The big day had finally arrived. After postponing our ride numerous times due to the pandemic we were finally ready to depart. A late change of plan had us leaving around lunchtime from Fairfield rather than 8am from Docklands and I was feeling excited about starting the journey on my bike from my front door, no flying or driving anywhere, straight into it.
I remember stating on one of our previous rides with unambiguous certainty that Id never do touring where I had to carry my gear on the bike. Then after doing that last year the concession was that we spent each night in a hotel, but Id never camp. So it was with some irony that I set out on my touring bike with panniers, front and rear packed to the brim and included in my packs was a tent, sleeping bag and mat. Jeffs subtle long game of slowing wittling away my objections had succeded. Of course the sleeping bags are only for emergencies.
We departed Darling St not long after 12 and got about 500m before stopping to chat to Richard who was in his front yard. This
was rather fortunate as Richard pointed out I had my front panniers on wrong and proceeded to fix them for me. We had to make one more stop at Jeffs unit to pick up his coat and we were off.
A concession to the late start was that we had to catch the train from East Camberwell to Lilydale to get to Yarra Glen for the night. Jeff had arranged at the Yarra Glen Motel.
The ride along the Outer Eastern Trail is quite beautiful. In sections you are meters from the main roads but could easily think you were in the middle of the country side. It was a short 10km to the station and not long after, we had arrived at Lilydale.
The ride to the Motel in Yarra Glen was along a new rail trail that is under construction. It took us about 7 out of the 12km to Yarra Glen and it was a glorious ride, much better than the KVR in Canada last year. The rail trail ran out and we were back on the road for the last 5km.
side of the road and parked the bikes under a road sign for a photo. As we were ready to leave I asked Jeff if he knew the address of the Motel. No he replied, but itll be in the main road he said. I thought it a good idea to check before we left but I couldnt find it on google. All I could find was the Yarra Valley Motel but that couldnt be right because it was back in Lilydale. We decided to ride in to the town and pullover and see if we could work this out. Jeff called Yama who had kindly made the booking for us to confirm the name of the Motel and apparently the booking was made at the Yarra Valley Motel and not the Yarra Glen Motel. The first day curse of getting lost on the first day of a ride had struck again.
We turned the bikes around and rather enjoyed the ride back along the rail trail, it will be even better when it all the way to Yarra Glen.
Tomorrows ride will now be slightly different. Well jump on to the Warby Rail Trail here at Lilydale and well have to give Hillsville a miss.
