David's Journal Entry

A biting chill greeted us this morning with the air raising the mercury to only 2°C above zero. By 10 am the day had warmed to a less than balmy 4°C, marked by the disappearance of the moisture clouds we had been exhaling like snorting dragons up until that point. The tight joints that have plagued my mornings since Coober Pedy slowed us today (even Mike was not immune). It turns out breaking a knee in one's twenties is not ideal preparation for bike touring, as my right leg has reminded me daily whilst it takes time to slowly warm and loosen.

The fruitless vines lining the road did little to take away the wintry chill. In contrast, coffee and pies in Ararat, a town so set in wine country that it has vines growing in the main street (they were being pruned by council workers as we waited) did offer some much-needed heat. In spite of this, we were both ready to call it a day, the trip is almost over now and like the end of any project, we are both keen to close it out. I am sure if it were 24°C and sunny we may have felt different, there is after all a reason Eileen and I emigrated to Malaysia. Perhaps we are steeling ourselves for the inevitable slump when it is all over, or maybe it is because the exciting and novel aspects of this trip have now become routine. For me, our most enjoyable rides have always been when we have been away from "civilisation", where self-sufficiency is needed, even in Ireland, on our first-ever tour, that was the appeal. The last week or so has been more like multiple day-rides rather than a grand tour. 

We each had our own room in a motel this evening, purely through circumstance, not due to any dispute. Over our meal, we toyed with the idea of doing one last long day. 160+km to Melbourne and finish with another imperial ton...but decided against it, not least because we would be landing on Ciaran a day early and without notice. So tomorrow we will ride to Ballarat.