Pedals and a Punt

Williamstown and The Bay

We spoke to two old gentlemen on the train, both of them pushing sparkling but well-used electric bicycles. They waxed lyrical about the pleasures of cycling in Melbourne and the benefits of electric bicycles to offset the ravages of age.

"What's your favourite ride?" I asked. They debated this hotly for a minute or five before coming to an agreement. "Williamstone to Cherry Lake and back again."

Well that was a light bulb moment. I'd been so busy riding around south-east Melbourne that I'd forgotten there was a whole western half to the city. It wasn't long before Roger and I were on the train to Williamstown, bikes in tow. We didn't plan to ride to Cherry Lake, though. We planned to ride home via the Spotswood Punt over the Yarra, with our passage under the Westgate Bridge sufficient to gladden Roger's engineering heart.

The bike path started straight off the train at Williamstown.

We followed the path beside the bay where container ships loitered on the horizon, waiting to come in to port. An astounding number of cyclists were out and about in the path and parallel roadway.

The ball tower: redundant now that ships no longer need it to calibrate their chronometers.

"We're on a charity ride," explained one of the two gentlemen who kindly offered to take our picture at the ball tower. "We rode over the Westgate Bridge this morning. They closed a lane for us."

They waved goodbye and we pedaled on, lamenting opportunities lost. We would collectively have given several arms and legs for the pleasure of riding over the Westgate Bridge but this was not to be.

Instead we drowned our sorrows with coffee and cake at the Titanic.

Back on the waterfront we dodged children on trainer wheels, erratic toddlers on scooter bikes, and random family groups playing football across the bike path. We had a fantastic view across the mouth of the Yarra to the port and the city.

Impressive cannons guarded the river mouth, with no indication as to their history and how they came to be there.

We followed the river toward the Westgate bridge until, with great anticipation, we came to the boarding pier for the Spotswood Punt. The Punt predates the bridge and continued to operate after the construction of the bridge as the design of the bridge regrettably did not include provision for pedestrians or cyclists. The Punt does a brisk trade of commuters during the week and on weekends caters to families heading over the river to the Science Museum. In the between times he caters to random people like us and makes a hobby of fishing things out of the river and hanging them on the rafters of the punt. He had a fine collection of hire bicycle helmets which he admitted to lending out regularly to cycle commuters who had forgotten their own helmet in their morning rush.

The trifecta: Punt, Westgate bridge, city.

Back on dry land (and wearing our own helmets) we ambled through the nature reserve under the Westgate bridge approach and back into familiar territory along the Bay.

It was a perfect day.

There are worse things to do while waiting.

Heart

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