Victoria — Getting Out There

Sneaking away mid-week for an Eildon fishing session

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 16:38:11 +1000

With everything in my life being so busy lately, I managed to get away for a sneaky mid-week overnight fishing trip on Tuesday afternoon, returning last night.

I didn’t catch any fish, but it was wonderful to get away and get my lines wet, hanging with some mates. They booked a cabin for their Easter family holiday, so I grabbed an unpowered site at the same park and pitched my swag for the night. We fished all day at our various favourite spots, saw plenty of fish, but they just weren’t having anything we put before them.

Some young guys were catching small browns by drifting worms in the Goulburn, but for the most part the fishermen around us were striking out as well. Luckily for my mates they got onto some fish the day after I left, which is nice (for them! 🤣).

Despite the lack of a fresh catch to eat for dinner, I had the most wonderfully relaxing day. I packed a pipe and sat by the Pondage when my phone buzzed to tell me it was 13:00, and time for a daily routine at Starlight where the Melbourne office gets together to have a go at The Age Quiz. I logged in over Microsoft Teams to the group chat, got a few groans that I was out fishing, and that was worth the trip just for the giggles!

Fishing at Gilmore’s Bridge at Thornton

Fishing under Gilmore’s Bridge at Thornton

Fishing at the Eildon Pondage

Panorama of Eildon Pondage in April 2022

My Melbourne commute to work

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 21:37:08 +1100

One of the great benefits of my new job at the Starlight Children’s Foundation is the location of the Melbourne office: right on the Yarra River where Church Street becomes Chapel Street, in a commercial hub of the city known as Cremorne in Richmond.

At the moment I’m working two days a week in the office, and the remaining three from home in Ballarat. Whilst some might bemoan a long 120km+ commute, for me it’s been very enjoyable.

I get up early, pack the panniers on Serena and ride to Ballarat Train Station, barely a kilometre from my house. From there, I take the train to Southern Cross Station¹ and ride along the Capital City and Yarra River Trails from the Docklands, past Jeff’s Shed (the Melbourne Exhibition Centre), the Crown Casino and Southbank, then along the south bank of the Yarra to Church Street.

It’s a very nice, easy going 6.5 kilometre (approx. 4 miles) journey. There are a fair amount of pedestrians, and some of my fellow cyclists ride incredibly dangerously and far too fast for the crowds, but apart from that the scenery is wonderful and despite not being the world’s cleanest river, this is a nice section of the city.

Otherwise known as Spencer Street Station to those of us who grew up in Melbourne pre-2005. ↩︎

Roaming around Wodonga/Albury

Sat, 18 Dec 2021 18:21:48 +1100

My partner is a criminal barrister, and a few times a year she undertakes circuits, where she travels to a regional court and works there for 3–4 weeks. Sometimes she’ll come home on the weekends, sometimes not, depending on the distance from home. This year her Wodonga circuit has run for the past four weeks, and I’ve joined her for this last week to spend some time together riding around the area, both with her and on my own.

I arrived about noon on Monday and headed home this morning. We spent each day riding a bit, but also exploring Wodonga and eating at a few different nice places around town. Each day we had lunch at a salad bar called Greenstreat. This place was the duck’s nuts. They have different salad options, all super fresh with heaps of great tasty ingredients and a very healthy local following to boot.

A yummy salad from Greenstreat

On Tuesday I rode down to the Hume Weir, where the mighty Murray River starts at the base of the dam wall. I haven’t fished this far up the Murray before so I packed my bike fishing rig and hit the road. I rode along the High Country Rail Trail to Bonegilla, nearly at the lake, then turned off the trail and took the road past the Latchford Army Barracks to the dam wall. Looping around and over the river, just past the trout farm is a little 4WD track heading down below the weir.

I cast some bait lines for a while at the yellow boat markers that designate the off-limits section of the river (for boating). I then headed up to the fence to the weir and there is an area set up for fishermen. My mate had warned me about how strong the current is here but nothing can really prep you for it — it’s ferociously strong. I cast some shiny Tassie Devil spoons up into the current and just drifted them down, which given the fast flow of the river almost meant an aggressive retrieve even without winding! I was fishing with my little Daiwa ultralight travel rod, with 6lb mono and a 12lb leader, so I took about 3–5 minutes just setting my drag correctly. A big brown trout hit the lure just about perpendicular to where I was standing, and OH MY FUCKING GOD what a fight! She took off like a freight train, and I still can’t believe I didn’t snap her off. It’s nearly a Christmas miracle!

