The Great Victorian Bike Ride - Day 1

So I’ve recently finished a short stint on the Great Victorian Bike Ride. The GVBR is ridden over a 10-day period where (approx.) 4,000 riders travel over 600 kilometers through the state.

Since mum wasn’t able to ride the first three days I forged a birth certificate, donned the name Wendy, and jumped on a bus to Mt Gambier, South Australia. 

Unfortunately my days of writing ‘Dear Diary’ in the hope of being published by Dolly Magazine are long gone and I'm well out of practice. On the plus side, I managed a ‘Photo Diary’ with my trusty iPhone.

So here's what I got...

DAY 1

Departure:

Suffice to say the idea of a 6 hour bus trip to the start of a bicycle ride seemed kinda ironic. Shouldn't we be riding there? And why are we going to South Australia to start the Great Victorian Bike Ride? So many questions so early, such confusion. 

"I'm sorry? Oh Wendy. Yes that is me. Why am I wearing boy's clothes? No that's not an Adam's apple, are you crazy? Yes, I always speak with deep masculine tones in my voice."

This could be a rough ride.

Upon our trusty Firefly, with white noise (aka scratchy 774 cricket coverage) saturating my ears, we took the advice of the Village People and went West. 

Our trusty steed the FIREFLY. Came complete with an
 on-board toilet. Not, however, a safe option for the boys,
accuracy on a moving bus becomes decidedly more difficult.

Caution them about what?

There are small things that get you through a 6 hour journey. Not Dad's crossword. Not the bellowing men in front or the chattering of women behind. I'm talking about the dear American lass who, at our petrol-station roadstop in the middle of nowhere, complained about the coffee. Couple of issues with this, and let's stereotype: 

1) You're American, you have no right to critique any other country's coffee. 

2) We're at a petrol-station in the middle of nowhere, not Hardware Lane in the city, what did you expect?

Can I also say, you can't sell cheese and biscuits for $5.50. That's just insane.

Another 2 hours on the bus and we arrived at our first overnight stop:

The Quality Inn, Mt Gambier.

Quality Inn, Mt Gambier, website.

Despite the fact that it was a lovely stay, I absolutely must
comment on the foyer display...um...what to say?

From the moment we arrived in Mt Gambier the rain only got heavier. A slight drizzle turned into a consistent annoyance, into absolutely bucketing down come beddy-byes. With our first stint on the bikes come morning, we could only dream of better weather...

Stay tuned for DAY 2: The first 40.



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