Day 584 | Bass Coast Rail Trail: another day, another rail trail, or 2

87 km | zzOz total: 19,579 km

I’m not the wheel dipper type, put your bike in the Indian Ocean, ride it across the continent and give it a second baptism in the Pacific.

I remember on one of my early trips to Europe with my partner, we were in Milan and took off to Turin to see some important thing or other. Almost there we stopped in for a coffee and were so enchanted we didn’t leave for hours, chatting to the locals and watching the world go by, too intrigued by the here and now to worry about some ancient old thing that had got us 99% of the way there.

I didn’t go down to the lighthouse at Cape Leeuwin, just peered over the fence, or dip my toe in the water. But I guess I took my photo at Cape York with the sign just to prove I’m not completely unsentimental.

I like the story of the eccentric French writer Raymond Roussel who, in the 1920s, took a boat to India and 3 miles offshore looked at the coastline through a telescope, looked interesting, but then jumped ship while still out at sea and headed back to France.

That’s how it was with me and Wilson’s Prom, there’s plenty of compelling reasons to avoid the place: been there a few times already; it’s a popular national park being so close to Melbourne, filled with rangers, severely burnt out four years ago; it’s a 60 km each way cul de sac to Tidal River where there are limited campsites in the height of the holiday period, people book a year in advance; there’s then a full day’s trudge to the lighthouse, so it’s a minimum 3 day excursion; etc.

None of this would matter if my heart was in it: to be truthful, I was never going to do more than have it as a direction to head.

I’m not one to have regrets.

No better way to indicate this 19 month pedal has been all about the journey, not any destination.