Now that I have at last found a trusty Hobbit-sized gravel bike (Salsa Journeyer Apex 1 650B), saved up and bought it (see previous post about this here), the next challenge is how to fit enough gear onto this tiny bike frame to allow me to set off on fun overnight and multi day cycling and camping adventures without having to rely on my partner or other companions to carry some of my share of the camping gear on their comparably larger bikes!

I imagine figuring this all out is going to take a bit of trial and error and time, plus a balance of ‘making do’ with what I have and can strap to the bike creatively or carry a backpack initially. And also accepting that the most efficient solutions, given the extreme physical constraints, most likely will involve slowly saving up and investing in some new lightweight gear over time that simply takes up less space. Perhaps I might also experiment with making some bike-packing bags at some point!

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Starting out:

My starting point for setting up my bike was investing in a rear pannier rack and two small waterproof pannier bags (Ortlieb Gravel Pack Panniers 25L). I also borrowed a tiny stem pouch from my partner. This was not enough carrying capacity for multi-day overnight camping with our regular camping gear, so on this trip I also wore a backpack to allow me to bring my share of food, water etc, and I strapped some camping gear onto the top of the pannier racks. It worked fine for my first trip, but was not super comfortable riding loaded up with a full backpack, especially in the hot summer weather, on sandy gravel, and my partner still had to carry a larger proportion of the shared gear than me. You can definitely start out with making do like this, but I don’t think multi-day trips would be very fun if I have to keep riding with a backpack … so I will be looking to buy more bike bags/racks to increase carrying capacity on my bike, and also looking into if I can slowly ‘upgrade’ some of my camping gear to more compact and/or lighter weight versions to use when bike-packing or multi-day hiking. For example, I love my current sleeping bag, I’ve had it for almost 20 years, it still works fine, but it is quite bulky and heavy and takes up almost an entire pannier bag. If I save up and buy a lightweight compact sleeping bag, it will save a lot of space when bike-packing, and I will also be able to use it for our multi-day hiking trips…and keep my trusty old bag for car-camping trips.

Loaded up with backpack and rear panniers and extra gear strapped on to the rack. Ok for a first adventure, but not a comfy setup!

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Gravel biking on French Island in Summer

My first bike camping adventure on my hobbit-sized bike was an overnight trip on French Island in January 2023. French Island is an island in Western Port, off the Mornington Peninsula’s coast, not far from Melbourne, Victoria, and is the traditional Country of the Bunurong People. Gravel bike adventures on French Island involve catching a ferry over from Stony Point. You can’t take a car over on the ferry, the only cars on the island belong to locals who live on the island, but you can take your bike. The return trip (per person + 1 bike) on the Western Point Ferries was about $38. FYI – you have to be able to lift/carry your bike down some stairs at the wharf to get onto the ferry (can be tricky with a fully loaded bike), and on the ferry trip the bikes are stacked near the back of the boat where they do get a bit splashed by water.

Once you arrive on French Island, you ride along rough gravel unsealed roads to the Fairhaven campsite (free Parks Vic camping but good idea to book as only 10 spots), about 5 km from the ferry wharf.The campsite has long-drop toilets, some picnic tables and BBQs, so we didn’t need to bring a camping stove or camping chairs. There was also a water tank, so you can refill your water bottles if you have water purifying tablets. When we were there, there were only 2-3 other tents in the campground. There is a general store on the island about 7-8 km from the campground if you need supplies or even just a cold drink.

After setting up our tent and unloading most of our gear, we set off to ride around the island exploring. After the campground the road becomes a combination of rough gravel and soft sand, and as a newby gravel bike rider I kept getting stuck in the soft sand…but apart from that my bike performed well and it was good fun. I think French Island would be a lot more pleasurable to explore in autumn or winter than mid summer though – it was very hot, there was not much shelter, and there were a lot of flies. On our ~26 km loop we did see a really large echidna, some birdlife and a koala. We did not spot any snakes although we were warned by locals that there are plenty about in summer and they almost didn’t believe that we hadn’t seen any…

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Arrived at Fairhaven Campground, ready to setup camp. French Island, January 2023.
Koala. French Island. January 2023.
Loaded up and heading to the ferry wharf, about 5km ride from Fairhaven Campground. January 2023.

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If you are also a short person who likes overnight camping adventures by gravel bike, I’d love to hear any tips you have, creative ways of carrying more gear on a tiny bike, or particular lightweight or specialist items that you found to be game-changers and worth investing in. 🙂 Please share your experience/tips in the comments below!