Machka 

What is your part of the world like? Would you recommend your area to someone wanting to do a cycletour there? Show us some pictures, tell us about some interesting things in your area.


I could tell you all sorts of positive things about cycling in Manitoba, and if you're doing a cross-Canada tour, there are a number of places worth going. I can also tell you quite a bit about Alberta - the Canadian Rockies, for example, are a definite "must see" and of all the places I've lived and visited in Canada, I miss the Rockies the most.


But I currently live in the state of Victoria, Australia so I'll talk about this area a bit.

Victoria is a small state which reminds me quite a bit of the Vancouver area with the mountains, the greenness, and the weather which tends to be a bit on the rainy side, especially in the winter. The Great Dividing Range runs right through the middle of Victoria so there is beautiful mountain scenery, and the ocean wraps around the southern and eastern sides.


Weather
In early April, the winter rains set in and it rains, and rains, and rains until the end of October. The temperature is cool, ranging from about 0C (or colder on the tops of the mountains) to about 15C on the occasional nice sunny day. The mountain tops get cool enough for snow, and there is quite a ski culture all throughout the Great Dividing Range. We've got two popular ski mountains quite close to where we live.

In early November, the weather gets warmer and the rain eases up, although December can be quite variable. This past December actually ended up being quite chilly and wet, but some Decembers can be hot. January and February are usually hot.

If you're coming here, I'd recommend October to December or March/April so as to avoid the cool rain and the extreme heat ... unless, of course, you like cool rain or heat.


Terrain
The terrain in the eastern to middle of the state is hilly to mountainous. The hills tend to be a bit like the hills in the eastern US - relatively short and quite steep. And the mountains are what you might expect ... long, fairly steep climbs.

The terrain in the western part of the state tends to be fairly flat (with the exception of the Grampians which are basically a large rocky outcrop in the middle of all the flatness) ... it reminds me a bit of Manitoba out that way.

Victoria has quite a bit of coastline with some lovely beaches and roads along the ocean, including the beautiful Great Ocean Road.


Accommodations & Other Conveniences
As for accommodations and other conveniences, etc. ... in Australia most towns have public toilets found in parks, in the middle of town, and other places. When you cycle into a town, look for a little blue sign that looks similar to a street sign indicating where the nearest toilet facility is. You won't usually find toilets in the businesses you stop at (petrol station, bakery etc.), although sometimes you might.

Some of the larger towns might have fast food places (Subway, Hungry Jacks) but most smaller towns will not. Most towns will have a bakery or take-away place which are great places to get something yummy to eat. They'll usually have grocery stores too if you'd prefer going that route. Most towns will also usually have a park with BBQs so you can travel without a stove if you want, and cook your meals on the BBQs. Caravan parks will have BBQs as well. You either just press a button to operate the BBQs or insert some change to activate them.

And most towns will have a caravan park. Caravan parks include places for tent camping, if that is your preference, but they usually also have caravans (RVs) and cabins you can stay in if the weather is bad. These vary in price from about $60/night to about $120/night depending on the popularity of the area. The cabins are like very small mobile homes ... quite nice. There are quite a few hostels in Australia as well, and if you are in a touristy area, there will likely be a nice hostel. Some towns will have B&Bs and motels/hotels as well, although these will often be more expensive.

Almost forgot ... most towns will have a Tourist Information centre. These are great places!! You can pick up maps and other information about the area you're cycling through, and you can ask about accommodations etc. Sometimes the people in the Tourist Information centres will even call up hostels or caravan parks and book a place for you, if you figure you might need a booking to get in (i.e. school holidays (which are different from North American school holidays!!), weekends, holidays, etc.)


And of course there's Melbourne, the big city, which has a population of about 4 million. Melbourne reminds me a little of a huge Winnipeg - a pretty, interesting city with lots of culture. I enjoy going into Melbourne every so often for a visit.


