I'm sure that I'm the last person on earth to discover this but....I can't believe how good Google Earth is for planning a trip. Particularly by bike.
I planned to ride up to Porcupine Ridge (near Daylesford apparently) from Carlton for a Cup Day picnic on a friends property. I plugged in the starting and finishing addresses into the Google Earth site, and a map with a set of very clear instructions pops out. Complete with distances (and estimated car travel times) of each stage. Dare I say it but it was better than Larry's...not that I'd want to criticize the great man.
I printed of one set for my partner who was driving up (and more importantly my ride home) and then just hit the "No Freeways" button and got a matching map and set of instructions for the trip by bike.
All that was needed was to set the cycle computer trip meter to zero at each turn, and know your left from your right. The error in distance readings was less than 100m over sections that were up to about 25km long. Not bad...especially given the error was probably in my original calibration of the bike computer.
The directions were impeccable. Interestingly the 'No Freeways' route was some 3km shorter than the alternative, but the estimated (car) travel time nearly one hour longer.
For those that did the Great Divide Ride a couple of years ago there was a lot of common ground over the road to Trentham. However it was good to ride it without getting pelted by torrential rain.
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