Day one was tougher than envisaged. This was all on roads that I ride regularly and know well. There were two main differences this time; we were both recovering from flu and very weak, I don't normally ride around with this much luggage. I didn't weigh the panniers but they were heavy. The terrain around here is hilly but seemed a lot hillier with the luggage. The planning for the trip was focused on the Victorian highlands, the cold and possibly even snow. With this in mind we set off dressed accordingly, despite the fact that the Victorian Highlands were 1000km away. It was 26C and we were climbing hills, needless to say, the thermals came off pretty quickly.

Despite our run down condition, it felt great to be finally setting off on an adventure. I've always said, the hardest part of any trip is getting off your arse and going, once into it everything falls into place. Problems that seemed overwhelming and cost sleep are just taken in your stride to the point of being irrelevant. The fantastic weather helped. Cruising along fairly quiet country roads in warm sunshine is a good start to a trip. We were so into the ride that I've only just noticed that there were no photos. A common occurrence with me but Annette usually makes up for it.

It was obvious that we weren't going to be making any huge distances, particularly in the early part of the trip. We stopped for morning tea at a friends house in Auburn, less than 30km away. we stopped for lunch at Saddleworth not much further.

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It had been a day of continuous hills, not overly high or steep but consistent. Another problem of travelling in winter is the short days. We soon realised not to expect too many kilometres in  the afternoon. It gets even hillier from Saddleworth to Marrabel and it didn't seem worth going in to the red zone so early in the trip. There is supposed to be a dedicated camp on the Heysen trail at the Marrabel rodeo grounds. I found this but it was not a good camp. all the toilets were locked up, which seems a bit ridiculous if they don't want people to leave a mess. We went into the town and made use of an excellent BBQ shelter. Electric BBQ, sockets to charge the phone, toilets and water. What more could you ask for. There was even an unused open shed that we camped in. If there had been a donation tin we would gladly have paid. The electric BBQ's take a while to boil water but it was good to cook dinner slowly, we'd finished early so there was plenty of time for relaxing. Another feature of this picnic area was that it housed all the local mailboxes. People turned up in the evenings to check the mail and find two old people sitting next to their bicycles in the cold sipping tea. One lady asked if we were okay, "yes, just having a cuppa." I wasn't sure if they'd be appreciative of us actually camping there so played it cool.

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The first day went really well. Short but tough, we finished early and had a good rest. Comfortable nights sleep and all the gear performed well. We were underway.