Friday, February 22 -- We got away on our tour around noonish, after packing everything onto our bicycles. And wouldn't you know it, it started to rain. Yep, Machka gets onto her bicycle, and it starts to rain. I swear there is a black cloud that follows me around on my tours and randonnees.

Nevertheless, we decided to start riding and see what would happen. What happened next is that the light mist turned into a drizzle which turned into rain. I really need to re-waterproof my jacket.

However, by the time we got to Alexandra, the rain was letting up. Alexandra is a typically Australian town with the verandas, wide streets, and parking in the middle of the street. We picked up a few things to eat - cookies, bananas, and yogurt ... no energy bars! ... and we had them in a little park. We also don't bother with sports drinks, our beverages were water, and orange cordial mixed with water.

We set off again, and could see blue sky in the distance. Just as we were getting a good pace going on Whanregarwen Road I flatted (rear tire, of course) ... it was a tiny piece of metal wire.

A short time later we removed our jackets because it was getting quite warm, and Rowan warned me of some steep climbs coming up.

I made it up all the climbs on my bicycle. On one, I was down to 5.1 km/h, but I was still going. We took some photos at the top of that hill, while I caught my breath.

We arrived in Yea where I had a nice chat with a couple of ladies, who wanted to know the usual stuff ... where we were going, where we had come from, and so on. Then we went to the local bakery where we had massive buns ... like cinnamon buns. Mmmmm!!! Mine kept me going for hours. Like I said, no need for energy bars when you've got real food!

As we cycled out of Yea, we discovered that we had 38 kms to go to get to Seymour, where we were going to catch a train. That whole stretch was a roller coaster ... down a hill, up a hill, down a hill, up a hill ..... but we made pretty good time, covering it in a little under 2 hours. My training has paid off!

On the way, we sailed past a large hotel, cafe, tourist shop, out in tne middle of nowhere (Trawool), with a huge sign out front that said something like, "You always said you would stop, why not today?" We both kind of looked around for some sort of other tourist attraction, but that was it. Nevertheless, I felt strangely drawn to stop. (We didn't)

When we got to Seymour we went to the train station but discovered it was undergoing renovations, but there happened to be a friendly shuttle bus driver who offered us a lift around to the main entrance of the train station, and informed us that the train was late. We got our ticket, waited and waited, and then finally loaded our bicycles onto the first car, and went to have a seat near the back. The train seemed to be filled with partiers from the army base at Puckapunyal going to the city, and in certain parts of the train, the party had started.

We covered 98 kms today!

We got off the train at Southern Cross station in Melbourne, grabbed a bite to eat (potato chips and mango green tea iced tea - very good!) and then boarded the train for Frankston.

At Richmond station, outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the train picked up a collection of fans, decked out with Australian flags and face paint and surprisingly little else. We found out that the game had been rained out ... it was coming down in buckets.

Most of these very noisy young fans continued with us all the way to Frankston. When we got to Frankston, we were hoping to catch the train out to Stony Point, but we were too late. The last train had gone.

So there we were on the platform, in the chilly, drizzly night, debating what to do next. We asked at the station if there might be a hostel, but the guy working there looked very doubtful.

We checked the map on the wall, and Rowan spotted a nearby public park, Samuel Sherlock Reserves, and thought it might be an option for us for the night. I had some reservations about the reserve, but there didn't seem to be any other options, aside from sitting at the station all night, which wasn't at all appealing. We gathered ourselves together, and quietly walked off into the night.

The reserves looked like a big cricket ground with a skateboard park off to one side. Somehow I was expecting more trees, but we headed for the few there were, and set up the tent.

It was the first time we had used the tent since Ieper in Belgium, in early September, and there was some fumbling with the setup process. It didn't help that although the rain had stopped for the moment, the wind had increased significantly just as we started the setup process, and was blowing everthing around.

