2023-11-18 -37 145

Location

In a paddock near Yarra Glen

Participants

Lachie

Plans

I awoke at 1:30am precisely without even using an alarm and checked the geohash. I'm not a fan of my brains increasingly common habbit of waking my up to check the geohash, but I have no control over it. My mind was pretty foggy and unable to process numbers properly, but I gradually came to the conclusion that was saturday... and I was going to Ferntree Gully on Saturday... and Saturday is Saturday... but Jordanville course... wait is it Thursday? If I go to the geohash then when will i drink beers and go running. It's Saturday, and I'm going near Yarra Glen on Saturday. Go back to sleep.

I awoke again at 8 or so, plotted a route to the geohash via my grandmother's house in Ferntree Gully, sculled 4 schooners of mid strength beer, ran 2km and prepared my bike accessories.

Expedition

I left home just before 10am, rode my usual route to Ferntree Gully, ate some tirramisu with Nanny, went for a walk with Nanny, rode my usual route to The Basin, ate my usualy sausage roll, rode my usual route up the 1 in 20, rode along the top of Mount Dandenong, then road down the very steep Inverness Road to Montrose, road up to Mount Evelyn Defunct Train Station, filled up my water bottle with the usual liquid, road the delightfully usual chill down hill to Lilydale, got onto the unusual new rail trail which took me to Yerring, the rail trail had a delightful tail wind, I then rode the gross highway to Yarra Glen which also had a delightful tail wind while spotting beautiful views of what would one day be a very important rail trail, i then rode along Old Healesville Road which is much quieter and somewhat hillier, then past the chocolate factory which I don't think I've been to since Rhonda's 30th, I turned off onto a dirt road with a warning saying it was steep and not suitable for 2 wheel drives, I then chuckled to myself as I rode up it on my one wheel drive road bike, the dirt road dumped me at a fence, I changed out of my road shoes and into my runners, I once mocked Felix for this activity but I have done it twice recently, I then climbed over the fence in my usual manner, the fence was more barbed than a usual farm fence, I did the usual hash dance, which took longer than usual because my gps is near unusably bad, as usual the route out from the hash was much easier and I walked through a gate instead of climbing the fence, I rode back the same way, down the unsuitable dirt road, up and down the quiet hills, along the gross highway, but this time there was a headwind, back onto the unusual rail trail which had a miserable headwind, by this point I was feeling hungry and weak, I almost made it to Lilydale in time for a train but then encountered Lilydale Show so had to improvise a detour through some side streets, I had 10 minutes or so before the next train so I went looking for dim sims but instead found some delicious but slightly stale sushi and a bottle of powerade, feeling extra lazy I uncharacteristly took the lift up to the shiny new Lilydale Train Station in the sky where I fought with vending machines for four minutes, I wanted a cookie but the vending machine didn't want to give me a cookie, onto the train I got and enjoyed my sushi and I rolled through the outer east, as I passed through Ringwood I noticed on Strava my friend Dave had just been for a bike ride which looked like it ended at Ringwood station just before the my train arrived, but I messaged him and it turns out I misinterpretted the map and in fact he had just got off a train in Ringwood and was now at a concert, I intermittently napped my way home while listening to a podcast about misophonia, my train arrived in Flinders Street two minutes early, I stuck my head out the window to see that the train would be continuing slightly closer to my house in 2 minutes so I sat down again, 5 minutes later the train departed and I got off the train at Southern Crustacean (Spencers Street), I rode home from there, the train ride, the intermittent nap and usually stale sushi had done me good, I was no longer tired or weak, I made it home just after 7pm.