Ride # 1
Weather outlook for Tuesday was good. So I sent Jon Bates a text “do you want to come for a ride”. No sooner had I done that when I remembered , oh shit, I had arranged to go riding with my walking friend: “Sorry Jon here is the situation, besides she is better looking that you” Although my walking friend is a fast walker, unfortunately she is a slow rider. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful day. Rode to Carrum beach at a very sedate pace. Hanging out for a coffee but nothing open. On the return journey I felt that more should be accomplished on this ride so I suggested “lets have an exploratory run down the Peninsular trail”. My friend’s response wasn’t entirely enthusiastic but off we rode. It wasn’t long before she went on strike. It was time to return and to add insult to injury there was a bit of a head wind starting up. We did about 50 km all up which was a good achievement. It was actually good not to ride flat out and to have the ability to look around and observe things one normally doesn’t if riding in a fast peloton.
Ride #2
Peter rang up “do you want to go for a ride Thursday – there is a window of opportunity in the morning before the rain starts again”. I wasn’t keen to use road bikes on the slippery wet roads but who am I to argue? Peter had been working the last few weeks and was dead keen to chew up some km’s. Off we went from the usual FTG meeting place. The underpass at the beginning was flooded so it had to be the hill up Station St. to Lower Gully. Off he went like a grey hound with me trying to keep up. “W T F did he have for breakfast? Where does he get all that energy from?” I thought as my lungs reached bursting point. This would form the pattern at every hill we ascended – Peter would charge ahead. Daniel Andrews would have been pleased with us. This was social distancing par excellence. What a contrast to Tuesday. Was this my punishment for being a bit pushy on Tuesday? There was a lot of water over the roads and tracks but the mother of all floods was reached near Jells Park. An old guy on a bike had tried to stop us and warn us about something but being macho pricks we ignored him and rode straight past him. We both rode through the first lake and then another and another came. They increased in depth but we were committed – there was no turning back. Eventually we did have to make a detour because besides the flood water a filthy big tree had fallen across the path. Detouring through the now closed Waverley golf course didn’t work – the fairways were saturated and our thin road tyres sank in as though it was quick sand. We were making a mess of the greens and were worried that if we didn’t get the hell out of here we would get shot by the groundsman. A retreat to Jells Park café was in order. Whilst standing in line for our coffee, which felt as though we were in some post world war communist country, the question was, shall we cut our losses and ride back to FTG ? “No to hell with it; let the adventure continue. Lets do the Dandenong circuit” We were in for some more flooding. Both Ferntree Gully and Wellington road underpasses had to be given big detours, but the biggest flow of water was Heatherton road underpass where the water was over our knees – almost the limit of forward motion. On the way back Peter’s bike made unpleasant crunching noised – sounded like the water had flushed out the oil in his bearings. The bike made it back to FTG. Cold wet feet, fithy bikes and clothing but what an adventure!
Jurgen
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