After riding my mountain bike from Adelaide to Darwin in 2005, I was keen for another such adventure, but one that returned to the kind of back roads I travelled when riding from Sydney to Melbourne in 2004. I hatched the idea of riding from the southernmost tip to the northernmost tip of mainland Australia, and rather than riding along the main (coastal) highway, try and ride a straight-line route that would necessarily take me on back roads and through a variety of terrains and climates.

Wilsons Promontory to Cape York by bike - Bonnie Doon to Shepparton

Day: 006
Date: Wednesday, 2 August 2006
Summary: Riding from Bonnie Doon to Shepparton.
Start: Bonnie Doon
Finish: Shepparton
Daily Kilometres: 102
Total Kilometres: 508
Weather: Overcast and cold with a north (head) wind.
Accommodation: Stayed with family friends in Shepparton.
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Muesli
  Lunch:  A couple of salad rolls
  Dinner:  A beaut cooked dinner
Encounters: None really.
Highlights: Crossing the Strathbogie Ranges and leaving the last of the mountains behind me for a while.
Lowlights: I struggled a bit, perhaps low on sugar, for the afternoon ride from Euroa to Shepparton into a moderate and cold north wind.

Journal:
I left the motel around 8:00am and rode along the busy Mansfield-Melbourne road to Merton on a very cool and overcast morning.  At Merton I turned north on a much quieter road to cross the Strathbogie Ranges , the last mountains I would encounter for a while.  The countryside was old-settled rural and very pretty with rocky outcrops dotting the grassy slopes.  The climb proved to be longer and tougher than I had anticipated and I ended up waking the last 400 metres.  From the top there was a long and winding descent which I enjoyed apart from the fact that I quickly became very cold from the wind chill.  I’m finding it very difficult to manage my temperature and always seem to be sweating profusely or shivering from the cold, and you can’t keep taking off or putting on clothes.

After the Strathbogies it was a bit of a grind into Euroa against a strengthening north wind.  I think I should have had more than a bowl of muesli to see me through this 50km and wonder whether the mountain exertions of the past few days are catching up with me.  In Euroa I resisted the temptation to buy some warm junk food for lunch and got a couple of salad rolls which I ate on a seat in the main street whilst I read the paper.  Even there, I found it quite cold and was soon shivering again.

From Euroa, I chose very back roads leading to Shepparton and seemed to avoid most of the traffic.  However, the wind was grinding me down and I wondered whether I should have had more sugars with my lunch as the ride became tougher.  I finally reached Shepparton around 3:00pm and walked around the shopping centre, eventually finding a bike shop that sold mirrors that attach to a helmet.  After some afternoon tea at a bakery I walked round to long-time family friends, the Halls, where I received a warm welcome, had a great dinner, did a load of washing and caught up on all their news. Rain showers are forecast for tomorrow but, after that, the weather looks to be good.
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