Blog has moved!

Hey hey!!!

This blog has been moved to here: 

http://therollingadventures.wordpress.com/

HUGE THANKS!!!

Balloon Bed - What a great idea!!

Headed out for a 3hr MTB bikepacking trip on Saturday night and set up camp on the "Yalmy" Road. Al had this fantastic idea of purchasing a super light weight sleeping mat that involves blowing up balloons and inserted them in to the mat.

Key Tip: Don't blow the balloons up 1m away from the fire where embers will hit the balloon and pop them.
His sleeping mat ended up being half the width of this body. Put a tin of spaghetti in the fire to eat for dinner and tucked ourselves into our bivvys.

Stargazing was amazing, such a clear night we saw a few shooting stars. Totally mesmerizing. 
The temperature dropped considerable, enough to put my bivvy over my head. Bad idea, woke up a few times being suffocated by the bivvy. Decided I'd rather my face freeze off than have that suffocated feeling again. Finally got to sleep.

At 3 in the morning Al woke me to ask "How's you mat?" My response "Reckon it's OK considering IM ASLEEP!!!!" His 3 balloon mat was not, so we packed up and headed back home in the freezing cold.
Something peaceful and calming about riding at that time of the day, love it. Decided we still wanted an adventure instead of a soft bed, so lit a fire in the backyard and rolled out the swag until the sun rose. Off for another ride, and finished at the coffee shop.

Lets hope this weekend's GDT goes a bit better!!!

Micro-adventures!

I recently discovered this really cool website www.alastairhumphreys.com it's about adventuring. At times I feel like I want to quit my job and ride my bike around the world and go on crazy adventures. Reading the Micro-adventures makes me sit back and go, its ok to work a proper job and have routine, you can do cool stuff during the week and on weekends, you don't need to chuck it all in. So I thought I'd blog on some of the "Micro-adventures" we have been up to recently:


Last weekend was the Marlo Unofficial Adventure Race - an estuary paddle, MTB ride, Kayak, run. Al and I opted to do the ride leg, joining the 7 others who were going solo. We tried to navigate our way out of the hot bush whilst they others kayaked. We got hopelessly lost, cramped, massively dehydrated, hungry and running on zero energy both of us got so dizzy and disorientated. On a ride like that I would normally require 5 drink bottles-I had 2, and 280g of carbs - I had 55. We finally found our way home and cursed ourselves for such a mistake. 

Photo: Andrew Barnes

The next day we met up with a few friends and rode to Bruthen via the rail trail, an 85k scenic MTB ride which ended with a delicious beer and pizza at the Bullant Brewery. One of our friends who shall remain nameless, had never ridden a MTB before. She was on a very old, very heavy, very rusted Apollo. The thing weighed more than her and refused to budge out of the lower gears. Coming down one steep corner she found herself under the bike, gracious in her fall she wrapped up her bloody knee in a hanky and soldiered on. A mere 20 minutes later as we rode side by side chatting away she found herself riding head on into a massive ball of rusted fence wire that lay in the middle of the track. She did remarkably well to steer the locked up bike to a stop without flipping over the bars which was the scenario I had envisioned just as her and bike were gobbled up by the wire.

During the week we headed out on some night rides and played around with our camera, think we need some more practice though!!

I also got up early and saw some sunrises during the week:

                                                                                 

  







As I type this blog, Al is mapping out our bike packing trip for tonight and tomorrow, we are finalising our gear list for GDT and I am madly trying to learn how to use my garmin dakota and rev myself to sleep in a bivvy!!

Here are some video clips I am using as inspiration:
http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/microadventures-3/24-hour-bivvy-challenge/
http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/microadventures-3/year-microadventure/

As much as I am embracing and loving the idea of Micro-adventuring, I am also itching for a big adventure such as this: 
http://vimeo.com/54172856

Places I want to ride my bike:
- Silk Trail
- Annapurna Circuit Nepal
- Laos and Vietnam
- Tour Divide
- Colorado Trail Race
- Africa
I really hope I can do it all one day! Just gotta make it happen, but in the mean time I'm having a blast doing some micro-adventures!! And some last words:

"Man sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.” Dalai Lama

GDT Bikepacking Race Training

In two weekends time Al and I will be setting off on our first bikepacking race. It will follow much of the the GDT trail in Victoria. Starting at the Bendigo train station (7am on the 9th March) and finishing at Castlemaine train station it will travel from Bendigo -> Castlemaine -> Daylesford -> Ballarat -> Mt Bunninyong > Bacchus Marsh> Daylesford -> Castlemaine. 382km. Self Supported. It will require riding for a very long time, navigating and sleeping in a bivvy on the side of the trail. I'm excited. I'm scared. No coming through transition every hour having someone hand me food and a drink bottle and encouragement. It's just me, my bike, a garmin dakota. Oh boy. 
It's not the riding the bike aspect I'm worried about, it's the self sufficiency and sleeping in the woods in a bivvy thing!! I've been practicing how to use the maps on the garmin dakota, how to pack my revelate bags effectively and sleeping in a bivvy. Here's what my bike set-up is looking like:

Sleeping bag, bivvy in red bag at the front of bars. Food bag at front of bike. Small feed bag with first aid kit on down tube. Saddle bag has arm warmers, leg warmers, tube, raincoat, XPED sleeping mat. 
As the race goes through plenty of towns it means I can pack lightly.