I've got a collection of photos of various parts of Australia here ... heaps of photos!! Most of them are of various parts of Victoria, with a few from Tasmania, New South Wales, and Queensland.
Australia: https://www.flickr.com/photos/1430288...7602419256784/


The Grampians ...


Near Portland, in Southwestern Victoria ...


Along the Great Ocean Road ... this is London Bridge ...


The terrain in the area where I live ... this is on top of one of the ski mountains (taken in summer so there's no snow) ...


And this one is just up the road from the town where we live ... as you can tell by all the green, it's the middle of winter here ...


Mt Oberon is on Wilson's Prom, the southern-most part of Victoria. The only civilisation on Wilson's Prom is Tidal River, a large caravan park ... otherwise Wilson's Prom is given over to nature - plants, animals, ocean, mountains. We've cycled in there a number of times. You can just see Tidal River down below ...

benajah

I am from the southern Appalachian mts, in the US, right at the southern terminus of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The strip of Appalachians run from Georgia to Maine, and sort of up into Canada, and is just absolutely beautiful country. Due to some unfortunate 70's movies like Deliverance the population sort of gets a bad rap but in actuality people are very nice, and much better educated and informed than the hillbilly stereotype. The folks in the deeper south like the Florida panhandle, Alabama, Mississippi are much more "redneck" than in the Appalachians.
For the most part the country is rather remote, but there are some larger cities like Asheville, NC and Roanoke, VA.
Once you get up into New York, around where West Point is, it is some of the prettiest country I have ever seen. New England rocks, and Vermont and New Hampshire have that sort of 1776 independance thing still going strong and it shows in the regional culture. Awesome place.

MichaelW

Norfolk UK. In the flatter, drier East about 120 miles North of London.
Part of the North Sea Cycle Route.
Mile upon mile of narrow, empty country lanes. A pretty small village every few miles, larger market towns every 10-15 miles, some great coastline and one really pretty city.
We've got the UKs newest national park, the Broads, an expanse of shallow lakes dug out for peat fuel over thousands of years, a bit like the swampy South but not so many alligators. You can hire canoes, take boat tours and there are some small ferrys which take bikes.

The area has strong US connections with many US Army flyers stationed here during the war. You can still find many of the old airbases and a couple are still in use.

Booger1

I'm from Los Angeles......Sorry but it was too smoggy to take a picture.There's really no reason to come here,it sucks.

Cons:There are 8,000,000 cars on the road at all times,nobody speaks english that's under 50 years old,It costs $20.00 to have a soda and hot dog at a Dodgers game,you have to ride AT LEAST 50 miles in any direction to pitch a tent somewhere,then when you get there,the rangers treat you like a bum ,red lights and stop signs are meaningless,Trying to ride a bicycle on a MUP is impossible at best,Every rock at any campground within 100 miles of L.A. has gang tags on it,There are parts of town I wouldn't ride through unless I had a weapon,The bad parts require body armor and weapon,I wouldn't know there was a star in the sky if I had never left here at some point,There are 7000ft mountains 30 miles from my house but I can't see them on most days...my hands are tired.

Pros:The weathers nice

axolotl

Love the LA description, Booger1! (I'm sure the Chamber of Commerce thanks you.) The first time I went down to LA when I was living in northern California, my friends who grew up in LA asked me how the smog was when I returned northward. I told them it didn't seem bad at all and that I could see Mt. Baldy easily. They replied, "YOU COULD SEE MT. BALDY?? That only happens a couple of days a year!!" I didn't entirely believe them until I returned. The smog was awful, and when I asked locals, they all said it was merely a normal smog level, nothing unusual.

benajah

Where I live now, the SF Bay Area...
Pros: Beautiful area. Cool cultural stuff. Close to the Sierras. Lots of fun stuff to do.
Cons: You and your spouse have to make 100K each to even approach a normal middle class lifestyle, good luck surviving as a single income family. I have a VA loan benefit for buying a house, and cant even use it because it maxes out at well under what a house costs here. Teenaged kids cannot get into college here because they cut admission, high school kids can't go to public school because if you do you will be really lucky to graduate being functionally literate. Unless you are an IT person there are very few well paying jobs, traffic sucks but admittedly is nowhere near as bad as LA or Atlanta.

