Orbis non sufficit
Thursday, January 15, 2004
The Trek
Yesterday Stephen (Fudgey) and I went for a bit of a bike ride. We weren't going anywhere in particular, we just thought we'd head down the peninsula and see where we ended up. First we had to ride up olivers hill, which was a bitch (We had to take a mid-hill break) and also bikes had to ride just a little further up a hill than cars did. It sucked. There was a good view from the top tho. Next we turned right into Mount Eliza and rode around in there for a while, checking out all the rich peoples houses along the coast. Eventually we made it to a park that was somewhere near Canadian Bay, in which we rested for a good half an hour. We were pretty screwed, it was 11 and we'd been riding since 9. After that we jumped on the highway again and followed it through Mornington and Mount Martha and such. Silvers Circus was in mornington someplace, those guys appear everywhere.
There were quite a few bike riders around, more than I would have expected anyway. We went up and down and damn lot of hills along that highway, having to take mid-hill breaks on several of them. There was also some farm-place out there where Stephen said he'd been to someones wedding. Anyway, at about 12.30 or so we were extremely screwed, and started looking for somewhere to stop for lunch and rest. We'd just come around a great big hill and we could see a nice looking town nestled in a valley near a little bay, so we thought we'd try head there. Stephen said he though it was Dromana, and he turned out to be right. We wanted to take the freeway in there, but the damn thing had a big sign prohibiting us from doing so. We considered doing it anyway, but we didn't particularly want a fine or something. So we just continued along the highway, which seemed to be taking us far from where we wanted to go, however it eventually took a nice right hand turn and took us straight into Dromana, up a slight incline which killed our already injured legs. We crawled into Dromana and got food at the closest place we could find, which turned out to be a little milk bar/bakery place. We both got a hotdog and went over to the beach to eat them.
It was 1 oclock by the time we were in Dromana, and we sat around eating for a while. Well, I ate more than stephen since I had a whole backpack full of food with me. I shared it but he seemed strangely un-hungry :).
Some time during our meal Kiah rang and asked me if I wanted to do something, to which I replied that it would have to be in Dromana. It was rather amusing. She then called me and Stephen crazy and left. Haggis messaged some time also, which was about the time stephen and I realised that it was only now that people really started to get up and move around, and we'd already been up and riding for 4 hours :).
After our little banquet we decided to go check out Dromana a bit. There didn't seem that much there, although it did have a nice beach and a number of food shops. We weren't hungry though so those didn't interest us anymore. There was a little mall we discovered eventually, which was really rather poor and had crap all shops. The only shop we actually went into was a little antiques shop. Most of the stuff there didn't seem very antique to me, but there was this cool metal beer mug thingy for $7 which I seriously considered getting. Maybe I should have. I wouldn't have done much with it, but when has that stopped me before? Oh well.
We decided to just go rest some more, so we started heading towards some benches near the beach when I spotted an icecreamery and suggested we go get some icecream. Stephen also considered this a good plan, so we headed in there and bought some rather tasty icecream. Stephen was under the impression that one of the girls who worked there was called briony and used to go to our Karate school, but I didn't recognise her at all. That icecreamery also had a cool picture on one wall which was a view of greater melbourne from space. It's weird how perfectly squarish all the parts of the city look from space. Kinda sucks really. The mountains to the north-east looked far cooler. Theres really no wilderness down in these parts at all, no decent amount of it anyway. Gotta head out of this massive city to find any, but thats a rather long way to ride from here. 47km according to a dial thingy on olivers hill.
So we went and ate our icecream by the beach and sat there for a while.
When we were ready to leave, at about 3, we decided we didn't want to go back along the highway, so we took another road out of town that looked like it might go to frankston eventually. Turned out it went straight up and around Mount Martha, which was quite a bitch to ride up. It didn't go all the way up, thank god, so we were ok after a while and had some nice downhill along the coast for a while. It was really rather hilly along that coastal road, but not a bad ride compared to the highway. Seemed a lot faster than the highway too. We also got some impressive views of the bay from that coastal road.
