Day 6, 23 Jan 2016: Warranambool cliff camp to sheep camp
It was a great view to wake up to after a deep sleep to the sound of crashing waves, but it would soon be time to say goodbye to the ocean.
Packed up and tackled the bumpy dirt track back to the unsealed road and onwards into Warranbool. Found a semi private shower and got decently clean, with soap! and washed a bunch of clothes. Attached them to the back of the bike to dry. Cycled into town for food and then onwards west. This was a critical turning point, I decided to halt the move west and begin to head inland to plot a course north to the west Victoria desert parks. This decision was due to the forecast on an unseasonal persistent period of cooler temperatures in southerly flow which was a double positive since the winds would blow me northward. I put in the coordinates to get to the first desert park: Little Desert. Google gave me a route that I largely kept to that was 236 km long which was ~ 3 days for me. The route north inland was mostly minor roads occasionally unsealed and fine cycling. A few hours inland and wind turbines became visible and soon I was in them towering all around and whirring deeply.
These things are huge, if they were in a town they would be a major monument, out here in the country they are just bizarre. I wondered about the killing of birds by the blades, I had heard that it might be an issue and looking at them I could well believe it. The ends must have been moving very fast, how fast I don’t know but any animal hit by them would certainly be curtains.
Eventually with sun setting pulled off the road and set up camp somewhat hidden in some bush with nearby sheep. There was a really disturbing sounding koala in the night, even worse than usual, like it had a cold or something, anyway I thought that if anyone believed the dropbear myth then that koala’s croak was what it would sound like.
Day 7, 24 Jan: Sheep camp to Hamilton motel
Having been on tour for a week I decided to spend the next night at a motel to clean up and re-evaluate. Hamilton was the chosen town for this. The bike ride there was relatively straightforward through eucalyptus lined relatively empty roads and accompanied by the ever present sulphur crested cockatoo complaints. The town was nice, with a lake where I ate a burger and chips and organized my Motel.
It was such luxury to me, running water, shower bed, electricity, wifi, I went nuts. I started making videos, charging everything, uploading to youtube, washing clothes, drying clothes, I felt exhilarated but also manic because I only had these things for a short amount of time. I biked on a bike without most bags, into town, found an Aldi, bought stuff, like microwave butter chicken X2, great! and beer!! Got back and started on the beer, brought in the clothes, solar panels, continued working on videos and eventually got to bed. It was all a quite strange experience.
Day 8, 25 Jan: Hamilton to Jilpanger camp
Woke up and continued work on videos, then a manic pack up and check out. I hoped to get fairly close to the south of Little Desert National Park today. The route continued north and there was a decent cool southerly again helping with the ride. I kept on having “Time for my morning ride” – Christopher Walken in Jame Bond: View to a Kill, in my head, thanks Mum for repeating this phrase so many times that it was locked in my memory (she has a crush on Walken). On some of the roads it was glorious cycling, just burning up the kilometres while sulphur crested cockatoos continued their protest vigorously overhead. Other common bird accompaniments were the Australian crow with it’s evil laugh, and a black and white bird with a nice wooo wooo call. Occasionally you would see the black cockatoo with it’s gentle swaying flight and peaceful call.
The route north led to the White Lake where I did something stupid. I was quite tired and wanted to get a picture. As I grabbed my camera I lost balance with the stationary bike and slowly fell to the gravel road. I cut my knee slightly but nothing else. The lake appeared dry with a distant mirage, but actually had some water in it on the northern side.
Biked on and decided to camp in Jilpanger Reserve. While making dinner I spilt some soup in the dark. A few minutes later heard a rustle and turned on the torch to see this little frog. Just not what I expected to see, it is very dry in this region. What a cute little fella.
The moon rose through the eucalypts after dark. At first I did not know what the light was but then after realizing it was the moon took a quick time-lapse using the Sony NEX-6 zoom. Later I tried a star time-lapse with the Ricoh GR but the moon was quite bright so no clear Milky Way. Both of these time-lapses are in the video below:
Day 9, 26 Jan: Jilpanger to Little Desert camp
Packed up and headed off excited, today I would finally make it the first of the desert parks. Leaving camp there was a slight smell of smoke in the air and looking back down the long straight road there was some haze.
I was slightly concerned there might be a nearby fire so headed out of the Jilpanger Reserve fairly promptly. However it was soon clear this was large scale smoke and in fact the BOM had issued a forecast for smoke across areas of Victoria from huge wildfires ongoing in Tasmania. The cool southerly flow that had been helping my ride had also been dragging that smoke all the way across the Bass Straight to Victoria.
A while further on there was a sheep road block mirage. I could see the sheep dogs moving precisely around the sheep.
Approaching closer, an old farmer commanding the dogs and then in a matter of seconds a few shouts to the dogs and all the sheep moved perfectly through a gate into a nearby field. I was honestly amazed at the skill of this man and the dogs and I wanted to tell him but instead just said good day.
Further on I crossed the Wimmera Highway where I had hoped for a water source but there was only a empty looking house. Heading now to Little Desert I would have to ration my water a little bit. To get to the next reliable source tomorrow at Nhill. A further 30 km from the highway crossing and I was at Little Desert. It was good to have finally made it here.
The park was mostly flat sandy bushland and open grass and desert plants. There was also evidence of a wild fire from last year.
I pulled off the road and found a spot out of view from the road to camp. The flies came with. It was sandy and there were also plenty of ants. OK basically ants are everywhere, but here was above average on the persistence scale. Made some food and cowered away in the safety of my netted tent to escape the flies and ants as evening set in.
The evening had a blanket of altostratus with some negative instability perhaps, shown in the first part of the video below
Day 10, 27 Jan: Little Desert to birthday motel in Nhill
It was a mistake to leave the sour sweets in the front pannier outside last night. The ants got to them so I tried to scrape them off to recover a few but some I gave up on. Lesson learned, always keep the ant favourable food in the tent, or perhaps in the waterproof Ortlieb back panniers, thought I suspected clever ants might find a way into those too.
It was a nice morning with an early bank of thin altocumulus that soon was gone.
This was my birthday so I had decided to head to a motel in Nhill to relax and enjoy it. However first was running low on water so did not waste time tackling the 25 km ride to Nhill. This was first through the protected sandy scrubland which was great (third part of video above), and then returned to farmland before reaching Nhill which turned out to be a pretty nice place. I found a café and had the “Colossal” breakfast with a flat white, truly a treat, it’s amazing how much enjoyment can be had from this kind of luxury after the hardships of tour camping. Found a library but strange hours, and closed, IGA grocery, ohh the banquet of goods on offer, it just does not seem right to suddenly be given so much produce to choose from. I chose beer and some other stuff and headed to the motel. There were thunderstorms out to the east but sadly none here.
It was a basic $70 a night place but the owner lady was nice and the room was fine.
I spent time responding to Facebook comments and working on time-lapse videos. The one problem with the room was a lack of netting in the bathroom that let a mosquito in that bit me several times until I got it in a splat of my own blood on my right leg. I always feel that they never get full, somehow they just keep on trying to get you even though they have clearly had a large fill of blood. Also a small huntsman spider was sitting in the toilet on the morning of the 28th .
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