Today the weather was hot and humid with temperatures rising to 29C. It was sunny early but cloudier later with scattered thundery showers. The hot northerly wind switched to a much cooler SW wind at the end of the day.
I took a bike ride today into the local hills. I had read about hairpin bends up a 1000ft climb to a place known as Arthur's Seat so of course that had to be the route.
The hill is above Rosebud and to get to the start of the climb I headed east on the coast road to the outskirts of Dromana , the next town. Being a Saturday there were a lot of roadies out for training rides using the coast road cycle lane.
The climb was as advertised with a good few hairpin bends and on one a gradient of 19% registered on my bike computer. There were some good scenic lookouts on the way up.
There were good views looking west to Rosebud below with the shallow waters of its beach visible. While I was there the Tasmanian Ferry came by below heading for the narrow straits out of Port Phillip Bay.
Although sunny I could see a small thunderstorm passing by on the horizon probably over central Melbourne, 40 miles to the north, at the top end of the bay.
There were more viewpoints at the top. I continued down a little and then along a ridge road. When it clouded over I stopped at a handy bus shelter and waited 15 minutes for a thunderstorm to pass over.
With the sun out again I continued via Red Hill among wineries and then turned off on a quiet and pleasant byroad which had about 2 miles of gravel and joined the main south coast road I took a few days ago.
After a picnic lunch I headed on to Cape Schanck which is a rocky headland with a lighthouse. It is on the most southerly point of the peninsula facing the Southern Ocean There were a lot of viewpoints to explore.
Then back to Rosebud on the north coast with a long gradual descent.
35 miles for the day and 1879ft of climb.
Edwin
Posted by Edwin
at 8:26 PM EADT
