Life, travel, fitness and more
When we moved into our new house we did have a 70’s style built in bar but it was in a bit of a corner and not really in a particularly “appealing style”.
I decided to build a bar myself rather than trying to find an off the shelf style that fitted the room and our budget. I did watch a YouTube video to get a design idea but didn’t really like it so just decided to go ahead and design and build from scratch.
Continue reading “Bar Build”
Last weekend we decided to go away for a few nights we ended up deciding to go to Mansfield in the Victorian High Country. It is only around 2 hours from us but had been recommended as a nice place to visit by a neighbour. We stayed at the Alzburg Resort which is a self catering place with a heated (a bit) outdoor pool, sauna and indoor spa pool. As we are now well on our way into Autumn it wasn’t that warm and sunny so we weren’t brave enough to use the pool.
It has been a while but it has been a busy few months moving into our new house. We’re pretty much settled in now, just waiting on the dining chairs to arrive! Other than that I have been keeping up with the cycling when I can.
It is still quite strange flying for 4 hours across 3 time zones and still being in the same country but it does make you realise how vast Australia is. We’d booked a brief trip to Perth at least 6 months ago to meet up with one of Michelle’s Australian friends she’d met in London who was back home, in Perth, for Christmas. This was all booked before we’d even started looking to buy a house so it has ended up breaking up Christmas and the proper move in to our new place.
Last weekend i was lucky enough to be invited to go on a cycling trip to the Victorian Alps staying in the small village of Harrietville down the road from the larger town of Bright.
The trip was organised by one of the guys who I’ve met through Croydon Cycleworks and they have been going for a few years now. We stay in a large house that has had bunk beds put in all the rooms and use that as a base for a few days of riding.
This was my first chance to try some of the climbs in the 7 Peaks challenge. The aim to to ride 7 specific climbs in Victoria during the summer season, this is something i hope to complete this season if i can.
In a previous entry i have written about the main climbs on Mount Dandenong, – our local hill which is very popular amounts cyclists being the highest point in the metropolitan Melbourne area. As we are lucky enough to live so close that means that i get the opportunity to explore the other routes up, these alternatives are mostly from the Fern Tree Gully side and a bit more out of the way. Similar to my previous post i will just give a brief description and link to the Strava segment for each of these.
Continue reading “Alternative Cycling Climbs on Mt Dandenong”
The Around the Bay in a day cycle ride is an annual ride around the Melbourne bay now in its 26th year. Since i first visited Michelle’s family over here it has always been mentioned as i ride i should do, so was on the bucket list from the moment i arrived. Almost as soon as i got a bike here i booked a place on the 210km Anti-Clockwise loop.
For a number of years now a group of friends have had our own ‘Tour de Strava‘ completion on Strava. There are a number of competitions such as Yellow Jersey, Polkadot Jersey, Green Jersey, Prize for the Fighting, etc. Up until now this was all compiled on a spreadsheet by one of those in the competition. Once i learnt some basic Strava API commands for the Starred Segment Explorer i was asked if i could make a web version which would automatically compile the data…so i did and it is available for anyone to use.
Continue reading “Tour de Strava Tool”This week we headed up to the Gold Coast for the wedding of one of Michelle’s friends, and also stayed on afterwards to enjoy a bit of winter sun. We started at the resort the wedding was being held at before heading over to South Stradbroke Island and finally back to stay in Surfers Paradise for a few nights,
We are very fortunate to live so close to Mount Dandenong which is a hill just over 600m high to the East of the Melbourne CBD. The various hills in the range form the Dandenong Ranges National Park, the ranges are mainly covered in large trees and ferns forming a ‘temperate Rainforest’ (stole that definition from wikipedia).
There are a number of roads that criss-cross around and over the hills with some great climbs (then descents) in lovely scenery. There are a few little villages dotted around with some pubs, restaurants and cafes; at the Pig and Whistle Tavern as well as great parmas (Australian “classic” which is schnitzel with tomato, cheese and ham on – just realised now it is a schnitzel pizza…) you can get Old Speckled Hen, London Pride and other English beers. I’ll go through the main cycling climbs on Mt Dandenong and throw in some pictures too.
