Vanderpants Oz Tour

Distance: 124.6 (Total – 1298km’s)

Avg Spd: 19.5 (lovely tailwinds almost all day)

Max Spd – 40.2

Saddle Time: 6:21 (Total saddle time – 87:32)

Elevation: 450 mtrs

Quote: Great things never comes from comfort zones – We all search for them and I’m one of them also. I’m talking comfort zones. We seek stability, routine and comfort don’t we? – I’m hoping this trip teaches me more about getting out of them and being ok with that. Stretch myself – be ok with whatever the day brings and be my best self and be present. I think we crave all the above but we also need excitement, wonder, curiosity and entertainment – that balance is what i’m trying to be better at.

Song of the Day: Paramore – Hallelujah – God this song made me stand up on the peddles and belt out the whole song – I swear half of Melbourne are wondering where the noise Ne’ screeching was coming from – This chick really kicks a$$. Great rock band that formed in 2004 and still going strong writing their own music and they all play different instruments – really kickass band

Album of the Day: Paramore – Riot – The song below made me listen to their whole album. I’ve always been a fan of listening to a whole album from go to woe (sp?) from back in the day. You really get a sense of what they are trying to achieve when you hear a full album. I remember buying my first cassette (NKOTB) don’t laugh……..haha and it didn’t have lyrics on it so I pressed pause every so often and wrote the whole album down and when i did, it came to light what they were trying to say and it was then I realised Albums are like a biography of someone’s life and you can really see what they were going through (obv not all but this is why I love music so much) there are lessons in everything. Ps my second album (thank you Robby for introducing me to them) was Metallica – Ride the Lightning – it is here I got into metallica and never looked back (thanks for steering me away from ‘HANGINNNGGgggggg TOUGH’…….HUUHHhhhhh’

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So today was an amazing ride – i loved every second of it. I woke up at 5 and was gone by 6 – I told my amazing visitors that i won’t wake them so I left a nice note and took off full Belly, well slept (is that even a word), recovered and ready – I slapped on my music and off I went into the beautiful day. Thank god it wasn’t The same temperature as yesterday – it was 12 and perfect – the sea was blue as it comes and I opened my app ‘around me’ and found the nearest coffee. I didn’t care how good it was – i just wanted one. A cyclist stopped me and wanted to know my setup right in front of the coffee shop. Listen buddy, I need my caffeine this is important and I am shaking and all I could think about was this fluffy speech bubble above my head Saying ‘YOU NEED CAFFEINE NOW VANDERPANTS’ and waiting for a break in his sentence so I said ‘do you two want to join me for coffee’?.
And that they did. We sat for an hour and the couple (and buster) And I sat in the sunrise and shot the breeze over a 9/10 coffee. He is 52 and wanted to get back into riding as he misses it but has a bad back. I think at the end of the conversation his wife won’t be too happy as it ended, we decided he is buying a Trek Madone with Bontrager wheels so he and the bank will be happy – not so for the household budget

Meet Buster the rescue dog….7 years old with hip issues so can’t work on the farm anymore but he tries still

After our fund depleting convo I set off and wanted to get to my mates house in Bundoora which was 125km’s away – elevation was ok and wind was in my favour so I gave it a crack and absolutely smashed it. legs are feeling strong and my back, knees and hamstrings are feeling Pretty good as well. Happy with that. The day was not very photo friendly (Back of factories) so i don’t have many BUT it was a great ride. I threw my coordinates into google and said avoid highways etc etc and I am amazed at the bicycle network here. Google amazingly directed me to awesome bike paths for 50km’s – It was a dream riding into Budoora. Bypassed Melbourne and I was on Well designed bike paths leading into my mates house. As a cyclist – cycling from country towns into a major city is tough – avoiding highways but making sure you’re taking the right roads and avoid getting hit by fast cars but this was bloody amazing. So safe and green lighty. I was saying to my self ‘this is bloody excellent’. I was zooming in and out with no traffic lights and until 4km’s to go I was totally on safe (and easy drop down gutters) for so long.

Lots of people are recommending or suggesting p’aces to stay and I am blown away by it and sometimes and works for me and others not but please keep them coming – I enjoy meeting everyone and anyone 🙂 so thank you very much for thinking of me.

