2009-08-23 -37 146

The Place

On a farm just off the road to Mount Baw Baw, Noogee, Victoria.

Expedition

Felix Dance

When I looked at the coordinates for Sunday's geohash I saw that it was in Brighton East - quite close to my Port Melbourne home. Little did I realise what a massive day this would turn out to be.

No sooner did I send out an email to all the geohashes I knew about saying I'd be there at 2pm that I noticed that the geohash point for the unhashed graticule to the east was also accessible - and, as it covers most of Victoria's southern alps, this hardly ever happens. And that was it - I knew I had to get both of them.

I got up in time for 8:30am train to Warragul, carrying two sci-fi books, one hard cover, because I was about to finish the first, and a lot of food, but no front light. This was a mistake.

The ride to the hashpoint was extremely scenic, with a beautiful sunny day and very verdant vegetation. On the way I stopped at a milk bar in Neerim South where the lady asked if I was going up to the top of Mount Baw Baw.

"No, just to Noogee", I said. "Oh, well that's alright then", she replied.

That comment suddenly changed my whole day - I had to climb Mount Baw Baw.

After riding through extremely picturesque farmscapes and rolling hills (I took the long scenic route to Noogee), I came to the road's closest approach - 40kms north of the station. Here I hoisted my bike over a barbed wire fence and wandered up a steep tree-covered hill following the directions on my GPS.

Soon I came out into a green paddock above a small dam, so I stood in the correct spot, took some photos and rejoined my bike for what I'd by now decided to be a much longer trip. It was just after 1pm.

The 50 km ride up was much more undulating than I'd expected, with frequent up and down hills - and this was even before I'd gotten to the beginning of the Mount Baw Baw climb proper. I'd decided that I had to get to the top by 5pm in order to descend before dark fell, so I was riding as fast as I could.

Finally, I came to the base of the 6km steep climb at 3:30pm - plenty of time. Unfortunately, the climb was so steep that it took me 1.5 hours to get up it, pulling on my handlebars to get leverage on my pedals - despite having a specially low-geared bike I'd got for the Alpine Classic. As I got to the top (with two stops for dark chocolate and musk sticks) the wind picked up (a head wind) and I started seeing snow by the side of the road.

... (More details to follow shortly).