My craptastic bicycle ride through Westgate Park
Yesterday after my trial run of shopping by bicycle at Costco I decided to take the scenic route home.
The sun was shining, the wind after being against me the entire trip down was now blowing against my back propelling me forward and the Trucker was handling the Costco load beautifully.
It was a marvellous afternoon.
The scenic route for me back home starts off with a casual flat road stroll down Lorimer street. On the left is industrial buildings and on the right is the foot of the Yarra. At the end of Lorimer the landscape drastically changes and opens up to Westgate Park.
If you ignore the fact that you’re at the foot of the Westgate Bridge, the park is like having a small slice of remoteness right in the heart of Melbourne.
The short offroad trail that passes through Westgate Park for me is the highlight of the scenic route home. It’s quiet, rarely do I pass anyone on the trail and you get a sense of sailing past nature all around as you cycle through.
Yesterday however, my venture into Westgate park was less then relaxing.
After the twenty or so minute ride down Lorimer Street, I entered the park, narrowly missing a couple who had taken it upon themselves to canoodle on their grass with their legs stretched out covering half the bicycle track.
Ccontinuing on things were going well until I was stopped abruptly by a large fence.
It’s kind of hard to make out but the yellow paint on the sign reads ‘gate’ and has an arrow pointing to the right. Given this is the direction I’d normally be heading and there was an offtrack driveway with plenty of bicycle tire marks to the right I figured this to be nothing more then a detour.
So, with the Long Haul Trucker easily capable of handling some off road action I set off into the unknown following the tire marks on the gravel left by those before me.
The track wasn’t really defined and took me through parts of Westgate Park I’d never seen before. The bicycle track through the park is much more scenic but this offroad detour had its own industrial charms.
“Puff puff wow this thing goes on forever, where am I?!”.
Normally I wouldn’t mind but I was hauling nearly 15kg of groceries back from Costco and the scenic route was starting to feel like a bad idea.
“Y’know if I died out here nobody would ever find me”. The Long Haul Trucker was handling the terrain beautifully but after 15-20 minutes I was eager to get back on track homeward bound. I was starting to imagine this “gate” didn’t even exist.
The bicycle tire tracks were still abundant though so I pressed on.
…eventually I got to the end of the track and found the gate.
YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.
As I parked the Trucker and got off the bike to investigate I soon realised that this was infact some sort of cruel joke. Not only was the gate utterly locked (they had placed padlocks not only on the gate but also six or seven of them along each individual chain link) but there was absolutely no where else to go other then back where I came from.
You’ll note the bike path just beyond the gate which is where the normal track through Westgate Park would lead me onto.
As I trundled back along the never ending windy track I passed a bulldozer.
For a half second I seriously thought about trying to fire it up and blast my way through the gate… but then I’d probably wind up in jail. It looked all rusty anyway, oh and then there’s the fact I’ve got no idea how to start one.
I’m going out on a limb here and assuming there’s some way to disable these things so schmucks like me can’t just joyride around on them smashing down obstructive gates.
When I eventually got back to the barricaded bike track I actually read all the signage.
You can see the same sign in the background of my first photo and I probably should have read it then. But can you blame me for not taking any notice and jumping at the opportunity to stick it to the man.
Never underestimate the seductive lure of an underground shortcut labelled ‘gate’?
I’m not exactly sure what they’re doing that they need to close off the entire track but from the gist of it it seems the council is doing some work on the Westgate bridge. Why this means the track has to be closed I have no idea, as you can see it’s not like the track is near any infrastructure.
I mean what are they worried cyclists will steal all their dirt or that the bridge might collapse on us as we ride under it?
Also what’s with putting the detour sign after we’ve spent 30 mins riding down Lorimer Street and entered the park. Prior to this there wasn’t any mention anywhere that the track would be closed.
I did note after taking the detour on the other side that signage was up before you entered the park mentioning that the track was closed. The council could have at least put something up at the start of the Lorimer street lane just after the Docklands as there’s no reason for a cyclist to go down there unless they plan to ride through Westgate park to the beach.
