November 5, 2011
Day 1 Werribee to Geelong 66km
Just after 8AM I rode the 4km to my local station, Mitcham to catch the 8.39AM train to Melbourne and then changed to a Werribee train. Phil, my companion for the journey was already aboard having started a few stations down the line. We arrived at Werribee at 10.15AM and noticed a number of ladies in their finery boarding the train to travel back to Melbourne for the last day of the Melbourne racing Carnival. A warm day was forecast so large hats were the order of the day. Large hats are not practical for cycling, never mind about the helmet law so we applied layers of 30+ sunblock instead before we set off. Leaving the station was quite a challenge due to very busy Saturday morning traffic in the shopping area but eventually we made our way out of town on a road with little traffic at last, apart from the usual Saturday morning road bike riders. After approximately 20km we reached Little River a small but very tidy town with a magnificent park for the young people, none of whom were in evidence at 11.30AM on a Saturday morning.It was now quite hot, well over 30C so maybe they were all indoors with the electronic games!
After I had eaten a tomato sandwich that I had prepared earlier and Phil had consumed a muesli bar we moved on towards the Serendip Bird Sanctuary at Lara.This is mainly for water based birds and has extensive pondages but does have a few of the obligatory kangaroos and emus which no Australian reserve should be without.
So we walked around the sanctuary.
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After the sanctuary walk it was quite a relief to start riding again and create our own 20kph cooling breeze. About 2km down the road we found Lara shopping centre with a coffee shop where we had lunch. Someone had provided a knitted cover for one of the bike parking hoops!
After lunch we had about ten kms of country riding before we hit the suburbs of Geelong and we had an 18km ride past the houses until we reached the Barwon River Tourist Park, situate naturally on the banks of the Barwon River. Nice grassed tent sites and a campers kitchen with a fridge, microwave and gas stove as well as a TV with limited channel, selections. So after pitching our tents, showering and cooking dinner we just made it to the camp shop for an ice cream before it closed.
Today's ride: 66 km (41 miles)
Total: 66 km (41 miles)
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