Monday, February 25 -- February century in the bag!

We were up about 7 am, and packed up and on the road just before 9 am.

Our first order of business was to find our way out of Cowes, and off Phillip Island. It wasn't difficult, but I did notice that Phillip Island has changed ... it is a lot more built up than it was 3.5 years ago. I kept waiting for the open fields, but they didn't come ... and all of a sudden we were across the bridge and off the island.

For a little while the terrain was gently rolling and rather dry-looking. Then all of a sudden we rounded a corner and there was a view of the ocean. We rode on a little ways, and then pulled over in a lookout area to take some photos of the waves coming in, and to take a short break.

We moved away from the ocean a bit until Wonthaggi when we turned toward it again, and road along the coast to Inverloch by the Cape Patterson scenic route - very lovely.

Rowan had been to Inverloch before and took me on the coastal route through town, along the beaches. I had also been to Inverloch in 2004, but didn't remember much of it.

In Inverloch, we stopped for lunch groceries, and at a pharmacy to get some Claratyne for me as I was experiencing some allergy symptoms. That was a bit of a process because the saleslady wanted to know all my symptoms before giving me anything, and then the pharmacist was called and also wanted to know all my symptoms. Finally I got what I wanted and we were able to leave.

We had lunch on a street bench - buns with chicken, cheese, and tomato; a banana each; and yogurt. Then we contined on our way, aiming for Fish Creek.

Most of the traffic along here was pretty good, but there was one vehicle that pulled up beside us and told us about the rail trail route next to the road. That's nice but it was gravel, and we wanted to ride on the road. It would have been lovely, I'm sure, if we were only doing 10 kms or something, but not when we were trying to make some time covering 160 kms with loaded touring bicycles. But I suspect that the idea of doing that kind of distance on a bicycle is incomprehensible to some.

The only other traffic issue we had was the trucks. These were fast moving tandem trucks which travelled in pairs, and came close to knocking us off the road on more than one occasion. They came very close to us!

When we were on the road between Tarwin Lower and Fish Creek we heard some rustling in the ditch, glanced over, and identified the source of the noise as a large koala about to cross the road! We stopped, and it stopped, and while I was digging out my camera, it dashed up a tree. I didn't realize they could move that fast. I did, however, manage to get a couple photos of it.

We stopped in Fish Creek, and when I went in to use the toilet, Rowan bought him and me each a coke ... when I came out I bought a coke as well ... we had an abundance of cokes, but one of these was to come in very handy down the road.

We kept riding onward to Wilsons Prom, up over what felt like a small mountain range, and down the other side. Then it was just small hills the rest of the way to the Wilsons Prom gate. We had intended to get there before the gate closed, but they closed up at 4:30, and we weren't there till about 5:40.

We had a Milo bar each, and I also had a mandarine orange. But I should have eaten more.

The first part of the road into the park was quite manageable. We saw a wallaby who came out of the bushes, stood up to get a better look at us, and then dashed back into the bushes again. We also saw a collection of kangaroos in a meadow a little ways off the road. Throughout the day we had seen 3 echidas as well, and we saw at least one of those in the park.

Then the road got hilly. There was one in particular which seemed to go on forever for me ... it was probably only about 1.2 kms, but there is a series of them that last about 5 kms in total which makes it a bit of a challenge. I was into my granny on the longest hill, and huffing and puffing to make it up ... but I did make it up, all on the bicycle, and all without stopping.

Now I mentioned before that I should have eaten more, and that the extra coke would come in handy later ... this was the time. I was shaking at the top of that hill, and so Rowan and I shared the coke which was enough to keep me going to the end. But the rest of the series involves fast windy descents going immediately into steepish climbs. Keeps a person shifting!

We rolled into Tidal River at about 7:30 pm, set up camp, and then rode around the campground to finish the century. It's done, and all with loaded touring bicycles too!

We were famous when we arrived. A lady overheard us say we had just finished 161 kms, and congratulated us on a good ride, and then another lady inquired if we were the cyclists out on the road. Apparently her husband thought we should be on the rail trail too, but she thought perhaps we wanted to ride on the bitumen ... we let her know she was right.

We had a nice supper in a picnic shelter, and then a welcome night's rest.

Tuesday, February 26 -- Today we slept in a bit, resting up after yesterday's efforts.

We had a leisurely breakfast, and then debated about cycling to the top of Mt. Oberon, but decided against it. Neither of us felt particularly energetic, and the weather had closed in as well. So we went for a walk on the beach, in the waves ... so much nicer than wading through snow!

We showered, then napped under the trees for a while ... just taking it easy.

Later, we went to the shop to get a few things to nibble on and then went back to the beach, and explored the park area a bit. Really not doing too much.

Today we saw several more rosellas, a kookaburra, lots of seagulls, a flock of terns, and some other birds, many of which I took photos of. The seagulls were funny. It was as though they had each been assigned a campsite to patrol, and one with a bad leg was assigned the picnic shelter.

I will also mention that camped over in the group section were a collection of school kids from various schools. We were a bit concerned, when we arrived, that they might be noisy, and would disturb our camping experience. But they were fine. Gaggles of them would go by from time to time ... to their lunch hall, to the beach, up the path to the top of the hill ... but they were surprisingly orderly and well behaved.

And on one of our little walks, one of the older students came over and asked if she could ask us a few questions for a survey they were conducting about the park. We said, "Sure", and she asked us about the park and other national parks we had visited. She seemed a little bit surprised that we'd been to others outside of Australia, in North America, and was quite pleased that I was Canadian.