Unfortunately there was still one more kick in the nuts for me yet to come. As I took the detour and found myself eventually on the otherside of the park I then ran into this clown.
Congratulations SSR-274, you’ve got to be trying really hard to park your car directly in the middle of the bloody bike path. Whoever you are you’re a freaking moron.
I eventually got home and fists clenched vowed never to take the scenic route anywhere ever again.
Bring on global warming already.
September 7th, 2009 at 8:33 am Citizen-D(Quote)
You know this state is stuffed when even bike path traffic is getting screwed from roadworks. Most of Melbourne are over them given that the ever changing lane/speed on the Westgate itself makes no difference as everyone just does 80. Oh and traveling on the Westgate at night is a lot of fun. It seems the construction company decide that at night normal safety laws actually don’t exist and so they have some fun with lane closures and signage. Alternating left and right lane closures on the tight sweeping off ramp from the Bolte was fun. Lane closures also start now with a big arse truck with a slam barrier and an animated arrow – none of this graduated witches hat closure. No sir. there’s the sign and….there’sthetruckmergeleftnowdeargodswervehorns. The Westgate bridge itself has had lane closures and construction for three years so I wonder why they chose to close the park now? Maybe they’ve just realised people can see the cracks that keep appearing despite work from under there?
September 7th, 2009 at 9:35 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
Lane closures on a corkscrew bend at night is just criminal.
Wouldn’t surprise me at all if what you’re suggesting is correct.
‘Hey BAWB, those people under the bridge are looking mighty suspicious like at us.’
‘hmm… it’ll only take one of them to realise that sitting around talking about our missuses all day isn’t actually road work. CLOSE THE PARK!’
‘hehehe problem solved.’
September 7th, 2009 at 9:38 pm Neil(Quote)
Same thing happened twice when I did the Capital city trail last year. Vague yellow arrows spray-painted on the footpath near the construction of the Royal Parade bypass and just 1 sign pointing to no particular direction near Merri Creek Trail. Bicyclists are 2nd class citizens in Melbourne.
January 3rd, 2010 at 8:05 pm FlyBoy(Quote)
I experienced the exact same scenario today when I rode with a mate. I had intended to drive to Willy from the Northern Suburbs and take my 11 yr old daughter across on the punt for fish and chips at station pier (as she loves to do). Today there was no detour sign that I spotted, just a track closed sign at the fence.
January 3rd, 2010 at 11:49 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Oh you are kidding me they’re still carrying out construction work?
Seriously how freaking stupid are Melbourne Parks or whoever’s responsible?!
‘Duh do we put up a huge barrier in the middle of the park for months with no warning that people can’t walk through or come up with a workable solution…?’
And how screwed is the Westgate bridge if they need to carry out repairs on it for four months and counting?
January 11th, 2012 at 1:05 pm Hoboct(Quote)
Yesterday (10 Jan 2012) and this path is still blocked off due to the Westgate Bridge works, which I thought were long since finished.
January 19th, 2012 at 11:24 pm Cyclist(Quote)
@ Hoboct – I also found this out today (20 January 2012). First time riding through the park, thought I’d try something new. No signs about a detour while entering the park, until coming across a fence with a sign noting that I should head back where I came from.
Surely some signs much further up the track wouldn’t be too hard? No estimated completion date on the signage, either.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:33 pm Waz(Quote)
Same thing again today, did a forum searches which said the riding there was good for an inner city area. I drive over the bridge hoping to do a few laps and the place is still locked up.
I thought they had built a pump track there amoungst other things. Waste of time, will probably never open again.
February 26th, 2012 at 11:19 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
2 and a half years later yeah, I think they have no intentions of opening it up again.
If I was still in the area I’d be getting on the phone to the relevant council and demanding an answer. There’s no excuse for completely scuttling an otherwise peaceful (and more importantly useful) major bicycle route from Port Phillip to the western suburbs.