Blog #5

   

The Grampians, Australia’s foremost rock climbing destination, not done justice by Phil’s photo

 

Blog number five on Monday, 15 April. 

We were in Portland and the evening meeting was at Macs Hotel, where there was a big turnout. We were hosted by John and Naomi at their beautiful old place in town and we went back there afterwards for a long chat into the evening. John was a retired dairy farmer and Naomi had been a primary school teacher. Typically, John had a several big sheds on his property and plenty of tools so that saved me the bother of going to a bike shop for some routine maintenance on the bike for which I needed heavy duty pliers. I was able to borrow his tools to take a link out of one of the chains and adjust the tension. 

Whale watching Portland. Needless to say we saw none except on this notice

Our host, Naomi, had a private key to the gannet colony in Portland. Fence to keep out foxes and feral people.

Gannets. Yeah, I know, with my photography they could be seagulls…or sparrows.

How to empty a B double truck of wood chips. Stand it vertically. This one empty and halfway down

Tuesday 16th April. The forecast threatened rain and we felt that we needed a reasonably early start so were on the road before nine. Both John and Naomi warned us of Tower Hill on the highway, just outside Warrnambool, and that made us a little apprehensive, but the alternative ‘bicycle’ route, avoiding the hill, was significantly longer. We decided that with the highway trip of over 100 km we couldn’t afford to do much more. Our host in Warrnambool, Janet, had already told us that her house was 22 km out the opposite side of Warrnambool and had offered to transport us out there in her (very large) vehicle. We had arranged to meet her in a car park at a Woolworths store on the Portland side of Warrnambool at about 3 o’clock. 
Off we pedalled before 9am and the gods were with us - it didn’t rain all day. The initial few kms followed the coast on flat, quiet road out of Portland and that was lovely riding on a lovely surface. Almost every house here had a poster on the gate objecting to a proposed abalone farm, which they were planning to build nearby. That road eventually connected up with the A1, which was quite a busy highway with frequent trucks flying past but didn’t feel dangerous because it had wide shoulders. We had a coffee stop at the tiny settlement of Narrawong in the middle of dairy country, just south of our hosts old farm.

Port Fairy. ‘Worlds most liveable community’ - says who?

Port Fairy. Full of gingerbread houses. Stopped here for lunch. On a previous trip we’d had the world’s best fish and chips here

After that we reached Tower Hill, a non-event that wouldn’t even be classified as a hill in Tasmania as it took only 10 minutes to summit the rise.
At a small settlement 5km from Warrnambool we stopped at the side of the road and phoned our host for the might, Janet, to give her 15 minutes warning of our arrival, as we thought, at Woolies in Warrnambool. Turned out that she was sat in a Woolies car park only 100metres from where we phoned and was happily listening to a talking book. Another phone call sorted out the confusion and she came to find us in her big vehicle, which took the Tandem in the back quite easily. She drove us to her house 22 km on the opposite side of Warrnambool and in the course of the journey she explained to us that she had a very major head injury some years before when trying to avoid a koala bear. She’d hit a tree at about 100 kph and had to spend a long time rehabilitating. She was still unable to talk or write a year after the event, but she had finally recovered sufficiently that she was now running her own company with 350 employees! Absolutely remarkable. Her major issue was short-term memory loss, so she kept losing her car keys  but
otherwise seemed completely normal. Her out of town property was close to a river and she told us that they’d had two 100 year floods in the last five years and those floods had not quite come into the house, which was elevated was on stumps. 

War Memorial known locally as the dirty angel. Looks like she’s holding her willy.

The evening Rotary meeting was held at the Bowls club, which was the most palatial Bowls club I have ever seen, presumably funded by the takings from the Pokies and we had a good meeting with a pretty good turnout and then back to her place for a chat with Janet and her husband Trevor, who had a business Installing swimming pools.  Next day Janet  took us in her car to our next host, Brendan, who is the secretary of the Warrnambool central club, which meets over lunch. Having briefly chatted with Brendan and his wife Linda at their property in town we went to the meeting attended by about 30 people and then he took us on a tour of Warrnambool . Highlights included a beautiful shoreline from which you could barely see the city at all, a whale watching location, a gannet  colony and surf club.
Brendan and his wife only retired about six months ago and have spent that six months in planning a very long and complicated three month itinerary through Europe, due to depart in three weeks. They were excited! Brendan, in his spare time, is an accomplished woodworker with an enviably well equipped workshop.
Tomorrow we’re off to cycle about 60 km to Cobden. The weather promises to be crap. Hey ho.

To donate go to:  https://raise.rotary.org/joyce+phil/challenge