Day Two - Rye to Anglesea - 76 km, 448 m - total 129 km

 We left Peter's holiday homes at 7:20 for the 7 km ride to Sorento to catch the 8:00 a.m. ferry across the Port Phillip Bay Heads to Queenscliff - the ferry takes about 45 minutes so we well on our way by 9:00 a.m. At Barwon Heads we decided it was time for morning tea and found a nice little cafe in the main street. In this morning's peloton there were the five riders of Elio, Anthony, Abdy, Frank and Me - Peter and Ian stayed back to tidy up the houses and also attend to some plumbing issues.

While it was not raining, I did have my raincoat on through until lunchtime at Torquay as it was quite windy and cool. It was nice to be back at Barwon Heads where I was a year ago for Al and Lou's wedding - I almost felt as if I knew the area - well the area to 100 meters out of Town along the coast - beyond there is all knew country to me.

We got to ride alongside the Coast and the many golden sand beaches and lots of wonderful views along the Coast - our route now basically keeping a beach or the coast on our left until we come to Adelaide!

After lunch we took a deviation along the shared gravel walking and cycling track above the cliffs heading to Bells Beach - unfortunately it was along this stretch of track that I encountered a puncture in my rear tyre. It didn't take too long to repair and Abdy stayed back with me while the others (now including Peter) carried on to our motel units at the Anglesea Motor Camp. As it turned out we arrived just as the other boys were heading out of the office with the keys for our units.

We had to get a third unit as the camp has a policy of not allowing adults to sleep in the top bunks? Well that's a first for me for sure.

Getting into the routine once again of arrive, service the bike if needed (the punctured tube needed mending and the chain required oiling especially after yesterday's rain). Then it was time for a shower and write the Blog. 


The team (less Stephen) Frank, Peter, Me, Ian, Elio, Abdy and Anthony


A view across the old Barwon Heads Bridge to the wedding venue of last year




Just like the Kea back home, guests are asked not to feed the birds.... 

Whoops - it was only after the Pic that the notice was seen 🤔


Comments

  1. Trish Wright18 March 2025 at 08:25

    One of those birds pinched the chips off our plate in an upstairs open cafe/bar! Cheeky buggers!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Adrienne C21 March 2025 at 13:12

    New bike Chris?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chris25 March 2025 at 00:16

      No, just one you've not seen me on before - I can do sleek and racey if needed...

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day four - Apollo Bay to Port Campbell - 101 km, 1698 m - ride total 303 km

Image
 A 7:30 a.m. departure on account of it being one of our bigger days and we were stopping at the bakery to get something for lunch as the plan was to stop beside a Billabong to boil the billy and have our lunch out in the open. It just so happened that sunrise this morning was at 7:27 a.m. and as we left the camp there it was rising above the horizon of Bass Strait. It made for a good photo opportunity however it may have been a case of having to be there to get the full beauty of it. I swung by the small boat harbour and took a few snaps then headed out of town and before too long we were into the first of our two big hills for the day - slow and steady was the order of the day as we climbed up into the rolling hill country and away from the Coast which we didn't get back to until around the 80 km marker. Our descent took us into some new country for a bit before we were beginning "Lavers Hill" which is a reasonable climb of around 450 metres. We regrouped at the top of ...
Read more

Day 14 - Hallett Cove to Adelaide - 39 km, 269 m - Ride Total 1,202 km's

Image
Ride Complete. Finished. Our original planning for this ride estimated the total distance between Melbourne and Adelaide was around 1,200 km's. When we pulled up outside the Adelaide YHA I had ridden 1,202 km's - 2 km's further than what I had to! I have had a great time riding with my Aussie buddies Peter, Stephen, Abdy, Frank, Elio and Anthony and have been well and truly supported by my good Kiwi mate Ian who drove our support vehicle. My thanks to all my buddies above for making the trip as enjoyable as it was. Other than a couple of punctures there was nothing that got in the way of us all having a good time - some days were hard (yesterday) and some were not (today) the scenery changed considerably along the way and was always very "Australian" - I saw live Camels', Kangaroos' and a Koala along with a dead Wombat and heard of others seeing snakes and Emus. The beaches are amazing whether they be along the Great Ocean Road of here on South Australia w...
Read more

Day One - Seaford to Rye - 53 km 362 m - total 53 km

Image
Rather than ride out of the city I took the option of a lift to Seaford yesterday so that I could spend a little time with Alex and Lou and get to meet Izzy their beautiful nine-month-old daughter. They were kind enough to have me stay Saturday night.  I got underway in the rain on the short ride to Peter's holiday home at Rye where we will be spending the first night of the tour. I was the first rider to arrive - Peter, Abdy and Ian drove down yesterday (dropping me off on the way) they had things all set up for us and had done some shopping for our evening meal. A bike wash, a shower and a cuppa has me feeling really good.  Elio, Anthony and Frank caught the train out of the city to Frankston and have played the wet day, "Phone-a-friend" card and will have Peter meet them at the station in the Support vehicle. It feels good to be underway and only about 1,150 km's left to ride. The highlight of the day has to be lovely big, long cuddle I got from wee Izzy.
Read more