Racing the Weather

Day 37 (12/11): Lilydale to Alexandra; 91 km; 20 kph; Cabin in Caravan Park

Day 38 (12/12): Alexandra to Mansfield; 70 km; 19 kph; Backpackers Hotel

This Blog is becoming like most TV series; if you don't follow each week (i.e., posting), you don't know what's going on. So you don't have to back track, I'll explain; Day 37 is Thursday and heavy rain is forecast to begin Friday and possibly last through Sunday.

So, after my long day on the bike and train yesterday, I set out from Lilydale just before 8 am, a bit late for me as I try to get on road before 7:30 lately. Took a while to get away from morning traffic and city suburbs but once I did it was the same old beautiful quiet Australian roads. Scenery much different today though as I soon entered Yarra Range National Park and a stretch of road called the Black Spur. This road was tough as it was mostly a steep 7 km climb to the Dom Dom Saddle; but the landscape was lovely huge/tall black mountain ash trees (I think) and lots of mammoth ferns (see below). Perfectly placed at the saddle was a lovely picnic area I used to full avail for my usual tuna sandwich with a bonus can of Pepsi saved from KFC last night. All in all a lovely stop.

Finished out the rest of the ride with a tailwind into Alexandra, which had a library, used book store (I've been seeking one of the these for two weeks), good grocery store, and nice cabin in the caravan park. Finished out the evening bagging all valuables in my panniers in preparation for possible rainy ride in AM.

Next morning I awoke to cloudy but still dry skies and got on the road just after 7 am. Only 70 km to next destination which I hoped to reach around lunch time and hopefully before rain set in. It started sprinkling several times along road as if it wanted to really get going but never did so I arrived dry (ok, sweaty at least) in Mansfield to find they had a very nice backpackers motel. So once again I am in an inexpensive 4-bed dorm room (that I will have to myself as town is quiet this time of year). Everytime I see the proprieter (sp?) he is cleaning something, this place is spotless! He told me 50 mm (about 2" of rain) is predicted today/tonight/tomorrow so I may be here an extra night. While settling in to have lunch, shower, then head to town/the rain has started to fall fairly steadily.

So, I am now at the library completely caught up on the Blog and about to try to get caught up on emails as well. I have run of a full kitchen at the motel tonight so its off to Foodland next to find something for dinner--probably a stir fry of some kind. Chips and pop for later too. Life is good. Cheers.

d
ay