Australia – Page 10 – Simply cycling around

Tantanoola > Robe (108km, 5h10)

Today is the fastest day I’ve experienced until Sydney. The road is pretty flat and I’ve got a nice tailwind nearly all the way to Robe. This is why I made more than 100km! At this pace, I will be in Adelaide sooner than I thought! But we never know. The wind might be a head one tomorrow so I took the opportunity today. I’ve stopped in Beach port for lunch and made a new flag. I bought a pole yesterday when I left Mt Gambier and fixed the flag I found on the road few weeks ago. This way is much cheaper than to buy a new one from a bicycle shop for $20. The pole was less than $3 and the flag was free of course. Just because it’s a security accessory they push up the price. This is a rip off!

Mt Gambier, visit with Anthony then cycling to Tantanoola (34km, 1h40)

Surprise after surprise, after the worst 30 kilometres I’ve done yesterday. My day turned out to be a lucky one. In fact, I was ready to find my spot for the night and went out of the McDonald’s where I met Anthony. He asked me where I was going to sleep that night and proposed me straight away if I was interested to stay in house with a fire wood. How can I refused an offer like this? :-) Anthony house sit his daughter’s place for the night and it’s 3 minutes away from where we met. I’ve followed him driving slowly to his place and we spent the evening talking about Australia’s famous places.
Today, Anthony proposed to guide me around Mount Gambier and treat me as he said “like exchange students we had”. I’m completely fine with that :-) We started early and visited until 11am to go to the library. Then around 4pm, we came back to his daughter’s place to collect our stuff and I was on my saddle again! What a nice day!

Nelson > Mt Gambier (36km, 2h30)

Shitty, shitty and shitty day today. I should stay where I was and have my day off… But I felt good this morning and was motivated to have a short trip to Mt Gambier and improvise once there. I know there is the blue lakes to visit. Two person including Jamie told me about that so I could have a look today. The problem, rain and wind and rain… The only interesting thing for today is (well, is it really interesting?) I’m now in South Australia :-)

Narrawong > Nelson (87km, 4h50)

Today is a cold day! I’ve started cycling when the temperature was 9.7 degrees. My hands and feet were freezing! Fortunately I’m moving so this cold sensation disappeared after about 30 minutes riding. My plan is to rich Portland, which is 15km away and try to go to the library (if this one is not closed on Fridays). Then I don’t know where I will cycle to yet. I will see that. And I did not spent the last night in my tent for once. I’ve slept in the “change room” of this kind of “hut”. I let you discover that ;-)

Port Fairy > Narrawong (59km, 3h10)

Finally it did not rain that much yesterday. Actually it stopped just when I finished to set up my tent and organised everything for the night. It’s often like this! As I said yesterday, I found one more good spot in a park. The only thing is it’s a bit dusty so I will have to clean my tent before packing it. This morning is quiet, certainly because the holiday period is over and it’s too cold to play at 7:30am :-) Today I’m planning to go to Portland but I want to swap my tyres as well and I know it’s going to take a while. I want to make sure the weak tyre (actually the rear one) doesn’t carry most of the weigh so I will put it on the front wheel. That way I won’t have to change it because $75 for a tyre… That’s expensive!

Peterborough > Port Fairy (82km, 4h30)

Wow! I had a very good night and for once I’m on the right spot regards the sunrise. My clothes have dried overnight and the sun is doing the job on my tent. I would be happy to have a day off here today but I want to cycle two more days before that. Let’s pack everything, charge my stuff again and eat something, then I will be ready to hit the road again.

Glenaire > Peterborough (82km, 5h)

Fantastic day today! I had no idea that I was going to see that place today but the buses full of tourists reminded quickly that I was reaching one of the famous place in Victoria: The Twelve Apostles. Actually, they are only eleven now as one collapsed in 2005 (you can see it on the picture). The place is very impressive even if I felt half between between being in “Disney World” or “The Great Wall of China”. Let’s start the visit! Caution: lots of rocks pictures ;-)