a tandem!
Believe it or not, this is improving. I can think of several places on the Gardiners Creek, Koonung, and Dandenong Creek Trails where gates have been removed altogether. And there are very few places left where you could run into one of those stoopid posts they used to bung in the middle of the path.
Post a Comment