Why trains don’t have tyres

My friend and work colleague Robyn and I took two days of our annual leave to give ourselves a break before the onslaught really starts. (The fact that battle has already commenced with an intensity that has been daunting does not augur well for the official start of semester next week. Sigh.)

Today was a lovely sunny day in Ballarat, and so we decided to head off along part of the Ballarat to Skipton rail trail. This follows an old disused railway line, which has had its rails and sleepers removed. This leaves a nice wide path, and since the gradients were intended for trains this means that the hills are not too steep for unfit utilisers of pedal-power.

We made our way to Nimons trestle bridge, which spans a wide gully and small creek. It is built from massive gum trees, and is an impressive feat of Australian pioneer engineering. The second vertical photo below shows the upper “storey” underneath the bridge, viewed along the length of the bridge from one end.

Unfortunately, at this point we discovered that Robyn’s tyre had a puncture (broken glass seemed to be the culprit), and we were not properly prepared with a repair kit. 🙁 However this didn’t stop us enjoying the scenery, walking over and then back around the bridge, taking a few photos … and, of course, finding the cache that is hiding nearby. I then cycled back to the car while Robyn pushed her bike out onto the main road where I met up with her again. It wasn’t quite the expedition we had planned for the day, but it was still a good trip anyway.