Cycling About ! : Mystery ride to Selby & Cardinia - Jon fails to read the fine print !

Jon had bravely had left the route planning up to me - i mumbled under my breath that the ride was a "bit" hilly following in reverse a route that had been shown to me by Warby Gordon "I can go any where" on his E Bike !

Having ridden from Emerald we took a series of steeply increasing hills along a series of back roads from Menzies Creek before finding ourselves lost in the nearby forest surrounds. Inquiring of a solitary gardener we soon found out that a) we wanted to go to Selby and not Kallista as i kept mentioning and b) Jon was to have the first of his numerous slow punctures for the day.

Back on course and with a new tube in place, we descended on a fire trail akin to 4wd rock filled track, to Selby where we gave some thought to dropping in on Peter V for a socially distanced cuppa. Not to be done though. we descended through a beautiful collection of ferns to Wellington Rd and on to Cardinia Dam. From here it was a climb to Upper Beaconsfield for a well earned coffee and a tube top up after Jon discovered yet another slow puncture leak. Unable to find the culprit Jon used his F1 skills to regularly top up his tube on his way back as we took on the rolling hills of Emerald - A great days ride and yes after much searching Jon did eventually find the "source" a microscopic piece of wire embedded in his tyre !

Jon's story -

A few weeks back, when we were blessed with sun and isolation was something you did after forgetting your husband's/wife birthday, Gordon met Mike.

Both had completed a Warby ride and were riding back to Emerald from The Gully. Gordon had determined a route that was free of bitumen. Mike thought he'd join him.

The route/track/river bed was bliss for an ebike and torture for a heavy non ehybrid. Even Mike, who pedals the remoteness of Tibet, pulled out and rejoined the tarmac, feeling that facing traffic was a better proposition. But...... he rememeberd the route.

Having experienced the hardship of that exercise, Mike thought he'd share it with someone, on the premise that pain shared is pain halved. Who could be persuaded to join him? Being in the wrong place at the wrong time I soon found myself zigzagging at 4kph up a bumpy dirt mountain track, trying to maintain balance and keep pace with Mike. I swear there were no downhill sections in sight. Eventually, we reached some forrested summit where the air was thin, the terrain unexplored and realised that we may have taken the wrong track. Not music to my ears especially as mounting the bike to commence another climb, I got a puncture.

Finally, the hills were exhausted. So was I. Mike was fitness personified.

There followed a long awaited downhill bit to recuperate, then over the Cardinia Dam Wall, on to Upper Beac. and another puncture. Up Welly Rd. back to Emerald via Elephant rock and another puncture. That's my quota of puntures for the next two years.

On hearing our story, Gordon promptly detailed another ride for us around the back of Macclesfield, with the assurance that it would not be quite so bad. I have those details in my pocket debating whether or not to believe him. We'll see!