Sunday 14 February 2010 Kelly

Happy Valentines Day! On this day
traditionally set aside for chocolates and flowers we woke up bright and early
for our first group bike ride. It was exciting to ride all together but within
the first 30mins I got my first flat and then a few minutes later I got my
second puncture so I wasn’t off to the best start. Once we sorted out a new
tube we were back on our way to our day time rehearsal space which we
discovered was at “Kilbride Centre” a beautiful location across from the beach.
We played energizer games and then got down to business discussing how we are
going to function as group for the next 8 weeks. We are allocated rotating
roles for the day such as facilitator, stretch guru, composting ninja, vibe
watcher and blog writer – that’s me. So we all get a chance to experience
different tasks. We also talked about living as a democratic community and how
to make consensus decisions. With this working model we worked out our food
mandate to reflect our sustainable consumption ideals which includes eating
vegetarian, local, organic, free range, fair trade and bulk foods. I’m learning
so much about sustainability and putting it into practice. 

Monday 15 February 2010- Alice

We will try and keep an ongoing record of what's been happening
along our journey on this blog and our newsletter. It's going to be an amazing trip travelling from Melbourne all the way down to Sydney for 2 months over 1100+ KM's, meeting new faces, living in a cycling community for 5 weeks, and trying to "be the change [we] want to see in the world!"

We all can't wait to jump onto our bikes and hit the road!

- The Southcoast Tour Crew

PS - Thanks so much to all of those individuals who have
supported with inkind and monetary donations. It is helping our project sustain itself.

If you would like to donate you can do so by clicking on the donation button below.

And we are back!  Presenting at the school we started our first, slightly anxious, and very excited days anticipating the trip ahead.
Started the day sleepy, despite our 'amazing' 8:45am start.  -oh, that's right, we rode 104km yesterday.  bum-chek-a-wa-waw!  Uhuh, so, done with the ringing our own bells.  We performed our very last school performance at Kilbreda College (where we're staying), to a group of year 8's and 9's, followed by two runs of each of our workshops.  We then had lunch with the Justice and Democracy group here who are working on some awesome projects - from fair trade to refugees.  Mmm, falafels too, the other way to our hearts!
After lunch, a mad rush to make our eco villians and eco superhero costumes ensued, including perusing of op-shops, amazing new used found for ex-inner tubes, and manic crafternooning.  

 On a chilly morning, we left Woodend, the whole group feeling a bit low in energy as we headed back to Melbourne.  As we continued to Sunbury, our meeting spot for the day, the hills increased in size and length and trailer riders (Kelsey) pleaded, "please, please, don't make me do it.  i don't want to!"  But she made it up, along with everyone else.  At Sunbury, some 50kms into the ride, the group separated with some choosing to peddle on for another 54km to the center of Melbourne and others choosing to avoid the manic traffic of city life and the hot afternoon sun, but taking the train back to Mentone.
Welcome to the train option:
 

Critical mass
5:30 pm meeting on the corner of La Trobe St and Swanston St in the City
Party!
38 Harrison St East Brunswick
7:30pm
Eco Super Hero/Villian Theme
Food by Food not Bombs Crew
Home brew available for $4
Music from local bands
The Otesha crew will be performing our comedy skit, showing a slide show presentation of our adventures, and generally partying down.
Please join us!
 

Today we took a very hilly ride about 17 kms out of Woodend, past the famous Hanging Rock to Candlebark school. The school was set up 3 years ago by famous young adult fiction author John Marsden, and has students from Prep to Year 9, set on a beautiful property. We were impressed by the amazing sense of community that pervades the school, with students mixing between year levels, no uniforms, no class bells, child-directed learning, students being responsible for cleaning up their space after the days learning, and amazing, home cooked food provided by the school for students every day.  They have a garden, a trampoline (I can confirm the prescence of the trampoline quite thoroughly), a communal kitchen and even a space where they have WWOOFers (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) where volunteers come and stay on the property and help in the garden, cook and even help in class! (Many of the team are itching to sign up for this when they return!)
We gave a performance and were then given a tour of the campus by some energetic kids.
John Marsden watched our performance! I later snuck into the library to see if any of his titles were stocked... I could only find the first book from the "tomorrow" series!
Anna (she is back on the tour! Sporting some excellent war wounds. A cheer squad met her at the station yesterday) and I rode past Hanging Rock on the way home and walked to the base of the granite pillars to absorb the eerie energy. 
At Woodend we are staying at the local Neighbourhood house, which has some amazing solar passive design elements and energy saving features, and a fanatsic chook run and permaculture garden set up by a Greencorps team. We enjoyed seeing locals come to give the chooks their scraps, and pick fresh onions, spinach, lettuce, leeks, eggplant, garlic and jerusalem artichoke from the garden for our dinner.

