stats. Today 80.3km Trip 125km
It was cold and frosty overnight, for the first time in many years my old sleeping bag seemed to not be enough and I woke up cold. Stepping out of the tent showed frost on the grass and the tents, and fog rising over the lake. A beautiful sight.
Out of Beaufort and south to Snake Valley, lunch at the Snake Valley pub. I had no idea there were places with names like that in Victoria — it sounds like something out of a bad western! From Snake Valley we took the long route to Linton, with a magnificent descent through the forest into the town, then an equally long, but much slower, continuous climb back up along the highway.
Brief stops at Smythesdale and ???, then a longer-than-expected final few kilometres to Buninyong. Every time we thought we were approaching the town, the road seemed to take a meandering turn and head off in another direction. We did finally arrive, stopped a the pub and celebrated our arrival before heading up to the campsite for a promised sausage sizzle and barbecue. Unfortunately whoever had promised the barbecue had failed to show up, no food on offer, nothing to drink, and the Buninyong footy club’s change rooms are distinctly third-world in appearance and cleanliness. Not the worst I’ve ever come across on the rides, but far from the best!
Back down the street into town for dinner at the pub, they seemed quite eager to have everyone fed at six o’clock, which seemed a little early! More than made up for it in the size and the quality of the meals though — a delicious looking plate of whiting went past while I was making up my mind, so that was my choice. Others chose steaks which turned up large, or chicken parmagianas which appeared to have come from something the size of a goose!
