Nerd Em's Adventures
There is a famous quote by author Ed Abbey that goes like this: It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and … Read more About
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2 March 2025
Gunaikurnai Country
Bairnsdale to Deptford via Engineers Road
It’s cool. There’s low grey cloud covering the sky. It looks like it might drizzle if gravity worked a bit harder.
It’s a novelty to me. After five months of summer so far and so many stupidly hot days in a row back home, I am very excited for a cool day of clouds!
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28 February – 1 March 2025
Jaimathang and Gunaikurnai Country
Bus from Omeo to Bairnsdale
It is still very dark. We’re getting toward the end of daylight saving, so 6.00am still features total darkness. But Omeo is bustling in that pitch darkness. The bright lights of a bakery shine into the blackness, beckoning forth the addicts like moths to a flame.
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27 February 2025
Jaimathang Country
Omeo Hwy Camp to Omeo
I’m balancing my bike in the middle of the highway, attaching my panniers to the rear rack. My sleeping pad and flip flops (thongs) lie on the chipseal in the southbound lane.
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25-26 February 2025
Jaimathang Country
Snowy Logging Road to Omeo Hwy camp
There is always hope when you go to sleep when it’s windy that you might wake up to a dry tent in the morning. I went to bed with this hope last night.
But you know, there’s that saying, ‘he who lives on hope, dies fasting’.
My hopes are dashed this early morning. I have slept straight through and never heard that wind die off or the silent accumulation of dew and condensation. The tent is completely wet inside and out.
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24 February 2025
Jaimathang Country
Willis Creek Bridge to 1150 metres Snowy Logging Road
The only sound is my tyres crunching over gravel on a moderate uphill. The birds are quiet, the wind is still. The day has creaked open with nary a creak, bird cry or branch swaying in the wind.
We are riding up the Willis Creek tributary, climbing high above the creek on the side of the valley wall. It’s all uphill for the first eight kms, on a pretty moderate grade. It’s steep enough in places for my chain to creak and click as it strains against the weight and grade. Yes, the only noise to start the day is my bike and my breathing.
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23 February 2025
Jaimathang Country
Lightning Creek Campground to Willis Creek Bridge – 9 kms
There are clouds hanging over the trip. Literal and figurative.
Wisps of moisture hang down in fingers of fog from clouds that cloak the surrounding hills. A steady rain falls as we pull into the campground.
I know there is a covered rotunda in the day use picnic area of this campground, and this will allow me to get all my gear together in a dry space. However, some arses have yanked the barriers out of the ground that prevent vehicles from accessing the grassy picnic area. They are camping next to the rotunda which they’ve taken over as part of their campsite.
Nigel parks far away from the rotunda and says, “I think it’s full.”
I reply, “That’s the day use area. They’re not allowed to camp there. They are just going to have to share.”
Nigel’s eyebrows raise, but he does not protest. He helps me pull out my panniers, fork bags and bike and then follows me as I quickly stride toward the rotunda through the rain. It really sucks to get rained on at 0 kms on Day 1 of a ride. I may be pretty shy, but I am absolutely not afraid of anyone, not even five bogans and their gargantuan dog that is barking at us.
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What does it mean to be a cyclist versus just someone who rides a bike? How does ‘cyclist’ become part of your identity, and where does it sit with your other personal identities?
We’re about to head out on tour, but I can hand-on-heart say I’ve been a cyclist since I first learned to ride.
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What do I most enjoy on a bicycle tour?
What is it I miss the most when the tour concludes and I find myself back at work once again?
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16-17 January 2025
Dhudhuroa Country
The Wizard, my 2005 T800 Cannondale, turns 20 this month. I think we’ve done around 28,000 touring miles together in that time, but I’ve never counted all the day-to-day and commuter miles (or kms) so total mileage is likely to be a fair bit more than that. The Wizard has not had so much action since Atlas, my mountain bike, arrived, but I still enjoy the bike and its different ride feel compared to the mountain bike. It would be nice to give The Wizard a bit of a celebration ride this month if possible.However, it has been a miserably hot summer and I never hold out much hope that I will get much riding done in January.
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Yaitmathang Country
9-12 December 2024
I miss it. It’s like one of my heart’s ventricles has been carved out and I’m expected to function on what remains. It’s a vital part of me, and its absence creates this enormous wound that makes life so much more difficult without its ever-present rhythm.
Oh, sure. I’ve gone for some 20km rides around town on flat roads and bike paths. I dangled my arm when the pain came and braked primarily with the front brake as much as I could. But that is not RIDING. That is just a teardrop in a bucket floating on a dam.
I MISS RIDING. It gnaws at me. It claws at me. I dream about it – my subconscious trying to fill in the blanks while I sleep.
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