Today weather started sunny but clouded over late afternoon (clouds? we hadn't seen those in a week) Temperatures dropped dramatically to only 21C. Peter T found this distinctly chilly. Wind was again a strong SE headwind and probably the worst day of the trip to date for wind.
We headed south from Kingston with rush hour traffic amounting to none at all! Then it was the first of the days long flat straight roads exposed to the stiff 25mph headwind. Ahead of us we could see a fogbank over the coast which almost looked like a range of high hills. We did come to some hills eventually all of 90ft high through a forest.
We stopped for elevenses at Mt Benson Winery and we all had soft drinks. Then on to the seaside town of Robe for lunch. Martin popped out of the bakery cafe for 5 minutes and returned having been to the Barbers for a quick haircut.
Peter W decided to try to get a lift at Robe so the rest of us went on taking turns to battle against the wind at the front. On our right we passed 3 big lakes in the distance between us and the sea. To our left large fields were bounded by bushland and forest. This scenery with flat straight roads and little traffic continued for 30 miles with no signs of habitation.
I saw 2 Emu in the distance in a field between us and the forest. They spotted us and made off at quite a clip but ran in line with us for about a mile.
There was no sign of Peter W at the Motel as it transpired he had been unable to get a lift and didn't arrive until 8.30pm after the Pub nearby stopped serving food at 8.00 so he had to make do with a snack for supper. A general comment is that we found all small Australian towns seemed to close down by 8.30 p.m. with nobody at all about. We had gone back to the Pub for drinks but were thrown out when they closed at 9.40!!
58 miles for the day and all of 164ft of climbing. We have now been cycling in Australia for 3 weeks and mileage to date is 1130.
Edwin
Posted by Edwin
at 11:29 PM EADT
