This is a cue sheet for the Ballan Steiglitz Anakie Lara day tour Bicycle Map. You can print it out for later use.
| Cumulative | Distance | Where | Notes | Direction | Elevation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0km | 0km | Ballan | Frequent trains from Melbourne | NNW | 359° | 516m |
| 0.45km | 0.45km | The Honeycomb take-away has decent coffee. The bakery a block or so west makes sangas and rolls if you haven't got lunch (the next shops are at Anakie, probably mid-afternoon if like me you're stopping to look at things along the way) | W | 270° | 510m | |
| 2.91km | 2.46km | I know we've only started, but somewhere around here is the Old Ballan Cemetry if you feel like a few quiet minutes contemplating life, the past, and the surrounding countryside. | SSW | 190° | 517m | |
| 10.45km | 7.54km | Fiskville | I always wondered what "CFA Fiskville" was. Now I know. | ESE | 103° | 441m |
| 17.23km | 6.78km | Mt Wallace | Not much happens in Mount Wallace these days. | SSE | 142° | 427m |
| 18.21km | 0.98km | Brisbane Ranges Rd might lead to some pretty interesting riding another day... | SSW | 188° | 445m | |
| 28.37km | 10.17km | The resevoirs are part of Geelong's water supply, but at this end of the drought (June 2008) there's just the barest amount of water in the lowest. There's a display here commemorating the life of Jack Dillon, who was Barwon Water's longest-serving employee, still acting as an advisor into his 90's. He was also keenly interested in cycling. | SSE | 149° | 370m | |
| 28.87km | 0.49km | Look for the sign for Steiglitz. The track's unsealed but pretty good for most kinds of bikes. | ESE | 98° | 372m | |
| 30.26km | 1.39km | Brisbane Ranges National Park | This first part of the park is recovering from the January 2006 bushfires. It's very calm and peaceful after the fast trip down from Ballan. The ride through the forest is one of the nicest parts of the trip, and you'll pass the fire-affected areas in the first k or two. I'm not sure what this area will look like in twenty years, in a warmer, dryer climate with more frequent fires. | WNW | 276° | 372m |
| 32.65km | 2.39km | The forest's getting | SSW | 193° | 347m | |
| 33.73km | 1.08km | Friday's Picnic Ground is a nice place to stop and sit for... a... well, picnic. Pine trees and grass, edged by grass trees and native bush. | SW | 207° | 333m | |
| 34.5km | 0.77km | A bit of a steeper descent into Steiglitz... | SSW | 201° | 322m | |
| 35.82km | 1.32km | Steiglitz | Welcome to Steiglitz, not quite a ghost town, but the population hasn't risen above twenty in decades. Well worth a wander around (beware of mineshafts). The remaining buildings have stories, including the two churches (the Anglican up the hill in front of you, and the Catholic church across the creek on the Meredith Road. There's no services here, but you can while away an hour easily, and the old Courthouse with its historical photographs may be open of a Sunday. | WSW | 239° | 226m |
| 35.96km | 0.13km | The day I passed through, buches of cyclists were whirring down the road, across the creek and up on to Meredith. It was the Footscray Cycle Club holding an annual race. They looked serious. I looked I was heading down to the shops for milk and bread. | W | 265° | 229m | |
| 36.28km | 0.32km | The Catholic Church apparently went to Norlane, a suburb of Geelong, sometime in the 1950's, for three decades of purgatory as a church hall. Then it returned to its original site here in the 1980's. I find that somewhat amusing. | E | 82° | 225m | |
| 37.2km | 0.92km | Back on the tarmac for the rest of the day. A brick dome covering another mine shaft on the left. | SE | 130° | 263m | |
| 37.95km | 0.75km | Google Maps have this as the turn-off to Anakie but as the Satellite image shows it's now a little further on. | SSE | 137° | 279m | |
| 38.3km | 0.35km | Left here for Anakie and... | ENE | 47° | 270m | |
| 38.4km | 0.1km | Now turn right into De Mott's road, which will take you to Anakie. It's not signed Anakie (yet). It's sealed; Butchers Road isn't so if you run out of tarmac, go back. | SE | 122° | 272m | |
| 39.13km | 0.73km | ANother pretty, quiet road. | ESE | 99° | 260m | |
| 40.05km | 0.92km | With a bit of uphill | E | 74° | 231m | |
| 42.16km | 2.11km | And down from the hills... | SSE | 154° | 311m | |
| 44.58km | 2.42km | ... to a country lane... | ESE | 99° | 198m | |
| 46.48km | 1.9km | There's a shop with food and drink up to the left if you need. Then, right towards Geelong for now. This road can get busy (on a Saturday afternoon I found it "Intermediate") and has no sealed shoulder so use caution for this section. It's sloping down so you can move fast, but be aware of vehicles approaching from both directions at once; most give you plenty of room but there's one driver in the area who thinks 20 cm is enough. You know who you are. We could use back roads to avoid most or all of this section; they'd add a few k's but be more relaxing. | SE | 118° | 164m | |
| 46.52km | 0.04km | Anakie | S | 168° | 162m | |
| 56.87km | 10.35km | Turn left into Stacey's road, which is much calmer. | S | 172° | 90m | |
| 62.98km | 6.11km | Right into Bacchus Marsh Rd, then left into Patullos and into Lara. | E | 82° | 28m | |
| 69.21km | 6.23km | Lara | Hourly(ish) trains back to Melbourne. | NE | 37° | 19m |