Week 27, Part 1

Sunday 10 October 1971. Melbourne (Kew)

I slept late, had a shower and spent the rest of the day in a cosy and warm living room reading and watching TV. Outside it the wind was howling and not very inviting to go out. In the evening I went to the Scots Church in the heart of Melbourne, the same church I used to go to when I was in port during my seafaring days. The service was well attended as I remembered it, and the same excellent minister. The choir also was as good as ever.

(Note: Years later when Pam and I were living in Melbourne, we visited the Scots Church for the Christmas Eve services and the choir was still as good as ever, but a different minister, I'm sure.)

Once back in Kew, I went to bed early after a nice bowl of soup.

Monday 11 October 1971. Kew to Moe/Newborough: 85 miles

I got up at seven, had a hearty breakfast and said my goodbyes. The first 25 miles took me through suburbs and industrial areas and therefore heavy traffic. (To this day I remember the distaste of having to ride in such heavy traffic after all the weeks and months of very light traffic) Finally the four-lane road changed into a two-lane road and the traffic was greatly reduced. The road was winding itself through hilly area with high mountains on both sides of the road (that's written by someone from Holland writing to fellow flat-landers). A breeze was blowing out of the West, and large cumulus clouds kept the sun hidden. In Newborough, a small town just past Moe, I looked up a fellow Dutchman I had met in Carnarvon when I went to church there. I was treated to a very warm welcome, and invited to stay overnight at his place. Glad to accept! After a delicious meal, we watched TV for a while and then I had another good night's rest in a warm bed. This concluded a day without any problems.

Tuesday 12 October 1971. Newborough to Camp 58: 88 miles

Another delicious breakfast. Loaded up with sandwiches I took off again. A heavy overcast sky and no wind, so not exactly ideal bike-riding weather. After taking some secondary roads past huge, brown coal burning, power stations, I made it back to the main road. In Stratford I looked up the Presbyterian minister. Mr Gobius, my host last night, had asked me to look him up and pass on his greetings. Nice all this getting up late and drinking coffee, but it eats up a lot of time while I could be riding my bike. I had planned to make it to Lake's Entrance, but did not make it. Four miles past Bairnsdale I camped by the side of the road. I made a nice large camp fire and boiled a pan of soup, fried some bacon and a kind of very light pancakes: crumpets, followed by custard for desert. I put up both inside and outside parts of my tent.