I spent the day worrying that the tandem and all the camping gear wouldn’t really fit in the car — worrying needlessly as it turned out. Half packing the morning, we hurried home after work to dismantle the tandem, then fit everything else in around it. In theory one tandem is smaller than two complete single bikes, in practice they are just so very unwieldy.

Six thirty and we were on the road, into the city and the usual slow Friday evening crawl through the tunnel and onto the Bolte bridge, then follow the traffic onwards to the Hume highway.

Dinner at the Avenel roadhouse. It’s one of the few roadhouses left on a major highway that I know of that hasn’t been bulldozed and rebuilt as a sterile McDonalds-esque plastic mega-café. More importantly, they still make a wonderfully messy hamburger with the works.

Fun and games with an idiot in a ute and a Firefly bus. P-plate driver in the ute was travelling at around 95 on the highway where the speed limit is 110. The bus tried to overtake the ute but was speed limited to 100km/hr. Ute-boy sped up and sat alongside in the left lane. As we approached from behind the bus driver put on his indicators and tried to pull in either ahead or behind, both times being stopped by the idiot in the ute speeding up or slowing down to block him. Finally the bus pulled in in front of the ute, then as we approached the ute swerved into the right lane and pulled up alongside then stayed there! Eventually he dropped back behind the bus after we flashed the lights at him — there are some scary drivers out there!

Eleven o’clock and we finally made it in to Bright, hellos and introductions in the dark to the others who were already here, everyone sitting around in the campground and relaxing with a beer or two under the stars.