It could be long rides or adventurous paddles to raise money to help cure cancer or save the oceans, or putting love into every thread of a heart that will bring a smile to people's faces on Valentine's Day.

They are great stories. The ones we can aspire to be part of, support or shake our heads at in wonder. 

There’s no couch potatoes among two groups of Bendigonians getting ready for extreme endeavours.

Scott Eldridge has decided to do something about cancer (he knows nine people with the disease) and so is riding the Tour De Cure from Sydney to Canberra in May.

That’s 1400 kms, 14000 metres of elevation and 11 days of plains, hills and sore muscles raising funds in aid of research.

But by the end so many will have been helped.

A trio of young paddling enthusiasts are dipping their oars into Bass Strait in a epic journey from Wilsons Promontory to the top of Tasmania.

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Ryan Griffin, Fergus Meyer and Tom Murrell - aka the "Strait Shooters" - will fight waves, wind and sunburn in a 350km journey that could take up to three weeks.

They will be island-hopping from craggy rocks to Flinders Island and then to the Tasmanian mainland after getting inspiration from YouTube videos. They thought it would be a grand adventure for a tight-knit group of friends. 

The two teams are set to ask people to dig deep to help good causes - so if you can spare a few dollars they would appreciate it.

At the other end of the energy scale (fleet fingers aside) there was free love up for grabs at the Alexandra Fountain in Bendigo on Thursday - Valentine’s Day.

The city’s anonymous yarn bombing crew had crept in in the dead of night to tie on beautiful hand-crocheted hearts, each with the name of a love song (The Greatest Love of All was an apt one) and the message to, please, take one home.

It meant a lot of people's day was brightened by a little something special. 

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