After about 6 hours I msgd my mate to which his response was – ‘spend xmas with us and also, when you’re here today, beer is cold and you’re dinner is ready’. As a cyclist, you never hear any better sentence than that do you?

After 125km’s I rocked up and the kids flew out of the house and it was on, crazy but loving it. Patty and Jovi, thanks for having me for a couple days and I can’t wait to spend xmas with you. I had an amazing dinner and we all ate together and talked (and drank) and what was really nice was the whole family sat around the table, no phones or tech and talked until 1am non stop – a really great fam vibe. I had a good sleep because I got to sleep next to grandma hahahaha BRILLIANT!!! (insert jokes here everybody) 🙂

After nearly 16 hours of riding in three days I will take a couple days off so you may not see a blog for a bit (maybe maybe not) but when i’m back – i’m heading to Tasmania and I’m literally getting goosebumps thinking about it already.

Vanderpants OUT!

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Distance: 95.99 (43 degrees today just quietly)
TOTAL SO FAR – 1173 km’s

Avg Spd: 16.0

Max Spd – 53.3

Saddle Time: 5:58 (total saddle time 81hrs 11 mins)

Elevation: 526 – felt so much more – i’m going to turn my garmin on tomorrow and compare google to my garmin

Quote: This moment is all there is – This tells me to be present and also life is precious right – there is no other moment other than being there right now with that person you’re talking to – don’t drift Vanderpants hahaha

Song of the Day: it was definitely Missy Higgins – Steer – it came on as I was descending through into Lorne and the lyrics are so spot on about being courageous and follow your heart…brilliant

‘you control where you go….you can steer’


Album of the Day: Was just random music all day

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Well…after finishing my last blog saying ‘lets see where i stay tonight’ the darndest thing happened – earlier in the day I got to having a 10 minute chat to these two awesome peeps

Meet Nigel and Martina – traveling around Oz and Vietnam for the last 13 months and just seemed like likeminded people to myself (which means pretty awesome i know right) – anyway I was cycling a tad faster then them and went into town to blog and eat. As I found a caravan park to pitch a tent for the night I saw them – They said ‘A family had to go home as someone was sick and the cabin is non refundable so they gave it to us and would you like a room as there’s two rooms’

without a word, packed up my tent and went in and we just talked for two hours – I hadn’t showered yet but we shared all our experiences and tips and I gave a few and learned a few too – espesh for the Nullabor – they are def my kind of peeps so we chatted a while then pretty much zonked but how cool is the cabin AND friends – I knew as soon as I saw them they were hardened and had their setup just right – you get an eye for these peeps.

I knew it was going to be hot today so we woke up at 5 and set off at 6ish and cycled together for a while then I stayed in one of the towns longer than them as I was enjoying the view so much (and my 6.50 coffee and scone deal) – coffee was good too. There’s no better feeling then waking up early, packing up your tent, slamming those headphones in the ears and wondering what may happen today, as I overlook the ocean and ponder on just stuff. No plan other than what I might cook tonight and how far MAYBE do i want to ride and how many coffees will I have (with food) mmmmmm fooooooooood. How good is food.

Early in the morning there were a few cyclists in which I tagged on the back to and tried to keep up – I did ten minutes with one group (I can’t help myself haha) but when a hill came I had no hope haha

I made sure to call my mum too and check in on her and we facetimed whilst I had my lunch off to the side of the road – my mum is a bloody battler – She’s pretty sick at the moment but never complains and just gets on with it – I told her that she is an inspiration to me on the hard days as she just gets on with it with no BS – love you Ma

I also called the COACH from My cycling team SADB **shout out lads** and seen how his knee op went and shoot the breeze – hi coach **waves** glad to hear it went well mate.

