From the Great Ocean Road I headed north through Geelong to Melbourne. I didn’t stay any time in Geelong, just a quick ride into the town centre and along the waterfront before I continued on along the freeway past some pretty non-descript scenery before arriving at the city limits.

The road was very busy and with no shoulder to ride on I was taking lanes with the rest of the traffic. To minimise hassle I was trying to keep up with traffic, catching slipstreams and topping 60km/h until the freeway started. Riding along the freeway is allowed as there are very few alternative direct routes between Geelong and Melbourne. Near a place called Werribee a cycle/walking track started that runs alongside the old sewer all the way into the city. Almost 40km of cycleways called The Federation Trail I think. Near the start of the trail I joined a local couple out for a ride and got plenty of good tips on things to do and see when I was in town.

It was a nice ride, avoiding traffic and allowing me to put my brain on auto-pilot as I wound my way into the city. Eventually though the path ended dumping me abruptly onto a 6 lane monster. Back to reality, battling cars and trucks into the city. A few kms later though there were more cyce lanes and credit to Melbourne city planners, without any maps I got exactly where I needed to go, the cycleways are all really well signed and there are lots of them.

I got to my hostel on King St, a small affair as far a city hostels go pretty compact but comfortable. The first few days in Melbourne were fairly uneventful, I pretty much kept to myself and did a little relaxed exploring. I was only in town a few days but already was starting to like it. And there is still a Formula 1 race to look forward to!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 at 1:17 pm by Ross and is filed under Australia, Victoria. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.