Vanderpants Oz Tour

85 clicks today

5 hours saddle time

3,000 calories burned (means more beer for meeeeee)

1,200 km’s so far woohoooooo how cool

Avg Speed 16kmph

660 meters climbed today

Good evening everyone

Today was ANOTHER wicked day – they just keep coming – literally just one after the other – we keep kicking ourselves saying ‘Nah tomorrow will be a get it done kinda day’ BUT NO, that hasn’t happened yet. Each day has delivered multiple supprises and adventures and endless stories to keep us entertained to relive over and over whilst on the bike. I say relive however, too many amazing things have happened that rehashing over and over hasn’t occured yet because the next best thing comes along and on we go. That’s how each day feels like 20 adventures in one…..the stories keep rolling and today didn’t dissapoint.

Started off SOOOOOooooo hard……wake up at 6 – coffee – pack – leave at 7 and we hit a rail trail immediately – HEAPS HARD 🙂

We trundled towards the sunrise to what we knew would be 20 km’s towards a coffee van that had great reviews (in vid). We were spoiled with awesome views, different trails and quiet roads towards coffee. Drone was actioned and coffee and dog pats were had (especially my favourite, the whippets. If you want to keep me around forever, just own a Whippet and i won’t leave). Many pats and drone action plus coffee were had but it was time to push on. I say push but really, more railtrails along lakes, dirt roads, forests, and countryside for another 20 km’s. I must say that Geelong has very very good entry and exists into and out of the city for cyclists. It was a breeze in and out and very picturesque. Again Alex and I were smiling at each other about how SHIT this trip has been hahahahaha. Shit sights, shit people, shit roads, shit food, shit coffee, shit beaches, shit adventures and shit banter 🙂 hahahahaha. It was really lovely. The smells and sights along the way were rewarding to say the least. I say smells because people who know me know I LOVE SMELLS hahahahaha. I love the smell of a rainforrest just after it’s rained or when the rain just hits hot pavement and i’m cycling through it, or today the smell was a freshly built home – that fresh wood smell mmmmmmmmmmmm. Is it weird that I love the smell of new clothes? You may even have caught me smelling a shirt that’s on a rack that I don’t even want to buy – is that weird 🙂 not at all right….Some people have even quoted me saying ‘I can smell around corners’. With a sundial like mine it’s easy to believe huh —– anyway – So I could talk about all the amazing smells of nature (and clothes hahaha) throughout the 1,200 km’s completed so far have filled me up at least for a while hahaha.

So onwards we went along the rail trail all the way to Queenstown where we took the Ferry to Sorrento. A 40 minute welcomed rest, coffee and toilet stop really. We were greeted with a disgusting view of the Sorrento area and clip went out cleats fixing our shoes into the pedal and cranked those wheels over to begin our trek towards Flinders on the Mornington Peninsular….it certainly delivered a beautiful ride along the coast with again, more smiles and us repeating for an hour ‘heaps shit adventure’ hahaha

It was perfect weather, wind was minimal, the view was to die for, we had a destination and all was even in the world

Today along our ride we discussed that we have taken so many alternate routes this trip……nothing has been direct and so many unfarmiliars – this has been the best. It’s like the path we take in life is not always a direct one….we go down a road, we get lost, we take hills we didn’t know, we get rained on, we meet certain people on that path we wouldn’t if we didn’t take that road etc etc and generally the hard road is the right road. It strengthens us and teaches us more things. That very bad analogy of mine is the same in touring and life. The rewards for self are greater on that hard road if faced head on with a good attitude as often as possible…….ok enough life talk – back to smack talk now – This isn’t a platform to talk serious cmon now – this is for talking shit and fun ahahaha

After we disembarked off the ferry we cycled the opposite way (the hard road remember hahaha) to do soe Droney drone at a memorable place in portsea for one of Alex’s friend. It was there we met a photographer/film maker named Sean who we got to talking for 45 minutes about all of life of course as you do whilst on an epic adventure. In case you didn’t know already hahaha I do love talking to people. I love learning about what makes them tick, why they do what they do and where they come from. It’s always interesting to know why they do what they do and everything else in between. I think I need 4 years for this tour because it takes me that long to keep going as I enjoy a yarn a bit too much. So Sean gave us some great hot tips in film making and how to edit my vids quicker and also a few websites to inspire us – Thank you Sean – It was a lovely break from pedalling to share a few stories together.

It was time to keep going though (as Alex reminded me hahahahah – I do need that reminder because I lose track of time and then nek minnut i’m in someones house and we are talking about life and drinking red wine hahahahaha)

So we knew we had some climbing to do to get over the island and onto the other side to Flinders. So after Climbing ‘Arthurs Shelf’ for an hour PHEWPH (some climbs were 15% today) it was time to descend into Flinders……..I made the decision to go off road instead of the main road with no shoulder. It was the wrong decision because unbeknown to me, it was a private road (which i’ll still debate till the cows come home) – There were no private property signs and it was an actual road. It was rough i’ll give you that, rocky and difficult for Alex with his thinner tyres hahahaha. I could tell Alex was ready to get there. I could see it on his face hahaha. I felt bad because I made the deicsion to go down that road and it was not easy. All of a sudden a guy comes running out of his house yelling ‘STOP STOP’ I knew what he was going to say regarding ‘this road is private property bla bla bla bla’ and I was going to just keep riding and ignore him but I knew Alex was behind me and I didn’t want to leave him with ‘that’ hahahaha so I stopped and internally rolled my eyes as the owner told me i’m not allowed on this road. I know I am but I didn’t say anything and just said we are just passing through and google led us down here and we are just heading to the main road. He kept on going and going and we just slowly rode off, apologised and headed to the main road where we descended a few kilometers into another awesome coastal town hahaah

Immediately went for a dip in the water up to waist height for recovery and relive the day that was, do some droney drone, eat some tea then tuck in for some blogging, a shower and now some well earned rest after 80 odd km’s

What another great bloody day.

Enjoy the video peoples……..lots of love from the Redlegs.