End of day one

What a long day!

with a bit of a late start we fanged out of town up the Calder.

We stopped for a very yummy pie and a coffee in Castlemain.

Ashly's little 250 Sherpa really struggled with keeping up with Amelia's and my bikes and often one of us would have to hang back. A brave effort on Ashley's part to ride with on the first day and I'm glad he came along because, apart from his friendly company and local knowledge he also really helped out with ironing some the bugs with our communications gear.

Pulling up in a small town just out of Maryburough for a quick consultation on yet another petrol stop for the sherpa a lovely voice comes over the uhf radio saying " I hope yous all fall off ya bikes and crash. " I can see that country hospitality seems somewhat diminished in Marysborough at least.

The were a few signs of the recent flooding. mainly large pools of water by the road and mud and vegetation hanging from fences. At one town there were sandbags running alongside the road and at another point we had to cross a bit of a stream running over the road. The amazing thing is how lush the country side is, with vast padlock covered in thick verdant green or bright yellow canola.

We had planned to have afternoon tea with Ashley's grandmother in hopetown and then go on to Hattah national park to camp for the night, but by the time we reached the Mallee country we were pretty much feeling exhausted.

After a wonderful warm welcome from Ashley's family with much talk about bikes and routes, afternoon tea changed to a dinner and a bed for the night. It seemed that as soon as I'd wearily dropped my bags in my room that a delicious roast dinner magically appeared from the oven followed unexpectedly by peaches and ice cream and much pleasant conversation. I don't think I've appreciated the whole shared experience of a meal as much as that dinner for a long time.

Very tired, went to bed early, missed out on conversation and socializing and this morning sort of regretting it and wishing I'd stayed up.

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