On Our Way to Sydney

Well, Mally and I had to say are final goodbyes to the Dales and their two wonderful puppies... I found that goodbyes are a bit harder when you're not returning and not sure when you will ever meet again, but better to have met than never meet at all. They sure did enhance our Australian experience!

We rode from the Dales along the Yarra River trail (after being excorted there by Geoff) into town where we caught a train to Stony Point... bringing the bikes on the train makes riding to Sydney a lot easier! But at Stony Point, our train riding ended... and our ferry riding began. After waiting a couple hours for the ferry and watching Pelicans play in the bay, our ferry arrived to take us across to Cowes where we set up camp for the night.

Are they actually biking you may think? The next morning, we did in fact start off on our cycling journey to Sydney. We awoke early and were off on the quiet streets... passing by many ocean views with the morning sun reflecting off the water and more pelicans playing near the beach. Soon our route went inland, and coastal towns and ocean views were replaced with rolling green fields. At one point our route touched back towards the shore and we had a beautiful view of ocean waves against steep cliffs... then back inland again. Our map showed another coastal road, but the whole time we were riding along it (supposedly), the coast was nowhere to be seen... it must be right behind all these fields we kept thinking... just beyond our vision... or perhaps... we took the wrong turn... Ooops. Our route still took us to our destination town of Inverloch and was even a bit shorter, but we missed out on some ocean scenery.

Not to worry, we pedalled onwards into day two of the bike books route... winding through more coastal plains with scenery of neverending fields and roadside shrubbery, cool winds bringing the scent of the nearby ocean, and wildlife galore... aside from the typical cows, sheep, and horses, we saw many unique and colorful birds, a couple of lizards, and an echidna or spiny anteater (at first we thought it was a blob of roadkill, but when it moved we figured out it was an echidna - oh boy!) We then had our first real climb for the day which was short compared to other routes and we coasted down the hill to our campsite right on the coast. The beach was lined with sand and dark rocky platforms and in the distance, the hills of Wilsons Promontory stood in its haze (we later figured out the haze was due to fires on the Promontory - yikes - good thing we're not camping there!). After setting up camp, we went to play in the water, stretch our legs, and test out some long-forgotten yoga poses on the shore.

After dinner we returned to the beach, sat on the shoreline rocks, and read a bit of our books by headlamp while the sun set... until the tide began surrounding us in water and we decided to make our way back to our tent. As it approached 8, I could not keep my eyes open any longer and drifted off to sleep... long before the chillins' even got ready for bed. After a long sleep, I woke up, opened the tent, and we watched the brilliant colors of sunrise from our sleeping bags... not a bad way to wake up.

Today, we started our ride by heading back up the hill that we zoomed down the night before... and then onward through more undulating fields of green. Occasionaly, we caught views of the ocean and the hills of Wilson's Promontory in the distance and I struggled to keep my bike in a straight line as I gazed off at the scenery. As we approached the town of Foster (destination town for Day 2), Mally also swerved off the road as her tire went Phshsshshrrrshsrrr... CLUNK... Phshsshshrrrrrr. Unfortunately she faced another flat and a broken spoke... doah - more wheel troubles. We fixed up the wheel enough to ride into Foster (only 5k away). Here we found a bakery and drowned away our wheel sorrows with a scrumptious apple-custard streudle and a couple delicious muffins (mmmmm...nice morning snack!). We then found a shop where they can fix the wheel, but not until later tonight... since there are not oodles of bikeshops in the "bustling metropolis" of Foster, we said that was fine and found a place to camp for the night. Now we are off to explore town. Hopefully we will be riding out of here tomorrow... if not, at least there is a good bakery nearby.