Monthly Archive for July, 2009

On Saturday I went for a ride with Caroline, Tim and Katy. We were to go on a mission to find the new Costco at the Docklands.

Getting on the Upfield bike path next to the Melbourne Zoo.

Near the Flemington Bridge Station it looks like they are building a foot/bike bridge that will make it easier to cross… one of the roads there. At the moment you need to get down some stairs.

Funny zipper thing on Citylink.

Hooning along under citylink. It was very windy on Saturday but down here was quite sheltered. You barely need to pedal.

Still under Citylink. The two riders in front of Tim were just some randoms.

There is a creek/river on the right behind those bushes, it may or may not be Mooney Ponds Creek. There was an old man with a helmet on at one point along here. He was walking aimlessly along the path away from a bike leaning up against a bench about 50meters behind him. When i passed him he was covered in mud. I suspect he might have fallen into the creek. Not something that would be fun, even on a 40 degree day. The water is pretty wrongtown, full of mercury.

We finally arrived at the Costco building on Footscray Road. It’s fucking massive. The also quite huge Southern Star minus the pods lies dormant in the background. It was rendered inoperative after the week of 40+ degree days back in February. I think it will be out of action until Summer this year at the earliest.

After discovering that fucking Costco is not open yet, we continued down through the Docklands/Harbour Town. It is a very strange place. This was about 4pm on a Saturday arvo, we saw about 5 people in the whole area. Totally deserted and still very much under construction. It’s like a whole new city. Back at the Southern Star there were quite a few people, mainly there wondering WTF is up with the stupid broken ferris wheel, also there is a totally outrageous amount of places to eat stuff, and everyone was hanging out there. It reminded me of a cheesy touristy part of Brisbane, it does not feel like Melbourne at all.

Empty playground, interesting wind powered sculpture in the background.

More of the same. Apart from us, still no people.

Empty roads, horrible apartment buildings.

Tim struggling to ride into the wind. One thing about the Docklands is that it is a total wind tunnel, everywhere. There was no people in any of these shops.

Same very very windy spot.

These orange signs started to appear directing pedestrians and cyclists where to go. The whole place is under construction and it is not totally obvious where the paths are or where they lead to. This bridge was quite cool. There was a lane reserved for wheelchairs, would be good fun imo. There was a few people here, a gang of youths on BMX bikes, some dudes were fishing.

View west from the windy bridge. Bolte bridge in the distance.

Caroline looking in one direction…

Tim pointing in another direction…

Me, pointing in the direction we actually needed to being going.

After heading in that direction we were detoured by one of those orange signs into the bowels of what i think was the conference center near the exhibition shed. It wasn’t until we emerged on Spencer Street that i was certain about where we were!

Riding along the quiet side of the Yarra, next to the Aquarium.

Caroline pedaling.

Riding along Birrarung Marr. There are many more people here and it feels like we’re back in Melbourne. The ferris wheel in the background goes really fucking fast and has disco lights all over it.

This is the only shot of part if my bike. I’m the loser on a mountain bike. When taking photos I was usually riding with no hands, those Asian guys up ahead were very concerned about this. I lol’d.

Had just ridden up a rather steep hill near corner of Exhibition and Flinders streets. Very steep. glad i had gears at that point. Now we begun the ride into the wind. It was at this point by battery went flat.

Here ends the lesson. Which was, find out if the place you are heading to is open before leaving.

Actually, the lesson didnt end there at all. We continued to Katy and Tims house and proceeded to get very drunk on gin and Glühwein. Once that was over we went to Bar Fred and had some kick ass pizza. Bar Fred is rad.