Day 38: Farewell Victoria

Odo: 22395, Day's KM: 350.2, Trip KM: 11413

Bendigo to Spirit of Tasmania Melbourne via Marysville and Warburton.

The morning started early with Kunal off to work shortly after 6AM. I continued to rest until 7ish before packing up and leaving. It was great to catch up with Kunal again; the bass strait and geographical distances are a big barrier.

I stopped for breakfast to plan a route to Melbourne, which combined good riding roads with the other errands I had to do before boarding the Spirit. I came up with a route via Marysville and Warburton which had plenty of good roads combined with a schedule that didn't put pressure on me getting to the boat.

I stopped for lunch in Marysville, and was parked next to a massive bike. I'm told it weighs 385kg dry, which makes my bike look like a featherweight in comparison.

I nearly got to see how heavy it would be to pick up - it got very messy on the leaves on its departure. Fortunately the rider caught it in time.

Marysville suffered significant loss in the Black Saturday bushfires in February 2009. The scars on the landscape are still obvious and probably will be for some time. There are two types of trees - those that are completely dead and remain as white skeletons, and those that are still alive, often still sporting charred trunks, covered in tiny new branches almost like fur.

This photo demonstrates the two types of tree damage quite well.

The roads for 60 ish kilometres were very twisty and I had them virtually to myself. The scenery included the photos above, taken where I could safely pull over. As with many parts of this trip, there were sections of the road with amazing views that I couldn't hope to capture, and a photograph just wouldn't tell the story.

The road out of Marysville was one of those roads. The amazing, unique scenery and twisty roads on a beautiful day made for a brilliant ride. You are truly in the moment - days like this are why I ride.

Once I got towards the city, I collected my car parts, had a sticky beak at a couple of bike shops, and headed to the port. The Melbourne office of my work was near the ferry terminal, so I went and said hello to a few people before queuing for the ferry home.

I settled in for a nice dinner on the boat and to write this, most likely the second-last blog entry for this trip.