It is some of the best road cycling in the country though.

raybo

I, too, live in San Francisco and while I see no reason to discuss either the cost of living nor public schools (isn't this a bike touring forum?), I can say it has a strong local biking lobby and there are many bike lanes that go across the city. There is a phone number that bikers can call to report potholes to the city which are then promptly filled by the public works department. Bicycles are now an important part of the city planning process and a two block length of Market Street was recently closed to car traffic to see if it made bike riding safer and more attractive for commuters.

In the summer, the fog and wind make local biking both cold and challenging. The popular thing for tourists to do is to rent a bike at Fisherman's Wharf and ride over the GG Bridge to Sausalito or points further along. This clogs the 10 foot wide walkway on the bridge with inexperienced, inattentive, and inconsiderate tourists, making the 2 mile ride over the bridge dangerous and infuriating. It gets so bad that sometimes I simply turn around and go home instead of trying to fight through the scrum. It is worth noting that the fog and the wind greatly reduce the number of tourists riding bikes on the bridge!

There are beautiful and challenging rides both north and south that are from 10 to 60 miles in distance. The coastline both north and south offers world class bike touring and there are hundreds of bike tourists who ride through every year.

One thing I don't like about it is that there are lots of "hammer boys" out riding, especially on the weekends who ride in pacelines, go too fast for the conditions, and are less considerate than most car drivers. In fact, I try not to ride on the weekends to avoid dealing with these jerks.

On a good day, it is one of the best places to ride in the world!



Ray

benajah

Out where I live in the Moraga, the roads are filled with the hammer boys. I am one of them, most of the time, and that is precicely why I live in the town I do. In fact, that is pretty much why I have stayed living here, because of the riding. Just can't beat it. Where I am from originally, the rednecks throw beer bottles at you.

dcrowell

I live in southern Indiana, not far from Louisville Kentucky.

Louisville has an up-and-coming bicycle culture. They also have some wonderful coffee shops.


Southern Indiana is a bit more rural, and although the 'burbs can be a pain, once you get outside of them there are some wonderful low-traffic roads.


Indiana doesn't have mountains, but we do have hills.


The ACA Underground Railroad route runs through my town (Charlestown Indiana). It's a great area for a long tour, or a quick day trip.


I'm far enough south that there isn't usually much snow, but there are exceptions.


You don't have to travel far to find an interesting "road".


Southern Indiana has some wonderful riding. I plan to eventually move to Louisville, but I'll still head across the river to ride here.

valygrl

Neil_B

Pennsylvania, USA, has been described as "Philadelphia in one corner, Pittsburgh in another, and Alabama in between." The region outside those two cites has also been called "Pennsyltucky." Both expressions are sometimes used as a slam by linking PA with two Southern states allegedly known for backwardness. Well, AL and KY are not backward, and neither is the non-urban part of PA. Pennsylvania, a Latin coinage meaning "Penn's Woodlands", has two million acres of forested land and 116 state parks, all free for the public use. We have rolling farmlands:



Lakes and streams:



Quiet country roads:



Mountains and valleys:





Great scenic wonders of man and nature:





And friendly people who are open to others and readily add other cultures to the human mosaic that is Pennsylvania:



Oh, and bike tourists will like the fact we have in PA an excellent set of long distance bike routes and a large number of bike trails.

So, as much as we like having Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in the state, those two cites are not the state.

AaronJohnTurner

Give me a month and I should have some fantastic pictures of the Canadian Rockies!

Jude

I'm from Philadelphia, PA, which is nice in its compromise between flats and hills - nothing too intense, but it'll keep you in good shape (unless you live in Roxborough, then you'd better have quads of steel). Also, don't ride a road bike on the city streets - your commuter should have nice fat tires to account for the quality of the pavement which is considerably worse than many singletrack trails I've seen.

