Just another day riding, no hikes, national parks, etc. Not! First I must explain my route and inclusion of a train segment.
After drying out yesterday in the Willaura hotel, I checked out the forecast and noted "fresh" winds out of the south Thursday and heavy rain expected Friday. My latest current plan was to ride south to Port Campbell Thursday--which would be about 150 km against the wind, then ride the Great Ocean road (GOR) Friday and Saturday--which now would be in heavy rain. Neither prospect appealed so I decided to bag the GOR and head east instead to Ballarat and there catch the train into and past Melbourne to the eastern suburb of Lilydale where my Melbourne to Sydney leg would begin. I also liked this idea because it would give me several extra days to do this ride segment before my flight home and would let me ride the "black spur" from Lilydale on Thursday in good/dry weather (this is a northbound ride too--remember the wind forecast). Seems like its getting complicated doesn't it?
Anyway, put this plan into action in morning by turning east toward Ballarat. Ironically, about half way through this ride of 120+ km, I ended up on a rail-trail instead of the fairly busy highway. As pictures show, this was very scenic and basically deserted (saw one other cyclist and two pedestrians in about 50 km). Got to Ballarat later than hoped at about 5:30 pm but caught the 5:57 pm train to Melbourne. This 100 mile train trip cost me a whopping $10 and that included a transfer in town onto city train to eastern suburb of Lilydale.
From third picture below you can tell I enjoyed the train, it was exceedingly comfortable, especially after a long hard bike ride. Plus my bike was safely parked 5 meters away in the luggage area (where I could access it to change cloths, get food/water, etc.). The only bad thing was that when I got to Lilydale at 8:30 pm (dusk), I ended up having to ride about a kilometer on a busy road to the ONLY motel nearby, which thank goodness was not full. It even had a KFC next door for quick dinner and Aussie HBO on my TV! Turned out to be quite a day--so much so it even got its own Blog posting.
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