After I set off Martina and Nigel whatsapped me and told me where they were – I said i wanted to go on as I had Torquay to get to so I rode to their hostel and had another 30 minute yak and they gave me some well needed salt tabs as it was 43 here and I had another two hours to go. before the heat set in it was a beautiful day – sweeping bends, rolling hills, lots of climbs but not everest ones and I just revelled in the music and sights all day…..until it came to about 2pm – OMG the wind changed and the heat just went BOOOOOOOM. I almost couldn’t change gears as the shifter was so damn hot and the bike was scorching. Sides of the roads were all melty and if i went off a it i could feel the bike sliding it was crazy hawt (as i’m sure you all know in Adl today) and I knew it was time to get off the road. Trying to drink my water was like drinking hot boiling water. It was nuts oout there today and lots of people were stopping me asking if I need water or a lift hahahah Which is so nice of them – I told them ‘nah i gotta harden up for the Nullarbor but thanks anyway’. When it got super hot I saw these tiny tiny little bugs all over My arm – hundreds of them – then I felt them all in my beard and it freeked me out – I must’ve rode through a massive swarm and they were all over me – I freaked out as I had ‘infestationy stuff’ – they were EVERYWHERE. In my eyes – mouth beard – GROSSSsssssss – i sed two litres of water and doused myself – i was still feeling them hours later – I can feel them under my skin…aagghhhhhh

Mum had asked a friend up the road from where I was at if I could stay there and they were happy to have me so ANOTHER FLUFFY CLOUD – really well deserved today – i was on the road for 10 hours in this heat today – lunch, shopping, coffee, chats, maps etc it all adds up.

I ate two bananas
a whole box of muesli bars
Half a muffin
a burger
a scone
fries
a wrap
a soup
two main courses
8 litres of water

and i’m still losing weight

it was a tough day in the saddle – i was about 5 km’s from the destination and I had to stop I mean I had to – i was feeling the heat wayyy too much so doused myself in water and let some of the wind cool me down for 30 minutes then took off for the last 5Km which was HEAVEN walking into an airconditioned house with happy smiles, food ready to go and amazing conversation all night. I learned all about their rose farm in Holland and then a dairy farm in Port Campbell and how they lived in a hostel for a while on $70 per fortnight whilst trying to setup a dairy farm in which they had no experience in but just tackled it head on and might I add – did a very god job of it – I love hearing stories of people’s lives and how they got to where they did – you can learn something from everybody. One fact of the day – their cows provided 3 million litres of milk each year for Ozzies – that’s a lot of teet pulling 🙂 – Salt of the earth these people – direct as the dutch can be and I love it – no faffing around – Love it….

My Views Today

Vanderpants saying a sweaty ‘OUT’!

Distance: 44.25 km’s (Total – 1077)

Avg Spd: 14.8

Max Spd – 55.8

Saddle Time: 2:58 (Total saddle time – 75:13)

Quote: The one who falls and gets up is so much stronger than the one who never fell…….I take this as don’t be afraid to lean in and do the things that scare you a little and never worry about failing – it’s all about learning and finding your way isn’t it

Song of the Day: Eddie Vedder – Society

Album of the Day: Eddie Vedder – into the wild. Eddie wrote this album in three weeks for Sean Pen who directed ‘into the wild’ – it’s mostly on Ukulele and it’s a brilliant album

Elevation: 640 mtrs

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Gday all readers,

After my dip in the ocean I spent last night cooking an amazing potato and gravy dinner with a few other veggies and eggs. I made the gravy with flour, butter, S&P and a bouillon cube with water – it was so yummy (the potatoes in my failing joke). I literally cleaned up, wrote two days of blogs and ZONKED. I had a bit Of what I call controlled anxiety thinking about how was I going to do another day of hills and especially the first 5km’s Being a full on climb. I thought about it all night as I was so stuffed yesterday but as per usual it was over nothing. After breakfast I packed up and headed off. The 5km climb was awesome – The hammies settled in and i smashed it. I thin i’ve worked it out – on the flats especially headwinds) the hamstrings do not like it but come the hills, it’s just me and my own brain and body with normal fatigue which I can handle and improve on. That gave me a lot of confidence today. Sometimes i doubt myself i’ll be honest. if i’m struggling now, how can I tackle Tasmania, NZ and the Nullabor. These are just stupid thoughts though because i will but what i’m saying is that these doubts still creep in. how will I camp for a whole year. How will I climb all those hills and find water and will my old body hack it. It’s all poopypants nonsense really but soemtimes those fears creep in and you MUST stay positive and keep telling yourself what you’re capable of. Other people really inspire me and I look to them for motivation and I learn all their tips and tricks and one pedal after the other and one day after the other, the confidence is building up. Yes I know I can do it – it’s just that on really tough days or tough climbs or major niggles Or hours in the saddle and you cant find a place to sleep – the mind wanders. That aside i am really enjoying this trip – it’s a huge eye opener and an amazing experience – I AM SOOO LUCKY. I got going and the first half was clim after climb and i tackLed them with a few stops along the way and a beautiful spot for lunch