So we headed along that road for a while, eventually coming to mornington where we had a little break. There was another nice view from where we sat. There was a large dip followed by a large incline coming right up, so once we started going again we gunned it down the hill and managed to get up the other side without having to destroy our leg muscles too much more. We started to be pushed back to the highway shortly after that, but we weren't quite ready for that yet, so we took a little detour along the coast some more through some residential areas. There were some nice houses back there, and lots of big trees so it was nice and shady. No traffic either which was a nice touch. It was a bit of a detour though and we ended up back at the highway anyway, fortunately somewhat closer to frankston than before. After that we followed the highway right back to olivers hill, passing the circus again. We stopped on olivers hill and found that metal dial I mentioned. It was a compass thingy with lines that point to various landmarks and such. It was kinda old, but also poor, since the line that pointed to melbourne looked like it was kind of off. Oh well, thats Frankston for you. We messaged people and tried to get them to come to frankston for dinner, but they had other plans, so we had to ride a bit further still. Olivers hill gave us a nice catapult into frankston, but on the way back to Stephens house we were having issues. My legs no longer ached, i seemed to have worn them in or something, but i was pretty tired. We craweled into stephens house, at which point the odometre on his bike informed us that we had ridden 75km, with an average speed of 13 kph and a top speed of 50.5 kph. His mum gave us some water and soft drink and icey poles, which were quite good. Stephen decided he didn't feel like riding to steves house, so I had to ride there on my own.
I was pretty damn screwed by the time I got there, so I just flopped in a chair and lay there for a while.
Eventually Jason came and we went and got some fish and chips, and I also got doritos. The meal was pretty damn good. Stephen got dropped off there too. Kiah finished work and so I had to ride home while the others went and got her. That ride was pretty crap, my chain did something really crappy at the top of steves road, and the best I could do was put it on the two biggest gears and hope it stayed there. I got home in that one gear, dumped the bike in the garage and washed the grease off my hands. The others arrived after a little while and we sat around my place for a while. After they left I tried to play gunbound with steve but it kept crapping up, so I just went to sleep.
Yesterday Stephen (Fudgey) and I went for a bit of a bike ride. We weren't going anywhere in particular, we just thought we'd head down the peninsula and see where we ended up. First we had to ride up olivers hill, which was a bitch (We had to take a mid-hill break) and also bikes had to ride just a little further up a hill than cars did. It sucked. There was a good view from the top tho. Next we turned right into Mount Eliza and rode around in there for a while, checking out all the rich peoples houses along the coast. Eventually we made it to a park that was somewhere near Canadian Bay, in which we rested for a good half an hour. We were pretty screwed, it was 11 and we'd been riding since 9. After that we jumped on the highway again and followed it through Mornington and Mount Martha and such. Silvers Circus was in mornington someplace, those guys appear everywhere.
There were quite a few bike riders around, more than I would have expected anyway. We went up and down and damn lot of hills along that highway, having to take mid-hill breaks on several of them. There was also some farm-place out there where Stephen said he'd been to someones wedding. Anyway, at about 12.30 or so we were extremely screwed, and started looking for somewhere to stop for lunch and rest. We'd just come around a great big hill and we could see a nice looking town nestled in a valley near a little bay, so we thought we'd try head there. Stephen said he though it was Dromana, and he turned out to be right. We wanted to take the freeway in there, but the damn thing had a big sign prohibiting us from doing so. We considered doing it anyway, but we didn't particularly want a fine or something. So we just continued along the highway, which seemed to be taking us far from where we wanted to go, however it eventually took a nice right hand turn and took us straight into Dromana, up a slight incline which killed our already injured legs. We crawled into Dromana and got food at the closest place we could find, which turned out to be a little milk bar/bakery place. We both got a hotdog and went over to the beach to eat them.
It was 1 oclock by the time we were in Dromana, and we sat around eating for a while. Well, I ate more than stephen since I had a whole backpack full of food with me. I shared it but he seemed strangely un-hungry :).
