Continued ....
The long way home...
Had a good run back to the city, with a couple rest stops to answer phone and have a little filtered country air...
Gordo, was that you that passed me at one of those stops? (exchanged waves)
Traffic was moderately heavy through the city until I hit the Westgate. Exited the bridge for the comfortable run (I thought) to visit my old army buddy at Hoppers Crossing ... except that the traffic from the bridge onto Geelong Road was at a complete standstill.
It took more than an hour just to reach the first exit from Brooklyn to Dohertys Road which is only about 3 Km.
I dropped in to catch up with my mate at Hoppers, stayed and chatted for a bit less than an hour, and headed out.
Decided to avoid the Geelong freeway parking lot, so headed for Ballarat and then Colac, which effectively avoided the 40k speed restrictions from Geelong to Colac.
It started to sprinkle as I left Colac and very gusty winds buffeting the bike around so I put on my wet gear. The rain slowly increased the further west I travelled, and visibility was affected so I dropped from Hwy speed back to around 80k, seems that every dimple on the road was a puddle, and every time I hit one, the water pounded the top of my boots and trickled inside. Didnt help much that every truck heading the other way showered me with their slipstream, and every car that passed me lifted spray from the road in my face.
Had a rest stop at Terang, and popped into a jumper under the wets as the wind had a bit of a bite to it.
Not much traffic at that time, people had decided to get off the road. Maybe I should have followed suit?
The rain increased as I approached Warrnambool with low visibility forcing slower travel again. Was down to around 70/75k and having difficulty in seeing the lane markings. By the time I left Warrnambool, it was really pelting down, there was around 10mm fell in the final hour till I reached home at around 11.20pm. The last 40 km into Portland I was cruising at 50k because of poor visibility.
Naturally, 15 minutes after I walked in the door, the rain ceased, and was heading further east still.
Final distance covered for Friday / Saturday was around 1160 Km, speedo passed 183,000 just a few minutes before I reached Fish Creek for lunch.
Whacked the heater on and fed the cats, then took a hot shower, much more refreshing than the past 4 hours of chilly wet stuff.
Really enjoyed catching up with everyone, great stuff after being closed in for so long. Loved the food at the hotel, WAY more on the plate than I could eat, friendly staff there were a joy to speak with, and I am looking fwd to our next catch-up, whenever that may be..
Didn't bother to unpack my bike until this morning, The rain started coming down again here just after midday today, around another 4mm in the past 3 hours. It's nicer to be inside listening to it, than out on the road wearing it.