Boys V Wild - Trip #1 Bacchus Marsh to Castlemaine

fter years of talking about it and months of deciding to get serious about planning it, we finally got out for a multi day mountain bike ride....Boys V Wild
The idea:
To ride for two and 1/2 days spending two nights out carrying everything we needed with us.  No hotels, hostels or tents, just sleeping bags, sleeping mat, boys & bikes.  We would conquer the out doors on two wheels.

And conquer we did, but not without pain, suffering and dehydration, no sir.  With Pete & Mark jumping on a train out of Melbourne on Friday night we would get off at Becchus Marsh and ride into Lerderderg gorge and camp the night.  The next morning we would get up and continue on our merry way to Black Wood where we would meet Dion at 10AM.  Hmmmmmm, just think about this "Lerderderg gorge" or more specifically the gorge part.  Armed with a perfectly accurate map neither Pete nor Mark fully understood just how steep this gorge would be and found our selves carrying our bikes up what can only be described as a cliff face for 1 1/2 hours.

Tip # 1  Carefully plan bike trip taking into account how steep some walking tracks can be.

With Mark deciding taking a Trek Remedy for the trip as a laugh the weight of that decision starting to become a real struggle.
Tip #2  Don't let your work mates dare you to take a big travel bike on a multi day X-Country epic.


After finally making it out of the gorge and working out we were at least an hour behind schedule we sent Dion a text message re scheduling out rendezvous. To our surprise when we did eventually drag ourselves into Black Wood Dion was nowhere to be found. 15 minutes later riding up looking almost as exhausted as we were he explained that he had been given incorrect directions from a local when riding from the train station and turned the 20Km ride into more like 35Km.

With the temperature set to reach 35 or higher we slamed down some food from the local store along with a litre of coke and headed back out into the forest.  It was 12:30 and we had around 50Km of riding to make it to Dailford where we would re stock up on food and water then continue on to find somewhere to camp.
Tip #3 With all you camping gear, 3 litres of water and food you need to estimate your riding times to be a lot longer than you expect.......a lot longer.

10.5 hours after leaving camp we finally rode into Daylesford where we decided a small change in plan was needed. Yes we did stock up on food and yes we did keep going further along the Great Dividing Trail, but not before a pub meal, a jug of beer and a large quantity of coke.

So it was with full tummies and sore bums that we rode on out of town toward the springs where we would spend the night. I would like to say that we did carry on into the deep deep forest for a night of extreme camping but that wasn't the case. Our bums would dictate that we get just past the springs and collapse onto the side of a bank around 100 metres past the tourist attracting lake and natural springs.
Tip #4. After riding for 10 hours and finding yourself at a natural spring tourist area. Stripping down naked and standing on top of a spring while pumping the water out is a very effective cleaning method....... Sorry Daylesford!

With Sunday morning upon us we were on the home straight. All we had to do now was a short little trip to finnish of in Castlemaine.....Easy. Well not soooo easy. The day before had really taken its toll on our legs and 6 or so hours in the saddle on Sunday turned out to be a lot harder than expected. Hotter than the day before water was an issue and without some strategic stops for water and chocolate milk shakes we may not have made it. Thanks to Daylesford chocolate factory! With around 10Km to go the heavens opened up and a storm kicked off dropping the temperature around 20 degrees and torrential rain while the whole time thunder and lightning seemed to get closer and closer. But we did make it, and make with smiles on our faces despite the hunger, tiredness and wetness.

So with all our underestimations, miss calculations and over ambitionuss would I do it again.............in a heartbeat. Thanks for an awesome weekend lads.