2022-03-17 -37 145

Location

In a business park in Rowville

Participants

Expedition

I thought this looked pretty gettable; judging from google maps' satellite image, it was just in a carpark in a business park in Rowville. I let the geohashing groupchat know I was planning to have a ride out there, but it was pointed out to me that it did seem to be behind a fenceline. I looked back at the satellite image, and indeed it did seem to be behind a fence. Hmm... However, a streetview image of the location was taken at a time when the gates to the carpark seemed to be open. As it was a standard workday, the business at the location was listed as open until 5pm, so I thought there was a very good chance that the gates would be open again, allowing me to duck in to the hash. But there was only one way to find out, so I set off on my bike just before midday.

I was also hoping that a Tron achievement might be possible, if I could access the point coming in through the back, between a couple of buildings, before heading out through the front gates, but it seemed likely that a fence would foil that access route. From streetview there seemed to be a lowish fence that looked potentially scalable, so I held out hope. Accordingly, so I took a route that kept me north of Richmond station, meaning that I could get a train home back through Richmond and still be eligible for the Tron achievement.

I rode east across Kensington, then up Arden St, Queensberry St, and Albert St. I turned south up Lennox St taking me to Richmond. Here I joined the Yarra trail, and then after a bit joined the Gardiners Creek trail. At Malvern East I left the trail, and followed the Glen Waverley train line to the end of the line and beyond, continuing east down to the Dandenong Creek Trail. This I joined and headed South to Wellington Rd. Wellington Rd is a nasty road, but luckily the footpath alongside seemed set up to allow bikes too, saving me from taking my life into my own hands on the road itself. I went east, and conveniently the business park in question was on the close side of Rowville, so I just had to cross over Eastlink and it was right there. I headed for the back way still thinking of the Tron achievement, but unfortunately, but as expected, I was indeed foiled by a fence.

The fence I had seen on google maps was indeed pretty low and easy scalable, but the problem was that there was a second, much higher, barbed wire fence behind it. There was no getting over here. As I got right up close to the first fence to assess the situation, there were some cobwebs I brushed into and I saw a very large spider quickly scuttle away. It was only a very brief impressions, but I think it might have been a golden orb spider.

So I had to retreat, and give up on the Tron achievement, alas! I rode round to the front entrance, and the gates were open. Excellent. It was very easy to pop in and get to the hash. There were a few people around, but nobody paid me any notice. I think during business hours people come and go a lot from this carpark, hence why it made sense for the gates to be left open. I rode back to the Dandenong Creek Trail, where I found a bench and had the sandwich I had brought with me, and a good drink of water. I pondered my options. I had just seen a sign saying it was 22km along this trail to Carrum. My legs were still feeling fresh enough, so I thought this sounded like a good option to head to the coast, rather than immediately finding a train home. At Carrum I could reassess whether I wanted to train from there, or keep riding. With the Tron achievement gone, I thought maybe a good consolation prize would be to beat the 85km bicycle geohash that I had done to Wandong a couple of weeks before.

So I headed for the beach - a bit further along the Dandenong Creek Trail, then joined the Eastlink trail, then rejoined the Dandenong Creek trail that had meanwhile taken a more circuitous route. The last section was right next to the Eastern Treatment Plant, which according to Melbourne Water's website, "uses innovative processes to turn sewage into Class A recycled water". This was a rural feeling landscape, with horses in paddocks also in the vicinity. It was also a very open landscape, which meant there was no protection from a decent headwind, making the last few Ks into Carrum pretty tough going, but I got there eventually.

I was starting to feel pretty tired, but by this stage I had almost done 70km, so I only had 15km or so to go to beat my 85km, so I wasn't going to stop just yet. And as soon as I turned the corner to head north, the wind came in behind me, making it much more easy going. According to strava, I averaged 25kph between Carrum and Mordialloc, and that included needing to stop at a few sets of lights on the way. They were clearly building an off-road bike path along the Frankston Line for that section as part of the upgrades to the trainline, but unfortunately it wasn't yet open.

With the wind behind me the kilometres went by pretty quickly, and it wasn't long before I had passed the 85km point. By this point, it seemed a bit silly to think about training home, with it now being less than 30km to ride. Like I said, the riding was now easier with a tailwind, and I also had the 100km mark to look forward to as an intermediate milestone. So I continued all the way up beach road, not on the road like a MAMIL, but on the path beside. In Elwood I stopped to buy a muffin and a drink from a petrol station, and found a nice picnic table to enjoy them at a few Ks further along. At the next picnic table along, there were a couple of young men drinking cans of Jack Daniels and Cola, obnoxiously talking about their sexual exploits. Just about the first thing I heard one of them say was "I've been playing a game of cat and mouse with herpes for six years", which certainly attracted my attention.

As I drew closer I enjoyed the city views across the beach and water in the late afternoon lighting, as shown in the picture. At St Kilda I headed away from the coast to take a more direct route home. I went past the Irish Pub at St Kilda Station, and it was absolutely heaving with St Patricks Day revellers. I then rode across Albert Park, up Cecil St through South Melbourne, then found my way through to docklands, and then Footscray Rd. At about 6.30 I finally got home, coming up my street from the opposite direction to what I started in, completing a very large loop for a not-quite Tron achievement, with just a couple of very small wiggles along the way getting in the way of it being a perfect loop.