And the last half was all beautiful sweeping decents overlooking the ocean with a few WOOOHOOooooos in for good luck. QUICK NOTE; If anyone is curious about whether i am ok you Can check on my location and if I don’t have service you will see a blueish check in marker which means I don’t have service and i’m ok.

The tires I am running are Schwalbe Marathon plus and I would highly recommend them to any tourer – three corner jacks are nothing to these bad boys. They roll nicely and are hard wearing – I should get about 15,000 k’s out of these beauties. After the nice decent into Apollo Bay i grabbed a coffee and finished my blogging in the nice sun. All campsites here being xmas as well as a popular spot is pretty expenso so lets see where I go tonight hahah.

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Vanderpants OUT

17th – Warrnambool to Port Campbell

Distance: 69.73

Avg Spd: 15.1

Max Spd: 46.8

Saddle Time: 4hrs:37Mins

Elevation: 160 mtrs

Quote: Practice One Thing At a Time – I’m terrible at this – I want to be good at everything but am master of none – i need to take this advice big time – I can’t focus long enough on one particular thing – ooh what’s that – something shiny 🙂

Song of the Day: Pearl Jam – Present Tense – it builds up so awesomely

Album of the Day: Alterbridge – AB III

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Hey All,

Well the hotel was an amazing cloud and heaven sent to be honest. I walked around the city all day. I purchased a solar panel and finally succumbed to not caring about the weight – now with my wheel hub and this plus my battery packs – I can pretty much not care about electricity at all for my ipad, iphone, bike lights and headphones – SO GOOOD. I pondered around the city and went back to the hotel for a counter meal and watched an open mic night. You CANNOT I repeat – CANNOT get any more Australian then someone singing ‘I’m an Australian Man’ in a pub, beanie on, in Warrnambool in Australia hahahah was pretty cool to have a glass of red (and some beers) and sit back and relax.

I filled up water, packed up and headed off. Weather was spesh, roads were ok, music was pumping and things were ticking along nicely. About half way through I bumped into a fellow bicycle tourer. Team….Meet Regis

Regis is Brazilian and it was his first couple days touring and he got that bike for free, purchased some cheap ass panniers and just took off – all on the same day. It just shows you that you don’t need to plan too much – you can work it out on the road as you go. If you want to do something – JUST DO IT. Regis is 50 years old and has travelled 6 months on and 6 months off for 25 years – that’s right – 25 years. he fund this by running healing workshops out of his mud hut in Brazil. We talked for about an hour and we agreed lets ride to the next town. We stopped along the way to take some photos of the beautiful coast – really amazing actually. He didn’t have any wifi so I let him download his maps tethering my phone as you really need to know the elevation you’re about to encounter so you can plan food, water and distances. We rode for about an hour to Peterborough and I shouted him lunch as he was on a shoooooooeestring budget and pulled out some green looking thing that I couldn’t bear see him to eat hahaha.

Regis had had enough but I wanted to get to Port Campbell at least and we parted ways after solving the worlds problems. You know i’ve already met so many people and had conversations that i’d never be able to have back home and that’s due to the nature of what i’m doing and that’s part of the whole adventure which i’m loving. I ended up cycling past some local dairy farm and asked the lady at the front counter “which cheese do you recommend that’s the hardest with less water content” – I got a quick strange look but she saw my bike and went – yup I got exactly what you need. See…cheese, eggs and coffee is important on this trip – it’s like GOLD to me during and at the end of the day. It’s little pieces of heaven when you’re living out of a pannier haha. So got my cheese and off I went

I made it to Port Campbell and straight away found a cheapo campsite $10 (Winning). I was going to look for a wild camp ut when you see a campground with showers, cooking facilities and a nice piece of grass I will always welcome that over a caravan park for $40 each day no thanks. Straight away a few people welcomed me and started talking and I was hot and bothered but they were curious so parked the mothership and got into conversation and they wanted to know all the ins and outs. All I wanted was a shower hahah but we got to talking and ended up all cooking together and we shared the cheese and a bottle of red i bought just before the campsite (another bit of gold on the road (liquid gold) and talked until 9pm enjoying each others stories of tough times on the road. We parted ways and I was done…shower, teeth, bed, watch the stars until I fell asleep, HAPPY.