I went to college in Harrisonburg, Virginia, which is in the Shenandoah Valley...nuf said.

Right now I'm in Nazareth, Israel, and I don't have a bike, which is killing me. There's a huge network of dirt roads all over the back country, and scenery around here is beautiful even in summer (in spring everything is bright green, in summer it turns deathly brown). But don't come here between June and September because the heat will **** you right up.

Anyway, some pictures...


There's flat farmland in the Jezreel Valley just below the ridge Nazareth sits on.


Nice forest paths (this is actually on top of Mt. Tabor, which would be no joke to bike up)


This is Beit Sahour, the little West Bank town where I lived the first time I came here. The hills here are even more extreme and bike-unfriendly but the scenery's nice.

More bucolic scenery up in the Galilee



Dramatic mountains and valleys (this doesn't really show how dramatic)


The whole area is crisscrossed with dirt paths that go through forests, fields, Roman ruins, you name it.

BengeBoy 

I've lived lots of places (including southern California) and I'm doing more miles living in the Pacific Northwest than anywhere I've lived.

Pros:
- spectacular scenery; huge variety of terrain and scenery
- usually not very hot in the summer on the east side of the Cascades
- well developed bike culture; lots of great bike shops in the cities

For bike tourists, it's worth noting that how many ACA routes go through the area:
- the Pacific Coast route
- the Northern Tier
- the Washington Parks route
- the new Sierra Cascades route

Over in the Pacific Northwest forum, there's a pretty active thread where we post ride shots, worth looking at:
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...W-Photo-thread



Cons:
- in the winter, it rains. If you don't adjust your attitude and equipment to deal with this, you'll stay inside much of the time. If you figure out how to get equipped for rain, you can happily ride year round
- lots of climbing

RaiderInBlue47

Tennessee is fantastic! There's something for everyone in Tennessee. If you love the city and the night, we have Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville. If you love going into the wilderness, there's East Tennessee. If you love rolling hills and farmland, you just described a lot of the less inhabited parts of Tennessee!

Tennessee is broken up into 3 parts. East, Middle and West Tennessee.


East Tennessee
---
East Tennessee is chock full of mountains and valleys and scenery. You can't go more than 5 minutes without a beautiful view. Even driving on I-40, you see amazing sights. Great postcard material. And don't even get me started on East Tennessee in Autumn. The weather cools down to the 50s and 60s and the leaves turn. It's stunning.





Middle Tennessee
---
Middle Tennessee is the most developed IMO. I live in Middle Tennessee. Lots and lots of rolling hills. Not a flat piece of land in sight. Nothing so bad that you'll kill yourself on your bike though, but enough to make it interesting. The area is also pretty dominated by rivers. The populated areas are near a river. Not as picturesque as East Tennessee but still gorgeous. And so very historic. Lots of civil war history through Middle Tennessee. If you're a history buff, you'll LOVE Middle Tennessee. And of course, you GOTTA stop in Nashville and go to the Wildhorse Saloon.





West Tennessee
---
West Tennessee is the most rural IMO. Memphis is the only major city out there and everything else is pretty agricultural-based. It's flatter and it's also dominated by rivers. To the east is the Tennessee River, to the west is the Mississippi. Very pretty year-round and you'll certainly see lots of barns and picturesque farmland. And Memphis is great (as long as you're safe)! Everyone's gotta see Graceland and go down Beale Street and listen to the music. And what a better way to finish off a tour than touching tires with the Mississippi River!





There aren't many better states for a cross-state tour than Tennessee. Great stops along the way, great scenery, great starting points and end points, just an all-around great ride. And don't forget about southern hospitality. I've been a lot of places but I've never met such polite people. I was riding through some really rural places this one time when I got a flat. I carried my bike up to the closest house and a woman was there. She let me in, gave me lemonade and drove me to the gas station where I had parked at about 20 minutes away. All this for a complete stranger!

