I arrived in Wangaratta from Shepparton today.
Yesterday I rode from Bendigo to Shepparton and the 135 km took me 5 1/2 hours on the bike – that’s an average of 24.5km/h – I’m a machine! 😉 I went through Colbinnabin, Rushworth & Tatura; some lovely parts of central Victoria.
When cycling, you travel at a speed that allows you to appreciate the scenery.
To get to Wang, I decided (with advice from my lovely hosts from last night, Glenn & Lisanne) to ride through Dookie and over the Warby Ranges – a much more picturesque route – unfortunately, this also meant a bit of climbing with the added downside of a false summit to contend with. 🙁 At 101km, this was a shorter day, so I slowed my pace to a more comfortable average of 22.5km/h and 4:30 in the saddle. this is still a pleasing pace and my body is holding up remarkably well for an ‘old codger’. 😉
The weather has been most kind to me with lots of blue sky and sunshine.
As for the talks: Castlemaine & Bendigo went well with lots of lovely comments afterwards – this is very heartening. Shepparton happened but with only a short time to arrange publicity – though I did get on WinTV last night – as the original plans fell through. Again, the audience reaction was great and I feel I’m actually starting to make a difference.
Tonight will be a ‘chill-out’ night at some friends of Lisanne & Glenn’s (thanks for the recommendation guys and a very big thank you to Edmund & Marilla for your most excellent hospitality) before I ride to Beechworth tomorrow to catch up with a friend from the course I did a couple of years ago and a little bit of R&R. The talk scheduled for tonight fell through, unfortunately – it seems difficult for the people my volunteer event coordinator is trying to work through to organise venues in the time available. We might need to re-think the strategy. Hopefully, once I am known about more, things will come together easier.
This is all good experience and we will build on it to make the next series of events better. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy and this is no exception.
Till next time, John.
