GVBR Day 6 - REST DAY

Time to catch up with the blog, time to catch up with the drying, time to catch up with the charging .. a welcome day.  A day off the bike, and no matter how much you enjoy riding after a couple of days in the wind it is good to get off and give your body a rest.

So glad I brought this along.  Very handy.

No more pictures today, taking a day off from that too.  Going to the library to use the computers and read emails, newspapers.

It is a beautiful day in Bendigo and I find a new place for morning tea, The Good Loaf sourdough bakery. Good fruit bun and coffee.  Next stop a wander through town a bit checking nothing much out before heading up to the gallery to meet up with Lesley, Lauren and Ian for lunch in the gallery cafe.  The waitress placed us at our request near a power outlet so we took advantage of that and charged up a few phones.  Never miss that sort of opportunity.

Back to the computer, because I can.  And shortly I shall head back to camp for a restful lie down before dinner.  Warm weather forecast from here on, so I am grateful that we have already done the longest day's ride.  

(Yawning) 1530

BTW  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROB

GVBR Day 5

Rest day tomorrow and you can feel it in the air - everyone heading out keenly to get to Bendigo and do the washing or get to the motel they have booked or just get there.   Again a roundabout route to get us in through back roads, and to make sure that we don't take the shortest route.
We have been tipped off about the Bridgewater Bakehouse not very far along the route so that's the first stop. Pizza for breakfast with good coffee.

Then along a long flat closed road where several riders stretch out and go for it.  Sadly we passed a rider who had come down, a reminder that you need to keep your wits about you at all times with so many on the road together. Again the laps tell the story, slowing down as the wind turned to face us throughout the day.  The last part was hardest, until we turned into the OD (overdimension) route into town via Eaglehawk. Some lovely rollers protected by the houses a bit.

The destination is a welcome sight and we have given our number tags to Ian, who always arrives hours ahead of us, to pick out a couple of tents for us and he does well.  We have adjacent tents with two side windows each.  The big advantage there is tying up the window awnings to the next tent to create air and shade simultaneously.  There's a tip for all the future sleep easy Great Vic riders.
Lauren and I are in a tent each for a couple of days as Lesley has booked herself into a motel for the next couple of nights so now we talk to each other through the awning canopies.  We also take our washing into the machine at Lesley's motel - it is always who you know.

Areeba areeba - encouraging?

GBVR Day 4

100Km/60miles plus today and again warm weather - not as hot as yesterday.  Out early with a tail wind.  The map of the route shows us that we are again taking a circuitous route to get the 100Km in. We are also provided with a couple of extra stops today for water and we need it.  The winds start out favourable again, and either they move around during the day or we do and so it varies as we go along.  If you look at the Strava link, and the laps therein it is clear where the headwinds are according to the average speed.

The morning tea stop looked wonderfully colourful and I took advantage of a woman already standing on a fence post to take a shot for me.

 Top up with water, move on. Another text from Ian advising delicious scones to be had at afternoon tea stop - won't make the same mistake twice. Taking his advice this time I have to agree - delicious.
Today was not too bad, bit of a slog at times but the distance not too hard and we came into Inglewood in good time on a good downhill run.  Rest, then off to a pop up restaurant at the local Ecualyptus Mill and Museum of aged beef or pork.  I had the pork and it was good, I also tasted the beef which was cooked a bit more than I like.  I prefer my beef walking around the plate.  The beef is aged in carcass for 28 days then cut and aged further for up to 20 days.  Interesting, usual method is to cut it then age it.

Love a bus back to camp and a good night's sleep.  The mats in the sleep easy tents are dreadful, there is no other word for it. They are neither deep nor firm so my hips hit the ground all night. Rob is posting up the good sleeping mats to Bendigo so can hardly wait to get there.  Onwards...

...  This wide brown land for me

GVBR Day 3

Forecast for warm weather so we got out at a reasonable time, and cruised along with a bit of a tail wind.  The countryside is dry as dust and pretty flat so any winds seem to come straight at us. Coming from behind is always good, not so good the other way round of course.
I keep an eye out for kangaroos as my travelling companion, Lauren, has not seen one yet.  Well, there was on by the side of the road .....  The absence of the usual road kill is perhaps an indication of the state of the region.  Road kill is the sign of a healthy ecosystem I have been told by a reliable source in the past.  We see dams, rivers, creeks, etc well down or dry everywhere.   The crops have been harvested and so there is plenty of dusty chaff blowing around.
Lunch today is at the Maryborough Harness Racing track and we get there around 10, a bit early for lunch even after a good ride.  Deciding to take our rolls with us after a rest we press on.  Ian did let me know by text that there was a delicious chicken pie to be had from the locals but still not hungry enough for that.  Lesley later confirmed this so we did miss out there.
It is hot when we arrive in Dunolly so what else would one do but head for the swimming pool - when I say one I mean 1000 as it seemed to be that number there when we arrived.  Having arrived without my bathing costume I returned to the campsite and really warmed up by the time I hit the pool.  Very nice in the water surrounded by school children so headed for the juniors pool and sat in that for a while.

Girls who saw the camera and invited me to take their picture

Dried out on the walk home, a good shower and off to the bowling club for a beer. Two pubs in town - one permanently closed, one closed for renovations (poor timing).  However, we enjoyed watching the barefoot bowlers and it turns out I knew enough to explain to Lauren what it was all about. Played twice in my life so of course I'm an expert.
Round the back of the club the local service and community groups have a range of food carts - potatoes, woodfired pizza, local lamb sausages (good choice) - and in the bandstand are some musos playing home made instruments.  They are tuned stomp boxes with bells and chimes, a bass percussion instrument with plumbing tubes and a very interesting pedal powered instrument with wind chimes.

And speaking of wind it came up suddenly even stronger than it had for the afternoon and looked black in the middle distance. So straight back to camp, bring in the washing, batten down the tent hatches and off to dinner before all the seats under cover are gone.  Made it in time before the thunderstorm hit heavy and hard wind. People running in all directions, tents damaged, dinners awash. It's easy to watch. It passes, wind drops, no more rain to speak of and a clear starry sky overnight.
When you are out of town you realise how all the stars disappear over the cities.