Adventures in Oz: March 2005

My new favourite cycling workout

So, just east of the city (~45k) is a "mountain" range (the Dandenong ranges) and a national park. I put the mountain in quotes because we're not talking Rockies or anything here. Melbourne is at sea level and the peak at Mt. Dandedong is at 561m. But, still, it's higher than the hills in Bloomington (though not as steep as some of those) and well, Toronto isn't worth mentioning here. In my view, it is a perfect cycling workout. Start off in the city where it's mostly flat, dabble in a few rolling hills and then do a nice gradual 12-15k climb to the peak, with a reasonably good payoff. And, the good thing about it is there at least 4 or 5 ways to approach the climb and presumably there are more hills/climbs in the national park further away from the city. See pictures below.

You can just see the Dandenong ranges in the horizon here. The one drawback of this ride is that I had to spend about 30k on roads like you see here. Nothing beyond what you'd find on Don Mills or Leslie in Toronto, but not ideal. Next time, I'll try and find a different route.

The good stuff. A few kms into the climb. It's a bit blurry because I was moving.

Still moving. Still climbing.

The payoff. Well, the camera doesn't do it justice. It was actually pretty nice. Wasn't a crystal clear day. A little big of fog or smog or something.

Same shot, zoomed in. You can just barely make out the skyscrapers of downtown Melbourne.

All in all, a sweet 100k ride.

Afternoon tea at the lookout is $14.50. I declined.

Australian Critters

So, after the marathon hike, we went back to the lodge for a shower and to cook a meal. Fred was minding his own business in the shower and a little spider (what we think is a huntsman -- don't be scared by the name, it is by no means lethal or even that dangerous to humans) came to join him in the shower.

Of course, all we heard was a scream and then Fred coming out soaking wet with just a towel on, encouraging us to come over an have a look. Priceless. Hence, the photo of mom. A couple hours later in the same washroom, dad came out for a look.

This is mom.

And, this is dad.

And, the next day we ate kangaroo. Only a bit gamey and well marinated. Was actually quite yummy on the bbq.

Bushwalking is Hiking

The Aussies call hiking -- bushwalking. Actually, I'm compiling a list of conversions between Australian and Canadian. But, I'll save those for a later post. So, 3 Swiss, 2 Belgians and 1 Canadian set off on a rather intense hike. It was a 2-day hike, totalling 36km and involved carrying all the necessary camping gear for the one night stay. In one sense, I had it easy since I didn't carry any of the cooking gear. On the other hand, my tent is so small that I had to carry a tent for just myself whereas the rest fit into two other tents. Lynn can attest that our tent is cosy even for the two of us. It was a holiday on Monday here so we had the option of doing it in 3 days, but we opted to carry on for almost 9 hours on the second day to finish it off. All in all, an excellent introduction to hiking in Australia.

Had some fires in recent summers.

Finally getting near the top.

The Razorback Ridge. We walk along the top of this for 10k on day 2.

Fred, Joelle, Olivier, Cindy, Katherine, me (3 swiss, 2 belgians and myself).

The lower the ISO, the less light is let in (so, as you've probably realized, i'm a laughable photographer, but i'm learning. see, the blog can be educational too). This is ISO50.

The same shot at ISO400.

A view of Mt. Bogong in the distance, which is the highest peak in the state of Victoria (1986m ... just a shade under the highest peak in Canada at 5959 m). And yes, they can ski here in the winter. Also, you can ski at Mt. Hotham, which we hiked pretty close to.

Some lush forest on the way down. Day 2.

Tomorrow, I have a treat for everybody. Some exciting, tantalizing, mesmorizing photos of Australian critters!

Fridgeless and Laundryless

So, when they advertise an apartment in Australia as having laundry, that just means that they have taps where you can hook up your laundry. And, apartments don't come with fridges.

Anyways, we found a place. Here are some pictures. 2 bedrooms (the shockingly blue one will be for an office and for visitors), 1 bathroom. A few other features: Courtyard on the inside. Balcony overlooking the street. Gas cooktop. Laundry taps. Underground secure parking garage. Dishwasher! Unfortunately, no leaning houses across the street to gawk at like in Toronto. Here you go.

Most liveable city in the world is ... Melbourne

Yeah, yeah, it's totally self-proclaimed ... but, to be honest, I can't say I would call Toronto the most liveable place in the world.

Triathlon in Australia ... is essentially the same as in Canada, except earlier in the morning.

So, I checked out a triathlon (no, didn't participate), just south of downtown Melbourne (about a 1/2 hour ride from my residence). See pictures below. I was expecting everybody to be mind-blowingly fast, but alas there are all levels represented. Check out the waves in the bay though ... you just don't get those kind of swells in Guelph Lake! Oh and the first wave of racers was off at 7am, which is kind of a bummer since sunrise now is at 7:06am.

"chicken rights" -- Right hand turns in Melbourne

So, Melbourne has this strange phenomenon for making right hand turns
in some locations (think: left turn in Canada). So, when you're
cycling and you want to turn left at a big intersection in Canada,
sometimes you might pull over to the right at the light, and wait for
the light to be green in the perpendicular direction and then go. This
is affectionately known as a "chicken left". In Melbourne, they do the
same thing, only it's for cars and it's for right turns (since they
drive on the left). So, imagine driving in a Canadian city and when
you want to make a left turn, you pull over to the right in front of
the cars in the perpendicular direction, wait for the light to turn red
and jump in front of them.
Bizarre, but functional. I guess it also cuts down on accidents with
streetcars (trams).

Lindsey, these are for you.

The Australian Grand Prix is on this upcoming weekend in Melbourne. I toured around the track the other day, which doubles as an inner city park for the remaining 11 months of the year.

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