lilydale-warburton trail

inspired by our bay ride, we got back in the saddle for an 80km return trip to warburton along a retired railway line. they're pretty good for setting up things like that in these parts so we're trying to make the most of them.


we caught the train to lilydale (yes, with our bikes. it's totally normal to take your bike on the train here - how great is that?) and set off from there. with nature-spotting stops factored in, and the onset of a rainstorm about a third of the way from warburton, it took us almost 2-and-a-half hours to get to warburton.

after a brief wander around to drip-dry, we decided we would head up into the forested hills - but first, a cup of tea. as an aside, melbourne has developed this massive coffee-culture that seems to reflect much of the rest of australia, and it's far too easy to seem british by asking for a cup of tea instead of a cup of coffee because literally everyone else is glugging down the devil's brew...

so we never made it up the hills. as we were enjoying a rich soya chai, the rain started up in earnest - and continued for 3 hours! at the first break in the clouds we set off for lilydale, hoping to outrace any remaining downpours. as it happened, the break continued and we cycled back in dazzling late-arvo sunshine. it was magical!


justin saw his first kookaburra and i saw my first galah - bush-cycling is the way forward!

indie pop is alive and well and living in melbourne

one way to get to know a city is to get to know its music and we've been doing our best on this front. although i struggle to name more than two handfuls of aussie bands - it doesn't help that i didn't know that ac/dc ("acca dacca") were from sydney - live music is a massive part of melbourne life. much of this happens in old 'hotels' and clubs that can be found on every other street corner and most of which come with a music room in the back/upstairs, places like the tote, the corner and the northcote social club.

(l-r: irit, tom, peter, mirella)

music-wise, melbourne is pretty much the glasgow of australia and melbournites - some of them, at least - love their scottish indie music, belle & sebastian in particular. our neighbour, peter, is a singer-songwriter of local renown (his myspace is here) and through him we've met and heard a bunch of local bands and musicians, including members of the motifs and milk teddy. there's some pretty good festivals in the melbourne area over the summer but we arrived too late to get tickets for most of them. we do, however, have tickets for the big day out at the end of january with ol' shakey himself, neil young, headlining.

around the bay in a day... well, part of it

every october they hold an event in melbourne called "around the bay in a day" where folk of all abilities get on their bikes and cover whatever distance they can manage of port phillip bay:


one of the highlights of the day is that the 50km ride crosses the westgate bridge, usually closed to cyclists and foot passengers. so we decided to get a piece of the action and go with them. we ended up cycling all the way to altona with the pack before breaking off due to some serious saddle soreness on my part. seriously, i am hardcore, my seat was just more hard than my core...

so we caught a train back to the city where i bought a new seat that i am happy to say has given me no gip since sunday 19 october - hooray!

photo: justin on the westgate bridge

new bike

i got a new bike off ebay. it was cheap as chips and sexy to boot... once i tidied it up a bit:

remove decals









remove wheel reflectors









replace with reflective stickers and tyres









and, after that last photo was taken, i got a new seat... more on that to follow!