Camperdown to Colac

Camperdown - Colac (via back roads) = 64km

Cummulative total = 1039km

Yipeeeee we passed the 1000km mark today and we didn't even realise!

We had a glorious rest day yesterday ... did nothing ... I didn't even want to attempt to go back down that hill for I knew that I would have to face getting back up it! (so I sent Neil down to get the food!!!). We watch a few episodes of 'Madmen', a little walking and reading.

We woke this morning to grey skies and a really freezing cold wind. I thought that later on it would warm up a bit but I ended up cycling most of the way in my merino (that is how cold it was - not even cycling could make me take my merino off!)

Neil decided that we would take a different way out of Camperdown today so we rode out of town on the Princes hwy for a few kms and then rejoined the road to Lake Purrumbete. Now of course Neil didn't look up any names of the roads or anything like that so basically I think he just guessed that the roads would connect up to each! At one point I thought we were lost as I didn't recognise anything around us not even this freaky looking tree/fence line that I thought was great to look at!

The tree line looks like it is having a 'bad hair day'. While I had stopped I thought I would take a photo of the general direction that I thought Colac was in.

Somewhere out there is Colac and I think this is what Neil does when he decides which roads to take ... basically he just follows the sun as a guide even when there is no sun!

Eventually we found the road that looked familiar and we took a break just after Lake Purrumbete. We pulled over to a paddock of young cattle and for some strange reason we both start mooing and making noises trying to encourage the cattle (I don't know why we do that we do it all the time as we cycle, I suppose it is to get a reaction out of the animals!). Anyway they are there mooing back and Kouta is beginning to get excited and then next thing you know they are all beginning to move towards us mooing and bellowing, so we are both still encouraging the cattle and I couldn't help but get this cute photo of Kouta just sitting there watching them and I begin to wonder just what is our little dog thinking.

Is he thinking yummmmm dinner? and I also think about what the cattle might be thinking ... are they thinking ... mmmmmm he is a funny looking cow!!! Man rereading this I think I have had to much sun!

We start out again before we cool down too much and we have been on this road before and I am not sure but I think Kouta either recognised everything or he needed to go for a dump because he was just throwing himself around in the trailer. We took him out 3 times to see if he would unload himself and 3 times he just looked at us stupidly. At one point we made him walk while we rode and he surprised me as he seemed to really enjoy trotting alongside of us!

He trots along around 5km per hour so it would take us nearly 13 hours to get to Colac at his rate! After a few hundred odd meters we put him back in the trailer.

It was a mixed bag of cycling today we either had a severe crosswind or a head wind and after Bungador it was either a severe crosswind or tail wind. Just after Swan Marsh we took an unsealed road that follows the railway line but that was too sandy for us and it was hard to keep the bike under control and with a severe cross wind it was almost impossible to keep out of the soft part of the road. So as soon as we could we rejoined the sealed road and had to take the Princes hwy for the last 10km into Colac. As much as I hate riding on the major highways, today just confirmed that I think Australia needs a major bike highway!!! It was very busy and luckily we had a shoulder that was quite reasonable to ride in. But the center line has those noisy corrugations that are designed to wake drivers up if they accidently cross them ... well as lovely as the cars are when overtaking us they would cross this central line in order to give us plenty of room (not that we needed it!) and I tell you, I don't know what they sound like from the inside of a car, but on the outside when you are on a bike they are the most annoying and noisiest thing you can hear when cycling - it is just like someone running their fingernails down a blackboard!

Once we turned into the street Kouta realised where he was and was very excited about it! Rest day here tomorrow and then the 3 day cycle to Werribee and home. See Sharon we will be home 1 day earlier than expected so no need to panic - we will be at the airport!