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Deloraine to Longford Spring 2023 – the return trip.

I had a reasonable nights sleep in the camper. It was warm enough with the quilt and I used the mosquito net in the doorway. This is still a thing of trial – netting with magnets to attach to metal which has been duct taped to the door frame. The magnets clump together when the netting isn’t on the door so it was hard to re-attach after a small hours exit for a pee. It’s one of two parts of the trailer not quite right.

The second is the height of the door. I keep scraping my head against the top. The height can’t be changed so it’s up to me to be aware and more careful. I will add some edge softening material though so it’s not so sharp.

Overnight the passing goods trains had bookended sleep periods, hooting to warn people on or near the crossings – and there is a crossing at the end of the caravan park!

Up by 6am I had water boiling for a coffee. I avoided over-filling the Aeropress thus didn’t spill grounds into the filter thread BUT I didn’t grind enough coffee. So it was weak affair taste-wise.

I had brought the Firebox stove along in order to use it with a frypan to make eggs and bacon sandwiches for Colin and myself. The big C was back home so I thought about forgetting the sandwich and having muesli. Not much chance of that! By the time the unsatisfactory coffee was gone I was getting out the eggs and bacon from their travelling pouch. The eggs had survived and the ice block used to keep them cool had worked well.

I set to work and back came the ducks! Three of them in particular have staked out my campsite. Once the sandwich stuffed with bacon for two was ready to eat, they were hard at work cleaning up the frypan. Did they realise there was little I could do to stop them while using two hands to hold the filling in the bread? Telling them to stop didn’t work! Little buggers.

I took the utensils across to the camp kitchen and was not surprised to find a lack of washing up liquid and tools. The Manager here just supplies cold water, a sink and a kettle. Not really up to today’s standard even though the cost of a site for 1 has risen to $40.

I waited while a couple cleaned up their breakfast gear (bringing their own soap) and I asked them where they were from. “Germany” was the reply. They were on a 4 week tour of Tasmania in a hired motorhome. They asked how I was travelling and I explained about the trike and camper, saying at the same time how much I enjoyed the bicycle camper trailers YouTube videos from Germany. I was not sure they understood what I was on about but we all smiled and nodded.

Packing up the camper is a delight after years of rolling up tents, air pads, sleeping bags etc. and pushing them into panniers they don’t want to fit in. The boxes that fit inside the camper pull-outs keep things in order and each box is not filled to the top – so putting things away is easy. I am resisting the urge to fill every single space with stuff. I do carry some extras, like an extra pair of shoes which sit in the empty spots between pull outs.

I had begun this pack-up process when a motorhome pulled up and two people began to walk towards me. Yes, it was the Germans. They looked around everything with great animation, talking about friends of theirs that ride trikes and build campers – so I reckon they hadn’t understood my explanation before. I should have remembered the word “Fahrradwohnwagen”. Now they were very interested and took pictures to take back with them. Frau German was doubtful about the width of the trailer though – she didn’t believe I really fitted in it.

It didn’t take long to finish packing up once they had gone and I pedalled out of the campsite using the shared path to the bridge. On the way I spent some time watching Native Hens, in particular an adult feeding a chick. Once under the road bridge I had to turn a sharp left. That was not on – I would have hit the wall with the trailer – so I rode on the grass up to the car park. There I had another sharp turn to make, made sharper by all the cars parked with their bonnets and tow bars protruding into the shared path area. As I pulled out onto the pathway there was a noise and I felt a tug at the back. Bugger – I’ve hit something with the trailer wheel again!! I backed off and dodged about a bit and finally got round.

The pathway took me up to the roundabout at the bottom of Deloraine’s Main Street. As I got there I held back as there was a super large Ute entering the roundabout at speed with much body sway, blasting music and revs. As it straightened up to go across the bridge in front of me it accelerated away, chirping the tyres as it changed up. “Oh dear” I thought “Stay away”.

I rode the rest of the pathway and crossed to start the climb up out of Deloraine. There seemed to be a never-ending stream of speedy tradie Utes for the first few hundred metres and then they all disappeared. All called out to urgent jobs?

I had managed to fully charge one battery overnight and the second was nearly full so I had no qualms about upping the power level to climb up past the school and hospital. Similarly I kept the power up while climbing everything until I reached the top of “Heartbreak Hill”. No heartbreak today as I was going down it! Still, it was going to be interesting to see if the drum brakes would give any trouble on the descent as there was a fair bit of weight to deal with and I wasn’t about to give the trike it’s head like I normally do. It’s easy to build up to 65kph down this hill and once, in a mad moment, I did achieve 70 kph. This day we descended gently, not once going over 26kph, and the brakes worked all the way down with no fading. Initially Greenspeed used the 70mm brakes, which did fade, so they changed to the 90mm ones. Good choice.