A great day’s bike fishing finished with a great fish

I wound her in, let her run, wound her in, let her run. I had no illusions about even trying to get her in the net, as it took all of my strength just to reel her in, and have her piss right off again. When she jumped — quite a few glorious displays of aerial defiance — my heart stopped. But still, no snap off! Despite a valiant effort, she finally gave up the fight and rolled over, but even then I couldn’t reel her in, just from the sheer force of her body weight in the current. After about 45 minutes, I got her close enough to swing my net over the top of her in a fashion I would never employ to net a fish in normal circumstances, but my back was killing me and I was desperate.

Of course there was no to be no catch and release — she was so thoroughly played out that the only fair thing to do was to thank her, snap her neck immediately, put the poor girl out of her misery and claim dinner. Due to my bike not having an esky, it being over 30°C (86°F), and being an hour or so from home — this also meant that my fishing for the day was over.

I called Danielle to meet me on the way and pick the fish up, all the better to get her into ice quicker, and set about cleaning her. It was when gutting her I found seven hooks in her belly. This beautiful old warrior had beaten at least seven fellow fishos. I’ve never seen anything like it in years of fishing, but looking at the current I’m not all that surprised.

I met Danielle on the road out and then rode into Albury, and crossed back into Wodonga to make a nice little 40km loop.

Crossing the Murray at Wodonga/Albury

We rode again each day for the rest of the week, clocking up 40km, 30km and 16km rides as we explored Wodonga, the High Country Rail Trail, Albury and the Murray River. On the Rail Trail, I was riding along and we decided to stop in a quiet bushy area near the Kiewa River for a toilet break, but in the confusion about where I was going to brake, Danielle rode right into the back of me and ripped up her knee in a bad case of gravel rash. I very sheepishly apologised and patched her up as best as I could at the lake with my first aid kit. In Albury, we visited the Botanic Gardens, had lunch at a nice pub and did a pretty good job of hiding how terrified we were about COVID-19 and the NSW Omicron threat.

Danielle’s gravel rash

We cooked up our fish on the outdoor barbeque at the hotel, sampled all the local wine, beer and food we could, and just enjoyed our little week off without the kids. And then, as if the week couldn’t get any better, I scored a job interview with the Starlight Children’s Foundation and — I believe — performed quite strongly, so fingers crossed!

My bike at the Kiewa River

The Kiewa River

Stopping for a photo with this beautiful hairy coo

Hey there big fella!

On the way past Latchford Barracks

Riding around the Hume Dam

Stopping at the historic old Bonegilla Train Platform on the High Country Rail Trail

The Hume Dam from below the weir

Lazing around

A beautiful day

A nice little setup for local fishermen

Fishing at the Hume Weir

The strong current coming out of the weir

A beautiful wild brown trout

Stopped at the Hume Dam historic marker

The road back to Albury

Cooking the fish on the barbeque

Albury Botanic Gardens with Danielle

Lake Hume

A very stupid, dangerous and scary mergin of bike path and country highway

Danielle and my bikes on the Murray River

Danielle near the Kiewa River

Danielle stopped at the Kiewa River

Danielle with Lake Hume behind

Creek near the Kiewa River

Danielle crossing a creek

Danielle at Ebden Train Platform on the High Country Rail Trail

Danielle riding along the Wodonga bike paths

Danielle picking up her bags

Danielle at Lake Hume

Danielle on the High Country Rail Trail

Danielle riding along the Wodonga bike paths

First half-century in the bag!

Tue, 02 Apr 2019 22:06:17 +1100

I achieved my first half-century today, logging 50 kilometres on my way out to Creswick and back to Ballarat. The ride was very scenic, and the smell of eucalypts made for a strenuous but altogether very enjoyable day out.

This wasn’t just the longest bike ride I’ve ever undertaken (so far) in terms of distance, but also time in the saddle, hitting almost three hours’ riding time.

Although I’m really quite sore tonight, I’m also rapt to have hit that milestone so early in the month, and hopefully I can push it out to 60 by the end of April.

50.5 route distance (km)

629m elevation climbed

1 days' riding