ST ARNAUD TO DUNOLLY

ST ARNAUD TO DUNOLLY = 60km

CUMMULATIVE TOTAL =  2857km

DUNOLLY CARAVAN PARK =  $22 unpowered

 

Yesterday afternoon it rained a little bit, not alot but enough to wet the road but at least the temperature wasn't hot and I think Kouta felt very comfortable there with the cooler temperature.  During the night there was a few thunder and lightening which made Kouta go into his usual panic attacks.  Neil dealt with the first one but he regails this morning that he kept drifting in and out of sleep and wasn't quite sure what Kouta was up to ... he does remember that at one point Kouta was sitting on top of the computers!  He also wasn't sure what time this attack was ... meanwhile I slept through the whole thing and only woke up every now and then hearing that Neil is dealing with it.  The second panic attack of his was around 5.30am and I woke and Kouta must have seen me wake and immediately came up to me panting away so he laid down next to me and I just patted him and laid my arm on him and unfortunately I fell asleep so again he had to deal with his own panic attack, but I did wake at 6am and feeling Kouta more relaxed and asleep so I thought OK I will just lay here waiting to get up ... I fell asleep again and woke again when Neil got up at  6.22am so we were a little late this morning.

We did manage to get away by 8am at that point it was very cloudy and threatening to rain but luckily for us it didn't rain just blow a gale!  Again it was a headwind, a south easterly and the road was also going in that direction.

The ride was generally through grazing land, heaps of trees alongside the road but all tall with foliage at the top and not at road level so we were always exposed to the wind.  Basically the road is up and down for the first 20km to Emu and then levels out a bit to Bealiba and then climbs for about 13km to the top and then a very gentle down into Dunolly of which we had to pedal the whole way down as the headwind stopped you from free wheeling.

Neil found the day a little tough with the strong headwinds as you really felt the wind as you we going both up and down the hills today.

The road is spectacular - hardly any traffic until we joined the from Moliagul.  The climb from Bealiba is a good one (despite the headwind) as it follows the train line and is nice and gradual ... any other day without he wind would have been great ... here is a photo of us taking a break at the top -

I actually thought there would be more goldfield scrub land on the roadside, like around Bendigo, today and was surpised as to how much grazing land there was.  Only saw sheep grazing, but the land looks so dry, maybe it is the type of grass!

Dunolly  is the same ole same ole we think this is our 4th time here, the campground is full of prospectors and we assume grain workers as well as the grain silos are just across the road and you can hear the trucks come and go.  Didn't have one grain truck pass us today as the road taken didn't have any grain fields except for one canola field that I saw.

Tomorrow we are back where we started - Bendigo ... looking forward to 'camp Bendigo'!