Mad and Merri
Yesterday Grandma and I headed out on another recce ride, this time up the Merri Creek Trail. It was forecast to reach 35°C and had hit that when we left, but we took off anyway thinking that shade and breeze along Merri Creek would cool us a little.
It just shows you how wrong you can be.
We started out from in front of Starfleet Academy again, rode across the University of Melbourne campus and slipped out through Ormond College to pick up Princes Park Drive. Onto the Capital City trail as it crosses Bowen Crescent - it's easy to see this is a rail trail: not only are there rails still embedded in the road at several road crossings but there's also a cafe in a building that looks suspiciously like it was once a train station.
No Rush
Despite the heat, it was an easy ride all the way to Rushall station (5.7km from the start) but from here the heat seemed to get fiercer. Once on the Merri Creek Trail the hoped for shade and breeze did not eventuate. On a normal day this would be a cool and pleasant ride, but yesterday it was like an oven: there was no respite from the heat anywhere.
It was clear that there was no way we were going to make it out to a turn around point at Coburg Lake.
CERES
We made it to CERES Community Environment Park (about 8.4km out) where there is a clump of tall shady trees by the creek. We paused for a moment before deciding we could push on for another ten minutes or so.
Turn
It was more "or so": when we got to Normanby Rd and Grandma declared that we'd gone far enough - and later I was very glad that she did. We paused under a tree to let the breeze wash over us before returning to CERES. There is a cafe here that opens daily until 4pm and we'd arranged for MLSP and the Co-Pilot to join us here for a drink. We took some pleasant if a bit pricey soft drinks that went down wonderfully well I can tell you.
There is much for a little kid to explore at CERES - but not on a stinking hot day like yesterday. So after a short muck-around in the adventure playground, we sent the Co-Pilot and his mum back to the relative cool of home.
Battle
The return leg was something of a battle. If anything it was even warmer than before and we ran into a warm headwind on the Capital City trail. We were relying on public drinking fountains for water because the water we carried in our bottles was now pretty close to blood temperature - not very inviting.
It was slow progress - we even found ourselves wanting to slow down whenever there was a decent patch of shade! But we eventually staggered back into University Square and were mighty pleased with the good ol' Total Abstinence Society for the water fountain they erected there a hundred or so years ago. Fortunately it still works and dispensed relatively cool water much to our relief.
Hot?
On the return Grandma remarked that she reckoned it might have reached 40°C while we were out, and she compared this ride to an infamous group ride along the Bay to Frankston some years ago in similar heat. It wasn't until I checked the weather report in the evening news that I confirmed her hunch: it head got over 40 at about the time we were making our return.
We were hoping to make another ride on Australia Day, but with the long-range forecast suggesting it will be another day above 40°C we might be better off staying inside on Thursday!
Distance
Anyway, from University Square the ride to CERES is a 16.8km loop and, if the distance markers on the trail are to be believed, adding a loop out to Coburg Lake would take the distance to 26km. I reckon this will make a good first route for the riders from Starfleet Academy - provided it's not on a hot day!