Day six - Warnambool to Portland - 114 km, 435 m - ride total 492 km

One of our longer rides was on the schedule for today however without any hills. We were soon away from the coast and riding through dryland grazing and irrigated dairy country - when I say "dryland" grazing I mean what we would call severe drought conditions - clearly the locals don't consider it such and adapt to the lack of moisture by having a far more extensive farming regime - simply put they need a lot of acres for each head of stock they have. The irrigated land grows grass as green as you would see anywhere right up to the edge of the spray line of the irrigation - beyond that the paddock is barren.

We were on the main highway for a fair chink of today's ride however it wasn't a problem as there was a reasonable shoulder that we could shift over to when the vehicles passed by. This is where the Garmin Vara rear facing radar and light comes into it's own. It is an extremely bright red rear light on the bike that flashes - once the radar picks up that there is a vehicle approaching (about 170 metres back from me) it gives me a warning beep and sets the flashing to a different sequence that helps to attract the driver behind's attention. It then plots the vehicles approach on my cycle computer on the handlebar so I can see how fast it is approaching and when it will be passing by me - I check all that is happening behind me on my rear-view mirror and then as the vehicle gets closer, I move well over to the left of the shoulder. This technology is far superior to relying on one's ears and turning your head over your shoulder to look behind which doesn't seem to turn around as well as it did when I was a kid!

My Christchurch Monday riders were finishing their end-of-week ride (Cafe stop) so I decided to have a Facetime call with them from the side of the road - they were just finished, and I still had another 80 km's to go! It was good fun seeing all their happy faces enjoying their Cafe fix. 

It was not too long after this that I caught up with the other Boys who had stopped at Port Fairy for our morning tea stop. Port Fairy is a lovely old-world village with a sheltered boat harbour as well as having the oldest licensed hotel in Victoria (1844).

We were then into the long haul through to Portland and at about the 70 km mark we stopped at a layby for our lunch where Peter fired up the cooker and boiled the billy - a cup of tea made this way on a ride was a first for me and something I could easily get accustomed to - only problem being very few of the rides I do have the luxury of a support vehicle!

We were at the Motel by 3:30 which was good as it allowed time to service the bike.

Ian in the car is ahead of me in that today he saw a couple more Kangaroos as well as some Emus - clearly I need to be more observant or failing that take over driving the support vehicle. The while I was servicing the bike outside of the Motel Ian says, "there's a Koala" and sure enough crossing the road and heading into a property two doors down the street was a real Lifesize actual Koala - the first I've seen in the wild although I don't know if I can really call downtown Portland "the wild".

While I am talking about wildlife, I should mention that a couple of days back I came across a couple of nice-looking Rams standing in the middle of the road - once I got past them, I headed up the next drive to let the farmer know it was a few hundred metres up the road. I parked my bike by the sheds and went through the gate to walk around the house to the door - about 20 metres from the gate and before I got to the door I was rushed at by two large dogs - one looked okay however the other one did not at all and was quite clearly happy to have a go at me! I stopped, tried to calm them down and slowly began to back away to the gate where I had just come from. At the time I didn't know how this was going to end however I'd like to say I kept my cool and by the time I had walked backwards to the gate the young woman of the house was there on the other side of the gate where my bike was. I managed to get back through the gate all still intact and let her know her prize Rams were on the road. She was most appreciative that I had let her know.

The personal learning from that story is that even though the house did not look dodgy don't go walking around places you don't know without having a safety escape plan in mind. I should have known better as that was standard practice for me when I was a valuer visiting farms and approaching houses and buildings. 

so, back to today's which was another good one in perfect riding conditions of about 20 degrees, slightly overcast and no major headwind!