Today's ride was dry and cloudy with sunny spells and temperatures up to 35C and very humid. Luckily a torrential downpour held off until evening.
After breakfast at a caf? in Maryborough our ride took us South West along the Pyrennes Highway. Despite the name the road was mainly flat with very gentle ups and downs winding its way among higher hills known as the Pyrennes (Australian version)
Although a major route the road had light traffic, about a car every 3 or 4 minutes and a lorry every 15 minutes. After 15 miles we stopped at the Bush Town of Avoca for elevenses at a bakery and caf?.
The days ride had similar scenery with a mix of dried out grasslands with gentle hills in the distance and gum tree woodlands. One road sign warned of Kangaroos for the next 66 Kilometres. Then another sign warned of Koalas for the next 15 Kilometres. We switched from looking towards the base of trees for sleeping Kangaroos to looking at the branches of trees for sleeping Koalas. No luck on either count.
A picnic lunch was taken at picnic tables in a park in a village called Amphitheatre. Peter W and Martin were noted to fall asleep on the park benches!
The ride in the afternoon was notable for the screeching of alarmed white Cockatoos and Parrots as we passed. We also saw our first kangaroo in the wild but unfortunately it was dead at the side of the road presumably killed by a car the previous night. I took pictures of it but so as not to cause upset to Kangaroo lovers I am not putting it on the blog.
We stopped for a drink at a hotel bar in the small village of Elmhurst. We arrived at another Best Western at Ararat by soon after 6.00.
56 miles for the day and 1607ft of climb.
Edwin
Posted by Edwin
at 10:28 PM EADT
