Beriault Bicycle Camper No. 5 – Wagons Roll ………..

Beriault Bicycle Camper No 1 – the original.

Yes, it’s time for the second trip with No. 5. Colin has finished mods to his teardrop so we are both heading to Deloraine for an S36O (Sub 36 hour overnight) ride.

Even though we will not be trekking across the plains of the mid-west USA, I shall use the oft repeated words from the TV series “Wagon Train” ..

“Wagons …. Roll !!“

The weather has been most unspringlike for the past week or so. Light winds, sunny, cool overnight but mid 20s (°C) by midday. It’s like we had a month of Spring in September and then jumped straight into early Summer.

Of course general life got in the way of planning a ride but, at last, it’s time for a trip to Deloraine.

Deloraine Here We Come .. Again !!

We had to take an initial roundabout route as Bishopsbourne Road is closed for re-sealing. Colin tried to ride to Deloraine yesterday but was turned back by the Stop-Go Man who explained water truck spray on the gravel creating boggy going would not be good for a trike pulling a camper. So we decided to start by riding to Cressy along Cressy Road then cutting across to the route to Deloraine. Cressy Road is a road with fast vehicles and no hard shoulder – so one best avoided unless you really have to use it.

I thought an 8.30am start may help. It did a bit. We had some periods of no traffic but these were followed by everything coming all at once with some drivers appearing to see just how close they could come to us. I’m so glad we didn’t meet the character I saw driving a Ute at speed in Longford residential streets this week. “I fucking hate Greenies” was writ big over the back window. What a fine, considerate driver he would be if he spotted us two, obviously Greenies because we were cycling.

When we turned off to the right along Green Rises Road Colin said something like “I’ll never ride Cressy Road again”.

The day was sunny, cool to start but soon warmed up as there was only a slight wind. The UV is getting up there and my sun screen was somewhere in the trailer – so I used Colin’s. By 10.30 am I was putting on my fly fishing face mask for the first time since last autumn.

As we rode along we discussed our route and decided to keep it different and head for Westbury where we could take a break and have a coffee. What with the unusual start to the ride and not by-passing Westbury on the back roads, this was proving to be a different ride to Deloraine.

Near Whitemore a two-wheeler cyclist caught up and rode with us for a while. I had met him once before and he remembered a lot about the trikes and us. Newly retired, he is pushing himself to see just how far he can ride in a day on his carbon fibre lightweight road bike.

There were the usual selection of birds in the air and in the trees. Swamp Harriers in pairs, Ravens savaging road kill, Pardalotes telling us to “pick it up” and even a few White Ibis. Recently I found a YouTube channel documenting various Australian birds. Apparently White Ibis have moved into cities and are know as Bin Chickens due to their like of rubbish bins.

Somewhere along the way Colin started having a little trouble with his motor/battery/controller/phone app combo. The controller and phone app must be bluetooth connected for everything to work and this connection kept dropping out. His battery usage was good so far – maybe because the connection failed and Colin provided all the power but this wasn’t how it should be !

We chugged along. My power usage was not too good as we were climbing a bit more than usual. On the hills I geared down and used the lowest power level consistent with actually getting up the hill. I could see I would have to change to battery 2 at Westbury but, with the two batteries I had no “range anxiety”. Just before the Westbury 60kph zone there are a couple of large, steep hills. I cruised slowly up them in bottom gear wondering if the higher power level I was using would drag the volts down to the point where the battery management system would cut power. It didn’t. While concerned over this I lost sight of Colin somewhere behind me.

I found a safe place to pull in just over the crest and walked back. Eventually I spotted the trike pretty much at the bottom of the last hill. “He must be OK” I thought as there had been no phone call to tell me otherwise. “I’ll just go slowly through to the cafe” and so I drifted off. 5 mins later the call came! The Pendix on Colin’s machine had stopped working and was proving difficult to get going on the hill. It did get going in the end but only in Eco mode which meant much pedalling was needed to get trike, trailer and human up the hill.

We met at the cafe and sat in the shade to discuss what to do. No, that’s not right, Colin said he was worn-out, the motor was not working properly and he was going home. I was going to keep on going and needed to decide on my route from Westbury.

After swapping the batteries over and saying our “Good-Byes”, I decided to take the direct and less hilly route of the Meander Valley Highway. This would be a bit busier but there were fewer hills and my knees were starting to complain. It proved a good choice as traffic was light and there was a slight tailwind. Before too long trike and I entered Deloraine and turned down to the quiet road to the caravan park.

I needed a powered site and knew there were a couple away from the main tracks down close to the river. The site was chosen and the camper was soon set up with it’s back to the rest of the park and the front with the river view.

I started off with the vestibule in awning mode. It was not windy as it was in my previous attempt to set it up and it did provide some shade. It’s one of those odd things but an awning seems to define the camping area – rather like putting your arms around something and saying “it’s mine”.

It was not long before interested spectators began to wander over and investigate the odd structure and old chap. I believe the blokes were interested in the concept and construction while the women thought it’s something best avoided but let’s go and look at the fruitcake camping in it anyway.

As the day turned into evening I set up the vestibule as the vestibule. As I could now I could pull the wall out using the central guy rope it was obvious there is plenty of space inside. In fact all boxes were accommodated plus the panniers off the trike and I still had easy access.

Because the camper floor is higher than the ground it is really easy to set up the air pad and sleeping bag while kneeling at the door. Much easier than on the ground in a small tent. I really like the trailer!

I cooked tea using the Firebox stove and Trangia burner. I had to keep telling three persistent ducks to go away. They obviously know about camp sites and consider them a pantry. The cooking setup worked OK but I think the small Trangia is probably best for this sort of camping, unless you plan to cook kebabs.

The Trangia provides the base/ windshield, burner, pans and kettle in a lighter package. The little kettle works well with the Aeropress; pans without a spout and my pouring skills tend to splash water and coffee into the thread.

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I had a cup of tea after the meal and sat watching the bubbles in the river. Waiting for a platypus .. none seen that evening. It was really peaceful until the drummer started practising on the other side of the river. Far enough away it wasn’t too annoying and it soon stopped. By then it was getting dark so I retired into the camper to read a book, the light (or the CO2 in my breath) pulling in a few mosquitoes. A spray of bug deterrent soon drove them out.

Then I settled down for the night.