However, it went remarkably well, considering that wind, and the fact that we were doing the setup in the dark (no lights) so as not to attract attention to ourselves.

The tent was very warm and dry. We've been very pleased with this tent.

I did not sleep all that well. I don't have a lot of experience with stealth camping ... I've done it a few times, but not a lot, and not usually in relatively "public" places like parks in the middle of towns on a Friday night.

I listened to the Friday night drunks roaring up and down on the main streets of town (some ways away from us) hooting and hollaring and screeching their tires. To my knowledge, no one came by our tent, or if they did, they were quiet, so I probably did not need to worry.

But added to my concerns about the people, was the wind. It howled all night long. The tent rocked and shook, and occasionally the bottom end of the tent would lift and drop. Several times I wondered if we were not in the tent, would it take off like a kite?

Saturday, February 23 -- A little after 7 am, we got up and packed things up. We might have been up a bit earlier, but it started to rain again. It had been raining in waves all night, along with the wind. We got up when one particular wave went by.

It didn't take us long to pack up ... we didn't have too many things out.

Over on the skateboard park, three skateboarders rolled up and down trying out various stunts. We had been spotted, but they didn't seem to care. I cared a bit when I headed for the bushes, and a car pulled up right there so the occupant could get out and talk to one of the skateboarders. I had to wait.

We went to the train station to find out when the next train for Stony Point left, and then, finally, went to the toilet before going across the street to get something to eat for breakfast.

The train ride out to Stony Point is long because it is a "milk run" ... stopping at every little place along the way. However, the train had lots of room for our bicycles, and for the bicycles of a local cycle touring club.

Eventually we stopped at Stony Point and got our campsite set up. Seems like we just took it all down. Then we went for a short walk over to the beach where I took several photos, and over to the little store where we got some information about the ferries.

And then we came back to the tent to nap ... to catch up on lost sleep from last night. Our plans were initally thwarted, however, when we found ourselves in the middle of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". We had pitched our tent under a bankcia tree which had maturing seed pods on it that attracked a flock of yellow-tailed black cockatoos. The birds gathered and rejoiced loudly as they feasted on these seeds right above our tent. Rowan tells me that the black cockies are also known as rainbirds and if they are active in flight, you can expect rain. And with the presence of me and the birds, what hope did we have of a bright sunny day ... none! It rained on and off right through to the evening ... nothing heavy, just waves of drizzle.

Later we rode into a nearby town to get some groceries. That was a bit of an adventure. Our intention was to ride to Bittern, but Bittern appeared to consist of Bittern Motors, a run-down car dealership/garage. We contined on into Hastings where there were some services, including a Safeway.

Machak was loaded up with a shopping bag of groceries and I rode very hesitantly and cautiously. I'm not used to carrying plastic bags of groceries. It didn't help that there was a lot of traffic at that time of day, a few of whom weren't too pleased about us being on the road with them. The entire trip was 19 kms.

We've spent a relaxing evening at the campsite, with me catching up on my story.

Sunday, February 24 -- Today we had some adventures!

We took our time packing everything up, and then waited for the ferry to French Island. Our plan was to cycle around the island during the afternoon, and then stay there overnight. In the morning we would catch the ferry to Cowes on Philip Island. But we all know about those best laid plans!

We had a bit of trouble loading our bicycles and everything onto the ferry when we were informed that we would have to take everything off our bicycles, and put it all (bicycles and our gear) right at the back of the ferry ... where it was open except for the railing. This bothered us for two reaons, we could see our stuff flying off the ferry, and we knew everything would be covered in salt spray from the ocean water.

We stood at the back of the ferry for the whole ride keeping an eye on our stuff ... oh, and we only removed the panniers, not everything. The ride was only about 15 minutes so it wasn't too bad ... the water was fairly choppy though.

