Moonee Ponds Creek Ride, Sunday 21 November 2004
Report by Ludo S. Photos by Rodney W and Ludo S.
The main reason why I once again accepted to report on this ride is that I wanted to convey to the 50+ Bspon email recipients what they were missing out on by not getting ON THEIR BIKES on a Sunday morning ! Today's "leitmotif" was "FLIGHT". After some 25Km along the Moonee Ponds Creek we would reach one of the runways of Melbourne Airport, which promised some interesting plane spotting. But the first things that were flying that morning were the pancakes at Jon & Emma's ! I can't claim much expertise when it comes to pans or even cakes for that matter, but what Jon served up that morning with a nice cup of tea would have made Nigella bite her fingernails of envy (instead of licking them). Watching him churn out one perfect looking pancake after another was amazing and they were even tasting as good as they looked ! We all agreed that from now on, until further notice, Ascot Vale, not only because of it's central position, will be the permanent starting point for any future Bspon rides.
Around 11.30 most of us (not all though) were able to transfer our contented bellies onto our confy b/tr-ike seats for some gentle legwork. Tracks along creeks usually have a moderate slope and this one is no different, this is just the track you want to do on a Lazy Sunday Afternoonah. The first section runs along the channeled M.P.creek, which would only be impressive after a few days of decent downpours. The level was pretty low and no sign of any wild life apart from a few local kids. The track itself is interesting enough though, with quite a few blind corners and tricky turns to keep us on our toes. Planners have to be congratulated how Citylink has been built along the creek without totally destroying the feel for the place. As quite common with creeks it gets better the more you get to the upper reaches : the concrete channel makes way for huge boulders and the creek is free flowing again teaming with ducks and whole stretches where this time of the year Pobblebonks clearly have a ball or even worse.
At this point I must apologize for not being able to be more precise about distances because my old bike computer was playing up and closing all windows didn't help. Roughly 3/4 of the way, we crossed Fawkner st. renowned for it's famous bakery. Here the track seems to end, so it was a logical place for the official lunch stop for the day. After lunch 4 of us decided to call it quits because of other commitments and 5 of us went on towards the final reward of the day. For most of the last stretch the track runs along the fence line of the historic Woodlands property. Access to the park from here is not possible and would certainly add to the interest of this track.
Plane spotting, unlike train spotting has always that nervous-little-twitching-in-the-stomach feeling. Having had quite considerable experience with flight simulators, I know that even with all the dexterity at the joy stick one can muster and a lot of cheer luck it is quite hard to line up and land a plane in a civilized manner. So, seeing the whole thing played out with real planes is quite exciting. Unfortunately it was not to be : the trail ends up in a dip, so there is no chance you would see a plane coming from any direction and on top of that the wind came from the wrong side, so the planes were using the other runway. So after having caught a glimpse of the tail of an unaware 727, we turned around and started on the return trip … more luck next time I guess.
The Moonee Ponds Creek track is somewhat underrated and underused. Main reason for this is the fact that although the track is well maintained it ends up at a featureless fence. Only when the East/West runway is being used would it appeal to the hidden planen spotter in all of us. Access to the Woodlands Historic Park would even attract the greener types.