18th – Port Campbell to Johanna Campground

Distance: 67.04 (Total 1033) YAY – over the 1k mark

Avg Spd: 14.6

Max Spd: 64 – WEEeeeee

Saddle Time: 4hrs:34Mins (total saddle time – 72:15)

Elevation: 704 mtrs

Quote: No quote today – don’t want to waste them

Song of the Day: Wolfmother – Joker and the Thief – OMG this pumped as I was climbing my first hill – it really kicks ass

Album of the Day: Just random songs all day

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The day started with a pretty funny joke – well at least i thought it was…I packed up my tent – said goodbye to everyone and went to the supermarket to get some potatoes and other things. I really don’t know why but the lady at the counter said ‘is that a potato in your pocket’ to which my response was ‘nah i’m just happy to see you’. now – there’s a time where a joke whips out your mouth like you’re a bloody well practiced comedian and this was the time but all i got was duck eggs. Without a word she turned around, weighed the potatoes, came back to me, rolled her eyes and told me the price. The tumbleweed and I left promptly hahahahaha

I knew it was going to be hot today and considered staying in camp for the day but a thought came across my mind. I need to harden up a little if i want to do Tassie, NT, Nullabor etc etc so decided in the 38 degree heat to tackle some climbs and heat. You know, if you have enough water, sunscreen (yes im a red head shutup), and you cover yourself up (neck, sunnies, hat, arm protectors), food – it’s just heat isn’t it – drink more, take it easier and you’ll be fine……..SO I THOUGHT or tried to convince myself anyway. It was freeeekn hot today and I had to dig deep after about half way through the day. It was steep rolling hills all day pretty much. I don’t mind if it’s a few large climbs but this was about 50 mini bloody steep everests. The first 25 were fine (one was an hour of climbing) but the last 25 were testing me. Hamstrings were fine which was a bloody relief so no excuse – just me, the hill and the elements. Fatigue started to creep in about 20 km’s to go and I had to walk my bike up a couple steep ones and even that was bloody hard enough – all I kept saying to myself was ‘im done’. I think I said it like 50 times hahaha. But then you get back on your bike and you bloody keep pedalling and you just get there. When you think Great Ocean Road what do you think…..beautiful coast, 12 apostles (or however many is left), lovely coastal drive……WRONG BLOODY WRONG. When you’re on the bike and it’s loaded, 3/4 of my day was in the middle of a hot muggy rainforest and I saw the 12 apostles and that’s it) it was a muggy muggy rainforest with no breeze to speak of and nothing but them hillz. The beach views of which I did get was pretty speccy though

I ended up finally at the top of the climbs and the shop was about to close – he saw the look on my face and said come on in mate – I got a toasted focaccia, can of coke, mars bar and a gatorade hahaha – i smashed it all the went for a ginger beer (i was absolutely DONE) to which the man said ‘on the house buddy you need it’ – another nice person – so good – better than Mrs Potato right? Hahaha

I went into the shade and then and there and slept for an hour and when I awoke this cramp came upon me like never before – I couldn’t even stand up hahaha – i had plenty of salt and water today but there’s no way I could get enough in – consider today as Vanderpants a tad more hardened. After I stretched my unoiled limbs I took off with a decent of 500mtrs into the campsite for tonight which is literally on the beach – i setup camp, ran off into the ocean and iced my sore legs. I don’t know how i’m going to do tomorrow but with a cooler day i’m sure i’ll survive. You know, there’s something in the suffering of what i’m doing and i’m not quite sure what it is yet but I get into this sick rhythm and espesh on hot days too and there’s something uncomplicated about just a little bit of suffering to test myself and clear the mind at the same time. I’m still working on that one. Night folks…..

Vanderpants OUT!