Had brekkie in BK's in Heathcote. It used to be called the Green Frog Cafe and had been a milk bar. since the 1940s. We were sitting eating when a bike stops and the rider comes in to speak, having seen the postie bikes. Turns out to be ChrisP from HU ( Aka Chris) an ex pat pom who has lived in Oz for 22 years. Had a good old chat with him and he revealed he'd read about mine and Nadine's scooter trip from London to the Gobi last year. Small world.
The lady in the cafe was really cool and a good laugh.Tracey, originally from Queensland then Melbourne only opened it as a franchise five weeks ago.
The best coffee ever, excellent food and super friendly service. Well worth a stop.
She also warned as about the local roos. Whereas they usually come out at dawn and dusk, the Heathcote posse have recently taken to marauding about at all hours. Nobody knows why that is, but a mob of four took out a troopie last week around lunchtime. The driver was ok but the truck was badly dented. We wouldn't fare so well on bikes, so it was eyes peeled all the way.
The rolling countryside out here seems endless, but it is punctuated from time to time by funny things. Like a dog pooping on a bonfire pile in his front garden ( no pic unfortunately - wasn't quick enough) or some goats a couple of kms further on, standing on a tree looking out over their goatdom.
We stopped for coffee in Castlemaine where I found a star chart; not pony celebrity thing but one for looking at the heavens. One of those that's a disc with dates and times so you can work out exactly what you're looking at. I'm fed up looking at the night sky and being clueless. But what do you know - its cloudy tonight so no stars. Bugger.
After Castlemaine, we carried on through Maryborough and Avoca, then Ararat where we stopped to fill up and the weather suddenly changed, the wind came up and it looked like it was about to tip it down.
Ararat is a nice little place with some impressive older brick buildings in the town centre. It must have been quite an important centre of something once.
But there was no sense in getting soaked before we reached the Grampians and got the tents up, so we decided to stay put. But then, having found a place to camp, I dumped my bike.
It was only a very slow speed tumble - ridiculous really as I was hardly moving - but my foot slipped as I turned on gravel and over I went. And stupidly because we were where we were going to camp, I'd taken my gloves off, so now I have some nasty scrapes on my hands and less skin than I had before. I should have known better but I risked it and came a cropper. I shudder to think what it would be like to come off, dressed in just shorts and a tee shirt.
But on the plus side, it meant that I didn't have to put my own tent up, and I didn't have to cook dinner or wash up either. Yaay! Every cloud has a silver lining. However, rather disappointingly, both Gordon and Nadine failed to get a picture but the ever present cockatoos and kookaburras saw the whole thing and laughed their beaks off. Shits.
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