Preparation
Background story
My wife, Annette, and I took a month long cycle tour from South Australia to Victoria. This came about after a six month trip to North America had to be cancelled due to visa issues. I put a lot of time and effort into planning a ride from Rhode Island to Vancouver where my two daughters live. This would have involved a six month tourist visa, I knew that this involved going to Sydney for an interview at the embassy. What I didn’t know was that there was a 155 day waiting list for the interview. After all the planning and worrying about the flights (I don’t travel well on planes these days) the 155 day wait would have made it too late for the trip. I’d put so much effort and emotion into the plan that I felt that I just had to continue on and do something. Hence the trip to Victoria, which was supposed to take place in the autumn. My daughter from Rhode Island came to visit in March/April, this would still have given us plenty of time to set off. Unfortunately, we both got flu and this delayed the departure even further. We didn’t want to miss out again so the trip became late autumn/early winter.
The plan was worked out on Komoot using as many minor roads as possible and basically just wandering about in Victoria exploring Rail Trails. I had the plan on Komoot but by the time we went I couldn’t remember why I chose the route. Consequently, we didn’t stick very closely to the route I’d spent so much time planning. Still, it was fun. In the end the route was sort planned day by day with a rough outline in mind. We wanted to get to Rutherglen and perhaps the Highlands then work our way back to Ararat to catch a train to Adelaide. I’m not sure why I was so keen on incorporating a train into the plan but I was excited about it.
I’m a keen touring cyclist with quite a few long tours under my belt both in Australia and overseas. Annette on the other is a much more recent cyclists with only a few local trips to her name. Certainly nothing of this scale. This was going to be a major challenge and I’m not sure that she really thought it through. Still, pretty brave to take it on.
Our gear is pretty good, the camping equipment is a left over from my hiking days and has seen quite a few campaigns over the years. We both have bikes suitable for the task, mine is a dedicated touring bike whilst Annette’s is more of a hybrid. We went full touring mode, tent, cooking etc. I was set up with four panniers, a 30 litre trunk bag and a handle bar bag. Annette had the same apart from the front panniers. We carried a lot of food so the bikes were very heavy. We knew that we could be days without a shop so the food made me more comfortable, however, in the early part of the trip, water was a much bigger issue than food. Quite a surprise.
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