Some time during our meal Kiah rang and asked me if I wanted to do something, to which I replied that it would have to be in Dromana. It was rather amusing. She then called me and Stephen crazy and left. Haggis messaged some time also, which was about the time stephen and I realised that it was only now that people really started to get up and move around, and we'd already been up and riding for 4 hours :).
After our little banquet we decided to go check out Dromana a bit. There didn't seem that much there, although it did have a nice beach and a number of food shops. We weren't hungry though so those didn't interest us anymore. There was a little mall we discovered eventually, which was really rather poor and had crap all shops. The only shop we actually went into was a little antiques shop. Most of the stuff there didn't seem very antique to me, but there was this cool metal beer mug thingy for $7 which I seriously considered getting. Maybe I should have. I wouldn't have done much with it, but when has that stopped me before? Oh well.
We decided to just go rest some more, so we started heading towards some benches near the beach when I spotted an icecreamery and suggested we go get some icecream. Stephen also considered this a good plan, so we headed in there and bought some rather tasty icecream. Stephen was under the impression that one of the girls who worked there was called briony and used to go to our Karate school, but I didn't recognise her at all. That icecreamery also had a cool picture on one wall which was a view of greater melbourne from space. It's weird how perfectly squarish all the parts of the city look from space. Kinda sucks really. The mountains to the north-east looked far cooler. Theres really no wilderness down in these parts at all, no decent amount of it anyway. Gotta head out of this massive city to find any, but thats a rather long way to ride from here. 47km according to a dial thingy on olivers hill.
So we went and ate our icecream by the beach and sat there for a while.
When we were ready to leave, at about 3, we decided we didn't want to go back along the highway, so we took another road out of town that looked like it might go to frankston eventually. Turned out it went straight up and around Mount Martha, which was quite a bitch to ride up. It didn't go all the way up, thank god, so we were ok after a while and had some nice downhill along the coast for a while. It was really rather hilly along that coastal road, but not a bad ride compared to the highway. Seemed a lot faster than the highway too. We also got some impressive views of the bay from that coastal road.
So we headed along that road for a while, eventually coming to mornington where we had a little break. There was another nice view from where we sat. There was a large dip followed by a large incline coming right up, so once we started going again we gunned it down the hill and managed to get up the other side without having to destroy our leg muscles too much more. We started to be pushed back to the highway shortly after that, but we weren't quite ready for that yet, so we took a little detour along the coast some more through some residential areas. There were some nice houses back there, and lots of big trees so it was nice and shady. No traffic either which was a nice touch. It was a bit of a detour though and we ended up back at the highway anyway, fortunately somewhat closer to frankston than before. After that we followed the highway right back to olivers hill, passing the circus again. We stopped on olivers hill and found that metal dial I mentioned. It was a compass thingy with lines that point to various landmarks and such. It was kinda old, but also poor, since the line that pointed to melbourne looked like it was kind of off. Oh well, thats Frankston for you. We messaged people and tried to get them to come to frankston for dinner, but they had other plans, so we had to ride a bit further still. Olivers hill gave us a nice catapult into frankston, but on the way back to Stephens house we were having issues. My legs no longer ached, i seemed to have worn them in or something, but i was pretty tired. We craweled into stephens house, at which point the odometre on his bike informed us that we had ridden 75km, with an average speed of 13 kph and a top speed of 50.5 kph. His mum gave us some water and soft drink and icey poles, which were quite good. Stephen decided he didn't feel like riding to steves house, so I had to ride there on my own.
I was pretty damn screwed by the time I got there, so I just flopped in a chair and lay there for a while.
Eventually Jason came and we went and got some fish and chips, and I also got doritos. The meal was pretty damn good. Stephen got dropped off there too. Kiah finished work and so I had to ride home while the others went and got her. That ride was pretty crap, my chain did something really crappy at the top of steves road, and the best I could do was put it on the two biggest gears and hope it stayed there. I got home in that one gear, dumped the bike in the garage and washed the grease off my hands. The others arrived after a little while and we sat around my place for a while. After they left I tried to play gunbound with steve but it kept crapping up, so I just went to sleep.
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