Best way to Geelong?

PLanning on heading down to Geelong over the next couple of days. What’s the best way. I know there’s a bike path to Werribee, but i don’t want to be stuck dodging dogs and pedestrians. I’m not planning on racing down either.

Cheers

the path down to weribee is quite nice and fairly quiet, it’s mostly out of the way so very little chance of even seeing peds

Cheers, I’ll take that then.

so its the path to werribe then what? highway?
I’ve just wanted to do that ride a few times but never looked into it in detail

from memory, something like federation trail then old geelong rd?old geelong hwy, works well. ??

there’s a sign along the way that tells you which roads to jump on for geelong

Been checking the maps.
Get on Federation train at Millers road in Brooklyn
24 kms to Werribee.
Then Bulban road out of Werribee
At the end, left onto edgars road to LIttle River,
then right onto You-Yangs road
Left onto Farrars road and take that all the way into Lara.
The a Left onto Forrest Road south. You can take this until it passes under the highway and then the Shell PArade along the coast into Geelong…

At least this is what i’ll be doing.
Will report back on distance and roads etc. Cheers

Yeah the bike path to werribee is pretty good. Though it only starts off Millers road in Altona, to get there from the city requires a bit of on road riding (When I’m in Melbourne I take a road that has big trucks and no bike lane, it isn’t real fun).

Word of warning, the signs were rusted out last time I rode it, and the first time I rode it I ended up near westbourne grammar school instead of on the actual trail. Meaning, keep your eyes open for the signs.

It’s such a big path that they have signs telling you to quote a certain code if you need emergency services, so they know where to find you.

It takes you through a lot of industrial sectors, and you’ll be lucky to see more than 5 people on the path, cyclists and pedestrians. A shame they spent all this money and no one uses it…

No idea how to get to geelong, just be careful of the bogans (a swiss touring cyclist got knocked out by someone throwing a full VB at him out that way).

this path stinks. literally. those industrial areas are seriously on the nose.

Yeah, Laverton North is a hub for the skin/leather industry - lots of stinking tanneries. But, on the bright side, the tanneries are so overwhelming you probably won’t notice the stink of the landfill and chemical plants!

How’d you go anyway Tally?

Yes it does, there are some seriously bad smells coming out of the waste plant, and there are also chemical smells from time to time.

I think the worst part is going under the western highway, the big tunnel that hardly looks like it is lit (since you go from bright sunlight to barely lit tunnel). I ride fast through that one.

OK.
So i made it. That’s the short story.
The ride out to Millers Road Brooklyn where the bike path to Werribee starts was pretty good. It was very early so no traffic. Caught a couple of other cyclists at Footscray and rode with them for a bit. The bike path was excellent - the smells were very powerful, but sort of cool. PLenty of rabbits running around and some nice little creeks with ducks and stuff. Back on roads at Hoppers Crossing and a nice run into Werribee.
So far so good - done about 50km in about 1 hr 40 mins. Feeling good.
Headed out of Werribee following the Geelong signs. All good. About 5km out of Werribee the road turned to dirt. I checked my little print our map. Lost!
And then it strarted raining.
Dirt roads for about 20 - 30 mins. Had to back track a bit, but eventually got back to the bitumen.
Headed down to Little River and then towards the You Yangs. Couldn’t see the mountains though because of all the mist.
Almost at Lara i was just thinking ‘cool no punctures’. Almost at the very second my front wheel went down.
I then had a beautiful memory of a pump and trye levers sitting on the bench in the garage.
I was not happy - very angry at myself. But started the walk into Lara.
After about 20 mins someone stopped and offered to take me to a petrol station - fantastic. I jumped in wth the bike thinking we were going to Lare… They turned around and took me back to Little River…
Put a new tube in (i had brought that??) and set off again.
Took the old Melbourne road to Lare - good road, and all of a sudden i was on the outskirts of Geelong.
Down by the refineries and waterfront into Geelong with very little traffic.
By this stage my arse was hurting and i had a bit of pins and needles in my feet.
Stopped in geelong for some chocolate milk (was close to running out of energy about now).
Was pretty sore getting back onthe bike, but still had to get down to Jan Juc.
Pretty easy ride through Geelong but the few hills (very minor) down to Torquay had me travelling pretty slowly.
Got to Jan Juc about 12.30 after leaving about 6.45 am. Covered about 120kms and had about an hour (maybe more with the walking) off the bike.
The roads behind Werribee were pretty good but I’ll not get lost next time.
Best thing was i still managed to beat the wife who drove down.
I’ve got a couple of photos - will put up once i get organised.
Thanks for all suggestions and if anyone is heading down that way I’d definitely come for the ride.

Cheers

hehe, nice one. Rides that go exactly to plan are boring anyway!

i love the nice person taking you back to where you came from,
nice effort, what were you riding? roadie?

That sounds like you had a fun ride! Good one.
I’m headg to Lorne later this month, I was planning on driving, but maybe I could ride to Torquay and get a lift form there. Might be fun. I dont hink I’m up for the whole ride.
Would be great to see pics, if any.

Andy

i rode between geelong and Lorne when i was working that way and i didn’t like it one bit.
some of the worst drivers in the world

Thats what I would imagine.
This is one reason why I think I would rather get a lift from Torquay to Lorne.

yep tourist want to see two things, the view and a cyclist under their car

Used to stink more, the brick lined ditch next to it was the main trunk ‘open’ sewer to Werribee.

Was on the roadie. The fixie is in pieces and i don’t know how to fix it… first time that’s ever happened - I need another post for that.
I recommend the Werribee path - wide and flat and smooth. Saw about three groups of road riders on it and one dog walker.