Had planned this trip a week or so ago.. visit to Jdbiker and Chippy.
Was out the door and mobile at 6.05am Chilly 8 degrees and dark, and roads were wet from o/night rain.
Every passing vehicle raised a mist, but it was very light and bearable as I had donned the wets before leaving home..
Traveled behind a semi for some distance on the way to Warrnambool, but far enough back that I had no problems with mist.
Sprinkled very light rain between Warrnambool and Camperdown, first light at 7.10, and sunrise about 30 minutes later as I approached Camperdowm.
This is when I discovered a problem.
With such an early ride. travelling east direct into sunrise glare, and a reflective wet road, is not conducive to good vision. So I pulled into the servo for an early break.
Spent an hour and a half there until glare was above helmet vision perception. There goes the idea of arriving before lunch, was going to be a bit behind schedule.
Back on the road around 9.i0 and a comfortable ride to Colac where a little heavier rain started and all traffic, albeit light, slowed accordingly. Temperature had climbed
to 11 degrees as I turned onto the Geelong bypass amidst a bit heavier traffic. Rain ceased around Lara, where I sent a text to Jd about revised arrival time.
A little further up the road near Laverton there was a slight delay with traffic being channeled from 3 lanes to 2 due to ambos and police occupying an accident
where a 4wd had collided with the concrete barrier between north and southbound lanes. Impact had torn off one front wheel, the cage had spun and impacted
again and removed rear wheels and diff as well. Bit of a mess, but luckily, driver and passenger seemed unhurt.
On the Westgate bridge I activated my GPS, and discovered that it was blind to the guiding satellites. Bummer! .. Will buy a replacement next payday.
While distracted by this and exclaiming expletives to myself at this unforeseen event, I found myself 1 lane right of where I should have been, and no way possible
to change lanes because of the barriers. As a consequence, I missed my intended route to the Kings Way exit, and had a minor detour through South Melbourne
where I had to 'wing it' to find my way east to St Kilda road.
A bit of guesswork involved to anticipate a suitable course to achieve this. Once on St Kilda road, it was all plain sailing to Dandenong.
Well, sort of.. Why it is called a 'highway' is beyond me. Google says that it is a 40Km trip which takes 52 minutes, from the Westgate Bridge to Dandenong,
More like an hour and three quarters in real life.
Google must have come to this time-frame conclusion after traveling this road at 3am on a Sunday morning, with no traffic and unending green lights.
Reached the South Gippsland turnoff and headed towards Cranbourne, this is where I had to think really hard as to where Jd had his home, having only been there once
before, but luckily my memory kicked in when I recognised the name of the street where I had to exit. A couple of blocks east, then south again, then a turn left and
found myself at the correct address.
Rolled down the drive and tooted the horn, and the garage door magically arose to give me entrance.
We chatted for a couple hours or so, they insisted that I have a meal, and then we ginned around on the computer for a short while.
Time to leave again, and I was presented with some fresh duck eggs (Love 'em!) in a suitable travelling container.
Was on the road shortly before 3pm. A toot and a wave as I left, will catch up with them again at Paringa in 4 weeks time.
Sprinkled rain again until I had passed through Dandenong, where I topped the tank. Moderately heavy Saturday afternoon traffic through the Westgate bridge
to Geelong, with another spit of rain from Geelong to Colac. Sun dropped behind low clouds as I approached, which negated any glare.
Had a 10 minute
pisstop pitstop. Legacy of a couple cups of coffee with meal earlier
Traffic west from Colac was moderately heavy, and I was amazed by the number of oncoming cage drivers who do not dim their lights for oncoming traffic.
... Until I too changed to high beam as well.... Oh!.... you DO realise that there is a secondary function with your beam intensity?
Were you not aware that Manufacturers fit them to ALL vehicles?
Happened with at least 15, 20 cars.
C*ckbreaths!
Once past Warrnambool it was very light traffic (apart from the highlight of a Koala sitting in the middle of my lane) with just a sprinkle of misty rain for
the rest of the way home, and I was in the door at 8.45pm. As I undressed for a shower, I discovered that my clothing was damp from perspiration,
possibly due to the braking anxiety to avoid said koala?
The eggs survived the trip.
All in all, apart from some arrogant cage drivers and the adventurist koala playing 'chicken', a good trip with 820 Km extra on the dial.
Cheers!
