Monday, October 17, 2016

A Mighty Wind

Woke up to questionable weather today. Looking up at the sky at 6:30 you could see some small patches of sky, but mostly clouds.  I didn't have a thermometer, but I guess the temperature was about 45 degrees F. A very brisk morning for biking.

A hot breakfast was served as well as cereal and such, but I keep my eye on the sky, hoping for the best. We had some visitors, a mother and baby kangaroo or perhaps a wallaby. Either way, they viewed us for a bit, but as soon as the cameras came out they made a dash in to the brush.

We started out just as it started to drizzle and a short while later it pretty much stopped. You could look up at the sky and watch the clouds move overhead. They were all moving in the same direction as we were heading. Alternating patches of blue sky and then clouds and some showers, then 15 minutes later more blue sky. At one point I looked over my shoulder as saw a huge dark cloud catching up with us and within minutes it started to hail!! Small pea sized chunks of ice bunching off the road, my back and helmet. With no shelter in sight, the best that could be done was to just keep biking on to stay warm.

As we continued to ride, the skies cleared up a bit just long enough to consider stopping in Portland for coffee, but not trusting the weather it was decided to continue on to the lunch stop. We had only been there for a couple of minutes when the wind picked up and started to pour. The lunch stop has a portable canopy and it took two of use to hold on to it for about 5 minutes to keep it from blowing away. When the wind settled down and the rain stopped we headed out again.

The rest of the ride was uneventful. Several hills, lots of sheep, cattle and a wind farm. The wind farm must of had 100 windmills spread over a 6 mile distance along the ocean shore.

It was still pretty early when we got in. Time enough to have a second lunch and a coffee at one of the many cafes that dot the resort community.

Tomorrow we have a rest day so we'll get a chance to walk the town and wash and oil the bikes before heading on to Port Campbell Thursday the 20th.

Photo Link:

Happy Biking,

Brian

1 comment:

  1. Hi Brian! Sounds like a great adventure. I Enjoy reading your posts and hope you keep warm and have fun.

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