It's a fantastic place to visit and stay. Come to Tennessee!

antokelly

so have many of you folk been to my home town Ireland god's own country.

Blues Frog

I have the famous Route 66 AND the Katy Trail in the state of Misery. When I have explored them myself sufficiently I will post pictures. At this point I'm still saving up for a touring bike. Thanks for the spectacular photography. Blues Frog

Shifty

Eugene, Oregon, home to Co-Motion Cycles, Bike Friday and many many fine cycling opportunities. Eugene sits along teh Willamette River and is 55 miles from the ocean beaches to the west and 55 miles to the crest of the Cascade Mountains to the east. We are blessed with lots of rain, so we stay green year round, yet it's a dry climate so usually not humid in the summer. For bike touring the best time of year is July - September, when rain fall is very minimal. Low traffic paved roads are everywhere with many mountain forest roads paved due to the winter rains. These roads are a gem for cycling, offering mountain travel, camping and forest environment with low car traffic.

Eugene on the Willamette River looking west to the coast range and Pacific Ocean in the top of the picture



Forest road in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains



Eugene is in Oregon's wine country, take a break along your tour


Ride the Cascade Mountains



The Willamette Valley


And the Oregon Coast




Perfect??? pretty close IMHO

benajah

I used to live in Carrickmacross, on the east coast really close to the border. Tiny town but it was a beautiful area. My wife and I have seriously considered moving to Ireland permanant.

chasm54

I live in North East England. From a cyclist's point of view my home town isn't especially interesting in itself, but it is close to serious cycling country, in Northumberland. Northumberland is the most northerly county in England - go any further and you're in Scotland - and also the emptiest, having the lowest population density in the country. The coastline is dramatic, and there's a national cycle route that will take you along quiet roads right up the coast, through the Scottish borders and into Edinburgh - well worth three days on any cycle tour. This is Bamburgh Castle, about one-third of the way along the route.



Further inland Hadrian's Wall runs across the county - and the whole of Northern England - from East to West. Built by the Romans c. 120 AD to keep the Scots out (actually they were Picts, rather than Scots) and still visible for large parts of its 74-mile length. One can walk along its whole length and there's a national cycle route that follows it across country.



For those that like climbs there are the Cheviot Hills. Not high, but beautiful, empty, and challenging enough on a loaded tourer.



Accommodation is mostly in B&Bs or small local hotels. These are plentiful - towns and villages aren't large for the most part, but there are lots of them. And there's plenty of opportunities to camp, both at official sites and through negotiation with local farmers who are often pretty relaxed. Out-and-out guerrilla camping is highly unpopular, however, and not to be recommended.

Weather is unpredictable but rarely extreme. You can't rely on staying dry at any time of year, but total rainfall isn't all that high - only just over 30 inches a year. It has cool summers so don't expect to expire from heatstroke.

I'd strongly recommend it to any cycle tourist. In a couple of weeks, not for the first time, I am going to ride through some of the territory pictured above in order to visit Scotland and the English lakes on a two-week tour. Can't wait, really.

Neil_B

This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in a silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England....

axolotl

Ha! Jefferson Beauregard "Jeff" Sessions III is doing his best to convince me otherwise about AL.

chasm54

...That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.
Ah! would the scandal vanish with my life,
How happy then were my ensuing death.

Things ain't what they used to be. And neither am I. What a pity I am less Gaunt than I was...


I see you're a student of literature as well as an historian. Nobody like Shakespeare, he's the Eddy Merckx of the English language LOL.

Neil_B

I can't thank the British enough. Not only for bringing about the birth of the US, but also for standing up for freedom when the rest of the world was prepared to stand down for fascism:

"What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."

Machka 

Here ... to get you started ... a colletion of Canadian Rockies photos from rides I've done there ...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/1430288...7619203595712/