BurbleChaz

Three hours ago I had a simple blog entry planned. Then we went out for a beer. If this is the "world's most liveable city", why are trams slower than walking? Who decided that trams should run at 30 minute intervals? Which genius decided that they would be the same 30 minute intervals? Hate punch stab. Calm.

So. The Ashes? Don't know what you're talking about. Not enforcing the follow-on? Well, only seemly, really. Declaring as soon as an opener has a century? Harsh, I felt. England rugby team getting demolished by South Africa? Even when taunted by South African friends, I feel no pain. I am strong. {weeps}

Back to our day: After a large dose of delicious cholesterol, we would have proceeded in a straightforward manner directly to the You Yangs. Unfortunately, some inconsiderate plonker had caused a pile-up on the Geelong freeway. This wasn't your usual high-speed fender-bender. It was enough to close the whole freeway. Poot, I would have said, except I know some properly rude words. After a 30-minute detour, planned and managed by The Senior Navigator, we pottered down the Prince's Highway to our favourite batholith.

I followed The Other Cyclist as she hared round the long looping trail. Her bike-handling skills have grown to the level that the only thing keeping my ego intact is her much, much lower guts/brain ratio.

Part of the way round, we found a new playground. Somebody has been playing with bulldozers and doing woodwork. Boardwalks, banks and berms. Shiny. Even though it's not finished, I had a bit of a go.

Eventually, I was persuaded to stop playing and we continued along the path. The Other Mountain Biker earned several beers by tackling scary obstacles. Some of these have yet to be redeeemed.

I still had some juice left, so we took the car into the park. The Photographer stayed in the shade, adjacent to the air-conditioned car while I climbed the batholith. Twice. Well, it is only 352 metres tall.

I started by descending to the main gate (at about 55kph). I turned round at the bottom, sent a 'Climb until further notice' order to my legs, and steered towards Flinder's Peak. seven minutes later, I arrived at the highest point you can go to with a bike unless you ignore signs.

High up

How to climb a hill

After a 250m climb and a scary fast descent, I had a go at the 12km circular drive. The climbing was fine. The washboard road surface is nasty. While climbing, you waste energy hammering through the ruts. Descending can get quite exciting. At 50kph, tracking the smooth surface is important. When you hit the lumps it hurts.

from the top

Close to the end, I saw a strange shape by the side of the road. I stopped 20 metres from it. At the last moment, my brake disk squealed. The kangaroo turned and stared at me. I had my phone out and was engaging the camera when a car blasted past at high speed. The kangaroo loped of into the forest. I am doomed never to photograph a wild kangaroo.

Still no marsupial

The Other Blogger spotted some ponies. Trails, climbing, kangaroos, ponies. That's a good day.