The week seemed to draw longer and longer without a bike. It was ok for when I was waiting for legalities and paperwork with a bike. Time just seemed to pass way quicker! But not here… not bikeless. Time just drags on. Waiting, waiting for any news!
Spoke with the bike assessors over the week and they had to make some queries due to the accessories and potential decisions – but it looked like they were leaning towards the writing off the Lawnmower decision. I awaited the final work with impending doom…
The week ended and the weekend was almost here and I was going to bust out into waterworks because I had no bike and nowhere to sight-see to. My knight in shining armour came from another invitation for me to sit on the back of the Battleship Galactica for a day 🙂 That certainly perked me up somewhat!
Since P2 has taken me to the east of Melbourne to see the Gippsland, this time it was west to see the… well…. West.
This place was nice to ride through, but it was chalk and cheese compared to the greenery fields of the east Gippsland. What a contrast! It felt like it rains only on the east side of Melbourne’s bay, judging by the dry vegetation around.
Another difference on this side of ‘town’ was the number of wombat signs. They seemed to be everywhere! I guess this meant an added road hazard as I had heard that the bony plate on the back end of a wombat has been known to derail a car off the road when there’s been a crash.
Trenham was a cute little town, in the middle of Wombat haven. It was freezing at 3 degrees, with no view to be clearing up or getting warmer. I needed a stop and a hot chocolate from one of the quaint little coffee shops.
Didn’t know wombats read!! 😉
From there further north to Daylesford through bouts of pine plantations, forested pockets, then opened up lands for agriculture and semi-manicured hobby farms. Through dryer areas, and wombat-signed roads.
Daylesford is definitely more upmarket and a larger town. But also a lot more expensive.
We stopped here because my chauffeur was rather fond of a particular bakery that made a certain steak pie, which he would not be happy if we passed without stopping to get him one… or two…
Happy after a pie, we left again as he was going to take me to a place where he said I would absolutely love… no idea what he meant, but I was keen to see what this would be.
I was happy as Larry on the back of the bike, being so comfortable I decided to start playing with a selfie stick I had. Haven’t really used it before, as can’t do it while riding…. But on the back was a different story.
Again, riding with P2 felt like a GPS gone crazy, with no real destination. But I didn’t mind one bit. At one point we got on dirt to check out some nice rivers, and bridges.
A route much quieter than the sealed roads, also had better scenery.
And P2 was correct. I loved this mystery place as it had, not one, not two, but three BIG CHICKENS! 😀 Had to do a little bit of fence jumping to get to the base of the chicken, and then jump as high as I was able to, to get to lie beneath the egg-pooper of this giant chicken. Just brilliant at Happy Hens, Meredith. 😀
After that, I had a smile on my dial for the rest of the day as I didn’t think anything would top that side trip. But P2 had another nice location to show me.
Again no idea where this was however, but the views from this mountain lookout were well worth it. This lookout had BIG wooden totem poles for pillars.
From there it was just nice to cruise around and starting to make our way closer to home as the temperatures weren’t getting any warmer and the skies seemed to be getting a bit greyer, and thicker. From here on end, I was told that these are the areas that people prefer to stay away from or go tohe Gippsland instead.
Someone’s creativity showing as part of their elaborate mail box at Brisbane Ranges National Park. And finally swinging east past Werribee and through Melbourne city (in the distance). I was dropped off after another wonderful (but cold) day, exploring new places and doing it in style!
Touring Valvoline 