Cycling About ! : Home by a Thread ! - Lysterfield Ride 50 kms -

It was almost like an old fashioned Saturday Afternoon Movie Matinee where the audience sat entranced wondering whether the Hero (in our case plural) was about to come to an untimely end !

Our scenarious read like a Dan Brown thriller ! Would Werner succumb to the "quicksand" that threatened to engulf him complete with road bike. Would Harald survive riding in one fixed gear up the many hills to come after suffering earlier Derailleur problems and would JB safely navigate the steep descent from Belgrave without becoming a Eunuch with one pedal all but set to remove itself from it's tired looking spindle - this was all just too exciting to contemplate !

We'd assembled earlier at the Upper FTG Car Park in clearing conditions following heavy overnight rain. I have to admit to presenting with just the hint of a sadistic smile knowing that after hundreds of rides trying to match the gang on their roadies today we would all be equal with a fair proportion of our ride off road !

Having worked our way down the Dandenong Creek Trail avoiding flooded underpaths we turned off at Police Paddocks cycling along the fringe of the Churchill National Park bordering Endeavour Hills and Lysterfield

Our aim was simple - make Lysterfield Park without having to climb the infamous Trig Point track something of a cross between an armoured tank testing ground and a boulder filled quarry !

We succeeded after first passing through one of the weirdest suburbs in Melbourne - "Lysterfield Sth". This enclave of massive mansions looked like they'd been plucked from "Garish Homes Monthly" and dropped side by side in a suburb that borders Lysterfield Park

Realising that we'd struggle to be able to afford to own any of the properties letterboxes we finally entered a soggy / sandy Lysterfield Park where we all instantly thought we'd developed two flat tyres.

Pushing through the "glug" we avoided a number of skittish Kangaroos during our circuit before crossing over Wellington Rd into Birdsland

With Harald and Werner reasonably feeling the pinch we elected to take the high road back into Belgrave where after 40kms and a fair amount of mud splattering, we could finally take a cuppa after first choosing which of the 6 side by side cafes to enter.

After some well spent good will all that remained was to say a quick prayer on JB's behalf that all of our "bits" would hold together enough to enable a safe descent back to Upper FTG. We get to do it all over again next week !