Giant XTC 29er will work a treat for this race. 

Comfort in the bivvy bag. Let's hope for good weather!!!


You can follow our progress on trackleaders, I will put the link onto my facebook page when our SPOTs have been signed up to the race.

Here is Al's setup with a tarp. Not sure if he will be using the tarp yet. His bike set up will be very similar to mine except his bike is a rigid single speed........

 


Bring it on!!!

GREAT OCEAN WALK

We decided to spend a few days doing something in our holidays other than riding bikes. A hike was what we came up with a few months back and had every intention on doing some "walking training" for the 100k hike form Apollo Bay to the 12 Apostles however the only training I managed was a 2hr hike with 5kg in my pack, a 30min and a 2hr no pack walk  two days prior. Here's how it went!!

All ready for the walk with plenty of fuel!

Day One

Al, Nina and I left Apollo Bay at lunchtime and walked past he first campsite and arrived into the second 22km later. 6 ½ hours on our feet. Al told me not to put orthotics in as I hadn’t worn them yet. He wore his dad’s orthotics and ended up with very sore feet! We saw 2 tiger snakes and loads of wallabies. Only took a smaller backpack as Phil was meeting us at Blanket Bay with ciders and our gear!! Phil couldn’t join us as he took a tumble on our training walk 2 days prior and tore his rotator cuff. Shattered. Set-up our tents and the ground was so hard we couldn’t get pegs in so instead had to tie down the tent using our packs. Al said “I know at some stage you will probably run into these bags but please try your hardest not to as the tent will fall down.” About 2 hours later I tripped on a bag and brought the tent down, with Al asleep inside! All I can say is he knows me too well!!

Day Two

Walked to Aire River, again crammed 2 sections into 1 day. About 26k.  7 ½ hours on our feet. Feet hurt. This walking business is hard!! Calves were aching, feet were aching, hips and shoulders were aching!! Clearly don’t use these muscles riding a bike!! Nina “mountain goat” Zepnick was in her element and left us all in her dust. Al took out his dad’s orthotics and walked in shoes with zero insoles = massive blisters.

Long beach section left me feeling stuffed and unimpressed about the whole situation but did experience a good sense of accomplishment. 

 

 Day Three
Only 4 ½ hours of walking today. Scenery getting much more impressive. Some big climbs, loads of sandy sections. Phil joined us from today onwards, a mighty effort given his injury. Today was much hotter and we were left craving salt, luckily we had phone reception and got the message to Phil to bring chips and pringles!! Legend!! Cliff top views sleeping under the stars. Gorgeous!! My sleeping matt suffered a hernia making it useless to sleep on and Al the good lad gave me his. 

Day Four
Another smaller day, about 5 ½ hours of walking. Starting to regret letting the boys do the grocery shopping as getting sick of tuna, 2 min noodles, chocolate, pasta with sauce, sardines and scroggin. Highlight of my day involved me not thinking for a moment and putting my walking pole out to the side. Unfortunately for Nina who was walking beside me I managed to accidentally time it perfectly so the pole went through her legs and catapulted her forward. She somehow managed to stay on her feet  but she looked at me with complete rage and screamed “YOU $*(#^$# ANIMAL” it was almost like she had blacked out into a fury of rage that came deep from the core! I thought she was going to punch me in the face,  but luckily we both started laughing hysterically and had to take a 5 minute break before we could continue on!

Day Five
Up early as a beach section involved getting across before the tide rose and this is the day of Snake Valley. Walked through a 5k section and saw 7 tiger snakes. Al and Nina were the brave ones up the front as me and Phil cowered in the middle. Not sure if Al didn’t see it or it snuck onto the track after him the moment I looked down and saw a snake a mere 5cm from my foot I froze with intense fear. The only other time in my life I have experienced this was the second I launched myself off of a bungee. Got through the snake zone and Phil had a turn up the front, apparently not through the snake zone as one slithered out in Phil’s path he levitated backwards and mid-flight suffered a cramp in his calf, resulting in a domino effect whereby we all fell into one another.

Got to a point in the track where we decided to take a different route to the one on the sign. Walked about 2k in the wrong direction then had to bum-skid down a steep embankment not knowing if we were going in the right direction and knowing there was no way to get back up if we were indeed going the wrong way. Feeling hangry, tired and upset that I’d indicated the right way to go, I thought Al and Phil had walked off and proceeded to deliver a massive spray behind their backs (so wrong I know) I was so fuming I hadn’t realised Nina was “sshhh”ing me as the boys were standing right behind me. Dam. Apparently the look on my face when I realised was quite hilarious. All so tired, hungry and over it we all burst out laughing.

This hiking business was much harder than I anticipated and I was using muscles I didn’t even know existed!! Day 2 I woke up so sore and stiff, my calves, shoulders, back, feet, hips were all aching. By Day 3 these pains had subsided and I really got into the swing of it. Loads of fun and great to do something a bit different. Had to park the car 6k from the 12 apostles and as we had already walked 30k and had to drive 300k back to Ballarat we missed out on seeing them!! Into the car, smashed some salt and vinegar chips and dimmies and drove home. 

having fun with the shutter setting on the camera

are we there yet?

NYE - fair old view