Waking up in the Portland rider refuge I was greeted by a beautiful dawn but crisp cold air, dropping down into the single digit temperatures. I had a half a plan in mind for the day, and I did a pretty easy flat 50km before stopping for brunch in Yambuk. By that time it had warmed up to a balmy 16 degrees, which I thought was enough to justify both ice-creams, but the proprietor of the general store there was a bit surprised. After a quick chat about what I was doing he obviously concluded that none of my behaviours would ever make sense to him, but he was pretty impressed looking at the tracking map. Looking at the map also reassured me that I had a fairly comfortable lead, and I realised that as long as I kept going at about the pace I was already moving at I should be able to take the get to the Opera House first.
It was a pretty ordinary stretch of road from there into Port Fairy. Getting there, I saw a message from home commenting that Eddie B. was still kipping next to a road on the way into Adelaide. I took another look at the tracking map, just to be sure. Worryingly, the gap between us had stretched out by the exact distance I had ridden since last checking. With thoughts of JJ (who we were still waiting for updates on) still in my mind I quickly scrolled back through the rider chat, and was happy to see he had been messaging that morning, and in fact as I watched I saw Alan (Tour Clown Under) message to check his tracker was ok, and Ed realise that it wasn’t ok, and needed resetting. I quickly reassured my Number One Fan that it’s rare but the trackers sometimes just fail, as his dot took a sudden jump forward. I was pretty relieved, but also surprised – those trackers are usually pretty reliable. Anyway, happy in the knowledge that he was ok, I headed on down the road.
A very nice fella by the name of Luke (I think!) came out to ride a bit with me through Warnambool, and once again it was a pleasure to meet a dot watcher.
I had been trying to ignore alerts and messages from my phone, but when the line “Hmmmmm, did you stop?” flashed up on my screen I thought I’d best take a look. It seemed I had been stationary for an hour on the tracking page. I hadn’t been stationary for an hour. I pulled out my tracker. The lights that were meant to be flashing were just staying on. It wasn’t working. It was 2 hours since I’d been thinking it was unusual that Eddie’s tracker had failed, and mine had done the same thing! Anyway, I didn’t have many options other than to pull the batteries out then put them back in, so that’s what I did, and it seemed to work.
It was a very long stop, and the thing that got me going was the thought of the allegedly very good milkshakes at “Cheeseworld”, which was coming up. It certainly seemed obvious that I would be stopping there, but it was not to be – Cheeseworld was closed!
Putting on a brave face I pushed on, for what turned out to be a very slow trip to Port Campbell. I had ridden though that area before but I had been hurrying. I was still telling myself to hurry this time, but then I quickly changed my mind and decided to take my time. The coast along that stretch was just stunning, and it seemed that every time I managed to drag myself away and start riding I would come across a view that was even better and have to stop again.
At one of these many stops I met a couple of guys out touring from Melbourne on their Harleys – we had a bit of a chat and I could see one of them thinking about stretching his borders…
Heading into Port Campbell my eye was caught by the Swap Van. It was, in essence, a caravan full of things for people to swap. Or, if they had nothing to swap, to just take. And I had a look, a lot of it was really nice stuff. I love this sort of thing – it’s good for everyone involved, helps those who need it, stops things being thrown out for no good reason, and is generally a great thing. I really liked it, but of course I wasn’t going to stop and swap anything!
Finally I reached Port Campbell, and it was just in time – I was getting hungry! I walked into a fancy looking restaurant, only to be told that they had already stopped lunch, and dinner wouldn’t be available for several hours. No problem, I would go to the café. The café was closed. The bikers I had met earlier were standing outside it, wondering where they could get food. Most of the town was closed. Eventually I went into the IGA, but even they were lightly stocked for food. I got some fruit and some muffins, then went back to the restaurant for some of the biscuits I had seen, and hit the road. I did actually have plenty of food, but I was feeling dissatisfied, so when I saw some blackberries beside the road I stopped to pick a few. Then I noticed the next bush along had more, and they were better…
I think I spent about an hour that day on picking blackberries. And I don’t regret a minute of it. They were fantastic blackberries, and sometimes in life you just have to stop and pick the blackberries.
My one concern was that I actually wanted to make a bit more progress that day – you see, I had an idea of where I wanted to stay.
In 2018 I had ridden down into Apollo Bay in the dark and pulled into the first motel I saw – the Marengo. I had some food and a shower and a stretch and then I started looking at facebook, where I saw someone called Bernadette saying that she had been waiting for me but I had turned off about 200m before where she was waiting to offer me a bed for the night. Now as I’ve said, I really appreciate all of the dot-watchers, and for three years I had hated the thought of her standing there in the dark waiting, only to have me turn off 200m beforehand. This time, I really wanted to get to her! When I had set out that morning I had plans for a big day, and maybe a pause for a drink with Bernadette before heading on, but now it was really late and I still wasn’t in Apollo Bay. I decided there was only one sensible course of action. I messaged her. She messaged straight back to say she would love to have me stay, and it was fine if I arrived late, so that was what I did. I’m fairly confident Bernadette was offering a bed to any passing rider that year, but just to be sure I wasn’t getting a competitive advantage I paused to check that the Marengo had vacancies as I entered town (it did), then I headed for Bernadette’s.
It was a lovely place, and she and her husband Norm were lovely people, so I as I snuggled into the comfortable bed after only 265km I was very happy with my decision.
Blackberries, yum!!!!!