I stopped at the bottom and had a chewy bar for energy.

The route now took me along a quiet country road, one which sloped gently down for the most part and there was a tailwind. Lovely. Little traffic about so I had time to think. Should I try and cycle through the roadworks or should I cycle via Cressy as we did on the way out. Ideally it would be best to go through the roadworks. 3 ks of difficulty instead of 12 ks of high-speed traffic. The question was – would I be turned back as Colin had been?

I turned onto Cluan Road wondering what riding it today would be like. Sometimes this road is good and other times it’s quite busy. There are 4 or 5 hills with crests and slow moving trikes tend to annoy drivers. Today I met no traffic on the hills which made the ride relaxing although it was necessary to keep checking the mirrors.

I decided to cut across to Pitts Lane using Glenore Road in order to by-pass Bracknell. This road is very light on traffic and when people pass they do so slowly while waving Hello. Very nice.

It was still necessary to decide what to do at Pitts Lane – roadworks or Cressy? Cressy or roadworks? When I got to the end I turned towards the roadworks – decision finally made by some deep part of the brain.

The first port of call after Pitts Lane is Bishopsbourne and the toilets at the recreation ground. Just before turning in I passed a house. I used to see an older bloke there regularly. We would wave greetings and have the occasional chat. He was slowly erecting a tall fence along the property boundary and had bought a motorhome which he kept in the grounds. Work on the fence stopped some months ago and the motorhome got a $35,000 For Sale sign. Then it went down to $29,000 and now has a plain For Sale sign on it. I was saddened to see today a For Sale sign on the house too. Some retirement dreams aren’t being realised here.

A quick pee stop and then it was off to the roadworks. On approach I saw there was no Stop-Go person at this end. The trike, trailer and I set off on the bumpy surface and immediately came to a barrier of sorts. Work has been done to install new concrete culverts. Holes dug right across the road, culverts fitted and a great covering of large scale gravel placed on top stretching right across the road like speed bumps. The gravel used had been graded to be the size of small fists. With only a bit of wheel spin and loss of steering we got across the first, then the second and then the third all followed by the bouncing trailer. A km or so further on and the “Prepare to Stop” sign came into sight. This would be the moment of truth. Would I be allowed to pass or would I be sent back? Would my prepared arguments for continuing be accepted?

In the event I rode towards the guy with the sign and he simply turned it to SLOW and let me through! There was a grader at work flattening out a great heap of big, wet gravel that had been dropped by trucks destined to be the new road base. It was already squashed out a bit on my side so I rode into the stuff. Yes, a bit tricky! Up the power, keep pedalling and try to keep the steering on a sensible course. It worked. The ride was very slippery, bouncy and swervy though but I kept on course and got through. I wondered how the trailer was taking the treatment but didn’t have time to check or stop.

We got through, hit the tarmac and the rig felt OK, still tracking in a straight line with no added rattles. The next turn was onto Wilmores Lane with its downhills. On the first downhill I forgot all about the trailer and let the trike have its head (I was so glad to have come through the roadworks I think it went to my head!). 49kph I saw on the clock before remembering this probably wasn’t a good idea. That was at the bottom of hill 1 so I let the speed roll off on the next climb and took it easy from thereon when downhilling.

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On arrival at home I checked the trike – all good. I checked the trailer – quite a lot of road muck over it from the roadworks and a long gouge in the side. I think the noise and drag in Deloraine was actually the side of the camper hitting a waste bin creating the gouge. Oh well, something to repair later.

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Final Thoughts.

Colin contacted me the day after. He had contracted Covid at some point and the symptoms began to make him feel bad the day after he returned home. I suspect this was a key reason he felt tired and out of it by the time we got to Westbury.

I enjoyed the rides even though towing the trailer does slow things down a lot. The upside is the ease of camping especially now I know the vestibule works so well. While I would like to take a one or two week tour over summer, it won’t be possible for one reason and another. I think I will be able to slot in a few 2 night trips though and look forward to the next one. Maybe a run out to Myrtle Park for a 2 night stay? Colin? Interested?

The gouge in the trailer isn’t too deep and, for a quick patch, I have stuck duct tape over it for now ! I will add a strip of coreflute over it for a real fix.

Colin’s motor setup. Apparently the rider is not allowed to change power mode when the system is under load. If you do, the thing stops with warning lights, codes and Bluetooth link dropped. So – WAEFRTFM – Colin has now read the manual! Once the covid has gone we will go for a test ride and find out how to manage the motor.

A video of the ride and camp :

’til next time ……