A cheer for Anna was created as we waited at Woodend train station...
"It's Anna, She's hot,
She's really bruised a lot,
She's arrived, she's here,
So let's give her one big cheer,
GOOOOOOOO Anna!"
Lots of laughter and excitement was displayed on the station platform as Anna rejoined us after a week of recovery. An Othesha family member reunited. Anna will finish the tour with us which is fabulous news after her Bob incident created much uncertainty. The shortest ride on the tour to date this morning, only 17 kms from Kyneton to Woodend but the strongest head wind we have experienced so far on the trip. Despite fairly flat terrain the average pace was 10 kms an hour - slow going!
We have reached our last town before our homeward journey to Melbourne. In the afternoon we gave a performance and had a worshop at Braemar college - situated 7 kms uphill on Mt Macedon. The roll down the hill was enjoyed after entertaining some rowdy year 9's (by all except Julia - who had to ride to the medical centre for a tetanus booster shot, after stepping on a rusty nail in the Kyneton scout hall).
A lovely array of salads for dinner with the Macdeon Ranges sustainability Group. An amazing Otesha salad was created from vegies picked from the permaculture garden out the back of where we are staying. A treasure hunt with a difference! Once again the group were inspired to hear about local sustainable inititatives, including a vegie swap, regular farmers markets, green thumb fridays and on friday nights, movies that matter. Go Woodend! As the tour nears the end, talk turns to the important issues... like what Eco super hero/villain to dress up as for our end of tour party. We hope to see you all there! 
 

The house we are staying in in Kyneton is on a corrugated dirt road. So corrugated that my teeth and eyeballs shake! I bumped into a friend on the way to the local primary school, who, conveniently, has a home made biscuit company on the main street - Mmmmm biscuits for Otesha!.
We performed and workshopped with Kyneton Primary School Grade 5's and 6's. I chatted to one of the teachers about culture chnage and how many sustainable choices are a part of the school culture, including water saving and electricity saving. She has great hope in the kids to continue this endeavour through experiences like having the Otesha project visit. During the afternoon we observed smoke on the distant hills from a bushfire. We decided to be cautious and head into town early for our BBQ with various Kyneton community groups. We performed outside in the park to the local scout group, 'sans' props (which were left behind at the hosue in our hasty evacuation) under the growing plume of bushfire smoke. Afterwards we enjoyed lentil burgers and had some positive discussions.
We decided to relocate to the the local scout hall to sleep as the bushfire (later identified as the one burning 5 kms south of Daylesford) was coming in the Kyneton direction. The team made an evacuation plan and a schedule to monitor the situation via local radio throughout the night.  Even though we were not under direct threat, I am so proud of everyone for making rational intelligent decisions for the safety of the group and looking after each other. It was another example of the strength of the human spirit. - Libby

Today was a 75 km ride to Kyneton. The ride started beautifully on a quiet road through a forest. This soon changed and it became hilly, hot and hellish. For the first time, we rode through areas that were affected by the recent bush fires. It was sad to see so many fields burnt and so many crops lost.
We arrived in Kyneton to a suprise feast cooked by the two lovely Otesha groupies... John's famous falafels were finally sampled by the crew! The day ended beautifully with a massage by Celine... - Pip

Today we performed at the family fun day in bendigo, at local Lake Waroona, alongside Vox Bandicoot and a whole range of community groups, organised by the Bendigo Sustainability Group (BSG). We met groups organising permablitzes, food co-operatives, farmers markets, a drop in eco centre and much more. Vox Bandicoot was the highlight performing a comedy skit on sustainability and entertaining all the kids with his charisma and charm. BSG's first major event for the year was a success with over 200 people attending the day. In the evening the group enjoyed a dinner of Dahl at Ynte's house, a lovely woman who billeted 6 of the crew in her lovely house. - Celine