100 plus Km of Cycling in Wintery Melbourne

 My mission was to see how my son is getting on in Monash Clayton . I took along my faithful Dahon Mu 8 folding bicycle along as I always develop "Cyclenintis " disease when I see nice trails and I don't have my bicycle.When I was in Melbourne I put up with my good friend Max Tan in Bundoora. The afternoon of my arrival was spent exploring Bundoora with my bike. i was specifically looking out for garden equipments and I was not disappointed.

 

The second day I decided to cycle from Bundoora to Clayton. Using the iphone app Cycle Lite I was navigated to Clayton via two very interesting trails. The distance is about 40 km through the Darebin Creek trail and the Gardenier Creek trail. This mean I actually spend about 95% of my time passing through various parks. Absolutely minimal traffic. This coupled with a cool 12C temperature makes it an interesting ride.

 

The trail was well marked and there is little chance of getting lost. I made numerous stops along the way to enjoy the good view.

 Somewhere near to Clayton (in Oakland) I saw a homebuilt boat. It looks like it is in the late stage of construction.

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The beauty of a folding bicycle is extreme flexibility. I do not have to ride back to Bundoora. Max came over and fetch me and my son back to his house. Plus we had a good dinner with some friends.

The next day I had my new recruit Alwin to come along for the ride to Arthur's Creek. We borrowed a seldom used bicycle from Max Tan

The ride to Arthur Creek from Bundoora started on riding along the highway. However we decided to use the pedestrian path instead as I saw trucks speeding along the highway. Poor Alwin's borrowed bike had a severely unbalanced rear wheel and was wobbling along.

 After an hour we met Max overtaking us so we hitched a ride on his van until we reach the secondary road going to Arthur's creek. Cheated about 5 km! Once we were on the country road it was good cycling again.

 At Arthur's Creek we met up with another Tan who stays in a hobby farm. We were given a tour of his farm and his wife cooked a good luch for us. Thank You...

 

Fire is a constant danger in this part of Australia but for today the risk is low.

Again we took the van back to Bundoora. I had a dinner appointment with some of my classmate in Melbourne. 

Day three... started with going to the CBD to meet up with my nephew Jun Wey. The bike was with me but we locked it and did a foot tour of the CBD. Later we took a train back to Clayton.

Over the ne4xt two days it was exploring the suburb of Clayton by bicycle. I went over to the airport and the coastal area near Clayton

Finally I surrendered the bike to my son Alwin.  Hope he takes good care of this bike. The total pedaling distance in Melbourne is about 120 km only. Not much but a lot of fun.