Bicycle Touring in Style

For a couple of months now I have been avidly reading various cycling blogs, and feeling stronger and stronger urges to get back out on my bike for a longer, overnight trip.

In the UK it had been easy for me to find a good, challenging, mostly off-road route to take for a multi-day bikepacking trip. Here in Australia, I suffer from a healthy respect for venomous snakes, a lack of familiarity with what’s available, and a serious lack of Ordnance Survey maps!

Reaching out to various sources for help with planning, Mick and Jen at my local bike shop, The Bicycle Pedlar, came up trumps for help. They told me to pop in and discuss it with them, and after becoming a regular visitor to the shop we had a firm plan in place. Not only that, but the trip had grown from me going somewhere by myself, to having a whole group of great people interested in coming, and a place to camp has been arranged.

Fast forward a few weeks, and the plan has become action. We had a local long weekend (I have no idea how a particular town can have a public holiday, but that’s what happened) and we used it for cycling.

Saturday was all about style over speed; this was because of an event called Style Over Speed organised by the local Bicycle User Group to raise awareness of what a great activity cycling is. A large group of brilliantly fun people all met up in the city centre, dressed up in a variety of interpretations of the black tie dress code.

We all set off in procession for a gentle ride around The Strand. The atmosphere was great, with people cheering us, and the cyclists also cheering and ringing their bike bells.

The ride ended in Townsville’s City Lane, with a few silly competitions and then the evening’s musical and acrobatical entertainments. A really great night!

The following morning I packed up my panniers with camping gear, first aid kit, spare tubes, etc, and headed down the road to the bike shop to meet up with the rest of the cycle tourists. My set up was better than last time - I don't have a fancy bike with all the frame bags like some other bikepackers I admire (maybe one day) but I had at least got panniers both front and back this time, so I didn't need to carry any backpack at all. Especially important with cycling in the warm climate here.

Between hanging out at the bike shop and the Style Over Speed event, I had already met everyone who was coming, and we had a great group. We even had a last-minute addition to the group in the form of Cycling Josh, an Austrian lad who had been cycling around Australia.

Me and my bike - this was taken at the top of the hill, hence the pained expression! I want to replace those black panniers soon.

Off-road cycle routes are few and far between around here, so unfortunately we were sticking to the tarmac for this trip. We headed west out of Townsville towards The Hervey Range. This involved a long, pretty much flat ride out of town – initially on the city’s bike lanes, then later taking care on the more rural road – followed by a cheeky hill at the end rising a couple of hundred metres over a relatively short distance.

Being the least cycle-fit out of our group, I was left far behind on the hill. I didn’t feel too bad about it though, as I had known I would be slow. Plus I was carrying a respectable amount of weight on my bike. Cycling Josh was a similar pace going up the hill – he was far more cycling fit, but he was also carrying more weight. We made it though, which was the important thing, and met up with the rest of the group at a lookout near the top of the climb.

Heading up the hill, that's Cycling Josh behind me. This picture makes it look less steep than it really was.

The hill is not all bad though, as a short ride on from the top you come to the Hervey Range Historic Tea Rooms, where you get to indulge in a hot drink of your choice (I was craving tea) and a guilt-free cake (apple pie with cream for me!)

We relaxed and chatted at the tea rooms, and caused a bit of a spectacle as well: we were a tandem, a recumbent bicycle, and 4 regular bicycles, mostly fully laden with panniers, so we drew looks and questions from other people there, some of whom were a bit disappointed to learn that we had only come up from Townsville…

Thoroughly refreshed, we hopped back on the bikes for a very short ride on to a local home with land, where we were camping for the night. We were hosted by a friend of my new cycling companions, Vic, who was awesome. Not only had they agreed to let us all stay, and gotten a camp fire all ready for us, but he had also prepared 3 options of delicious homemade soup for us to tuck into!

I may have carried my stove and camp food unnecessarily, but I decided to make use of my camping gear and set up my new bivy tent (which seemed great at first, but turned out to be rubbish. I have returned it to the shop) and it felt good to know that I could be self-sufficient if I had needed to.

Quick Tourer bivy tent - I do not recommend this tent

Wine o’clock followed, and with a camp fire and great company the evening rolled into night time quickly, and bed time soon followed.

In the morning we had a leisurely start: mugs of coffee around the still-burning camp fire, plenty of time to pack up all our gear, and a demonstration by Mick and Jen of their new toy: a bike pump powered espresso maker, the Airspresso. 

For the first leg of our return journey, we made it a whole entire kilometre back to the Tea Rooms, where we stopped for some more food, yet more caffeine, and even more relaxed fun chatting…

Finally setting off for real, we had the glorious steep descent to look forward to. Josh and I stopped briefly at the lookout to get photos, before we flew off own the hill – even overtaking a lorry on the way, quite exhilarating.

We regrouped down on the flat again, and then set off at a good pace back towards the city. I pedalled hard on the way back and kept up a strong rhythm, meaning that I manage to keep up with everyone the whole way back. I was having to work a lot harder than everyone else to keep the pace, but I was pleased with my riding and it means I will be fitter for it.

Back in Townsville, we stopped for one more coffee, before heading our separate ways to go home.

What a great way to spend a weekend – I can't wait for the next adventure :)

The Bicycle Pedlar also blogged about this trip - and we both picked the same title! I guess great minds think alike...