We disembarked from the ferry on French Island, and started to ride. We had looked at the map and were under the impression that there were a lot of gravel or sand roads, and for those they recommended a mountain bike, but we were also under the impression that the main roads were paved ... we were wrong! All the roads were some form of gravel or sand. The main road was not only gravelly, but really lumpy ... corrugated. Very difficult riding for people on touring bicycles. We were managing a blistering pace of 7 km/h. This was a stretch of road that had "Roads to Recovery" signs, which meant that the road should have been built to a higher standard.

We inched our way to the general store, 3 kms inland. The girl running the store was very friendly ... although she admitted that she liked the solitude of no customers. :) (I'm with her) She told us that the National Park campground was not the only game in town but that there was another lady who ran tours and also had a campground with the selling feature of real toilets! The National Park campground just had drop toilets (outhouses), and we would have had to boil the water to use it. She added that she had not been out there in a while and wasn't sure if they even existed anymore.

It was tempting, but we had decided to take the 4:30 ferry over to Philip Island. So we decided to ride around a little bit, and then return to the dock. We continued up the road ... the lumpy, gravelly road ... at 7 km/h.

One of the things the friendy girl at the general store said was that there were a lot of koalas further up the road. When I heard that, I started looking for them. If we weren't going to stay, I, at least, wanted to see a koala.

I knew that koalas ate eucalyptus leaves, and so would likely be in gum trees, not in any other kinds of tree. I also knew their approximate size so they wouldn't be in really small trees ... they would be in a decent sized gum tree. I also had an idea where they would sit in the tree ... in a branch fork.

So, I would concentrate on the incredibly rough road as I went past trees that were very small, or which were some variety other than eucalyptus. When I noticed a largish gum tree, I would check the road in front of me to ensure I could let my bicycle roll for a few feet without hitting a pothole, lump, or rock, and then I would glance up into the forks of the tree to see if there might be something there.

I passed several without seeing anything but trees. And then all of a sudden I spotted something in the fork of a tree. I stopped, and called out to Rowan, "Koala!" and pointed at the tree. I wasn't 100% sure, but I thought there was a good chance that lump might be a koala, and I wanted to find out for sure.

Rowan, meanwhile, thought, "What?!?!?!" He had been concentrating on the road, and thought I was too. Me announcing that I spotted a koala was one of the last things he expected.

I pointed up in the tree, and at first he couldn't see what I was pointing at, and then didn't think that thing up in the tree was anything more than a part of a branch or something ... it was the color of the branches ... until it moved.

We pulled over, went into the field where the tree was (nice thing about koalas is that they don't scamper off), and watching for snakes, we headed for the tree. I got several good photos of the koala.

When we got back on the road, and had decided to go back to a recreation hall we had passed on the way to the general store to have lunch, Rowan told me he was absolutely amazed that I had spotted that koala. I was surprised too.

We had a nice lunch on the beachers of the cricket area in the recreation area, and rested a while. It was peaceful out there ... just us and the galahs (pink and grey parrots).

After a while we decided to get going, and just as I was walking my bicycle across the road, I spotted another koala in a tree right there. I got a few more photos.

We slowly made our way back to the dock. Oh, I also saw a large echidna on the side of the road, but they can move quite quickly when they perceive they have been spotted, so I didn't get a photo. So yesterday we road 19 kms, and today we rode about 7 to 8 kms.

When we arrived at the dock, we were the only ones there, and for a little while, I thought we might be the only ones on the ferry ... and then the dock flooded with people.

We returned to Stony Point and then went across to Cowes on Philip Island ... on the water for about 45 minutes. Our bicycles were covered in salt.

The first thing we did when we disembarked was to wash some of the salt off our bicycles. Then we found a nearby campground. Our campsite has running water and a hose so we were able to wash our bicycles off better.

We decided pizza would be nice tonight so we walked into town, and got ourselves a thai chicken pizza. Rowan pronounced it a monstrously marvelous pizza, the best he had ever eaten.

And tomorrow ... we would have the biggest day of cycling on this tour!