Last weekend, we headed west to Warrnambool and shacked up with Marls and Chris and were entertained with a bike ride and some seal watching.
The new 37k Warrnambool to Pt Fairy Rail Trail is all but completed and just needs some finishing touches before an official opening. There are issues with access to private land near the Warrnambool end so we hopped onto the trail 5k out from Warrnambool and headed through Koroit to the lovely fishing town of Pt Fairy. The trail is mostly through farmland with some small pockets of forest but a pretty good surface to ride on except for some small muddy sections in places. Unfortunately, Chris’s road bike, with it’s narrow tyres, came a cropper at one stage and he managed to land on his head but his bone dome saved him from major grief.
We stopped in Pt Fairy for a coffee and a look-see at the waterfront before heading back to Warrnambool. We stumbled upon an organised bike ride to Koroit where the local burghers thought it a good idea to drum up some winter business by advertising a community bike ride. However, the message hadn’t got out as only a handful of people turned up and they were well ahead of us by this stage.
We arrived back at the old Koroit station and the smell of the snags on the barbie was very tempting to four hungry cyclists and we were soon tucking into some mystery bags and hot coffee courtesy of the Rail Trail organising committee. We got chatting to the leaders of the committee and discovered that they had spent $2.2 million of the Councils and State taxpayers money on the trail so far and then gave us an insight into the hard work that goes to developing these Rail Trails by a dedicated band of volunteers. They told us they only had $15,000 left in the kitty to finish off the Trail and I suggested they put it to good use like a monster party for themselves.
We arrived home to wash the bikes and ourselves and then headed down to the Breakwater to view the antics of a pod of seals who have taken a liking to a fisherman who regularly cleans his tuna catch by the water. A lady asked him what type of fish they were and if tuna made good eating. She obviously has a cholesterol problem.
A small slideshow here and a video clip of the tuna lovers here. The sound is a bit iffy with the video but keep an eye out near the end to see how the seal breaks up large morsels of tuna.
Good use of abandoned rail tracks by making them into bike paths. Too bad that the tracks are not still active, it’s such a great way to get around.
Half the Bellarine Rail Trail still has an active train line running parallel with the Bellarine Railway running weekend tourist trips with a steam locomotive. You can see the history here and the only evidence of the other stations are the name board. Towns along these trails were thriving communities but have all but disappeared and so trains became uneconomical but to the benefit of recreational users. By the way, we have walked some of your Bruce Trail and that probably uses some old rail lines too.
Loved the video and pics.Seals were cute sharing their fish with the gulls.
Whales cruising past Ocean Grove at the moment.
Washing bikes! Shame on you. Mine has a good solid 20 years of grime on it and is still going strong!
Penny Farthing, is it?
We had a ride yesterday and it pelted rain and the track was a quagmire. I bought a new high pressure hose recently and does that do a great job. Drop by and I’ll blast 20 years of grime away in seconds. Probably strip away all the paint work too, although in your case, there probably isn’t too much left.
Hehehe, Victoria is a long way to ride. I’ve done at least 20000km’s on my bicycle in that 20 years but never to Victoria. It’s been through 3 gear sets and even more chains/derailleurs etc. Damn bush bashing on 27 1 1/4 tyres…. I don’t do that anymore. However I can’t tell on the paint… it’s black paint covered in black grime / brakepad dust etc…
Oh invest in a “Air Zound” (Google it) best thing ever for scaring the bejeezus out of ppl on shared bike paths with earphones in their ears not looking where they’re walking
That Air Zound sound a great idea for the tracks we ride. I had one recently step right into my path after I rang my bell. Lucky for her my brakes pads are in good nick.
Loved the photos and video of the seals flinging the fish! My husband has an Enduro cycling jacket just like Marlene’s. He got it for his birthday this year. I love the bright yellow (He’s already been hit once by a car and I want to prevent this from happening again).
I have two of those yellow jackets but I wouldn’t bank on the idiots around here not hitting you.