Lake Bolac to Dunkeld

On the B road – how busy is it?

That was the question I asked myself when planning the trip. The answer is, quite busy. The hard shoulder is crap for a lot of the time and sandy for the rest. With quite a high ” lip” to negotiate whenever you need to transfer to it.

As there were a lot of B Doubles using the road this was too frequent an occurrence. Today the gear changing is getting a little difficult, maybe due to the sand getting into things.

It was cold to start with and I set off in shorts, cycle top, fleece and the wet weather windproof top! Still had them all on after 12.5 ks.

The day looked stunning but the wind, although not at yesterday’s strength, was just about head on. So I settled down to a slow 50k pedal but with no worries about getting to the caravan park late.

As we got into the ride the Grampians appeared on the right.

For a while the ride was very special with Grampians on the right and old Red Gums plus other gums on the left.

I rolled into Dunkeld and found not 1 but 3 coffee shops! Chose the wrong one – will try another for breakfast tomorrow.

At the caravan park I was offered a ready erected Oztent plus annex plus seats plus mattress (almost glamping) for $28. I accepted quickly.

Dunkeld ed was an important place on the Chinese gold miners walk from Robe to Bendigo. Strangely the lady in the Information Centre knew nothing about it. I have a note that says the old Chinese Market Gardens are now part of the Park. Will explore and see.

Note: Back in the 1800s Chinese diggers came to work the goldfields. Victoria didn’t really want them so began charging a 10 pound per person landing fee. South Australia didn’t so they were off loaded at Robe and they walked across to Ballarat and Ararat (the only Australian town to be founded by Chinese people.).