Oh No, Not The Tour

I woke up this morning to the news that the 2020 Tour de France is the latest casualty of the Covid19 virus. Although it was almost inevitable that it would join the likes of AFL football, the Melbourne Grand Prix, Wimbledon, The Olympic Games and so many others, it still seemed a little hard to accept that we will not be glued to our TV sets in July watching those glorious views of France.

So many things have been taken away from us this year. If 2020 was a computer program, I am sure that we have hit the Ctrl-Alt-Del keys to reboot and start again. Unfortunately it's not that simple. It is looking like it will be a long, long winter for most people.

Since we can only live one day at a time, we decided to make maximum use of the fine and sunny weather to get back out on our bikes. This time I left the gears well alone and we were able to get underway without yesterday's delay.

Our first destination was the RACV Country Club at Inverloch. Of course we knew that the lovely restaurant would be closed, but we thought that it would be fun to at least ride around the bike paths.

As we entered the main gate a group of maintenance staff gave us a friendly wave. We waved right back and continued up the hill. It was only when we riding past the main building that we heard a shout somewhere behind us.

"Did you know this centre is closed ?", it shouted.

Well actually we didn't. There was no sign at the entrance and the maintenance staff obviously didn't know it was closed either. I could have debated the situation, but it was much easier to play the "confused old person" card instead. We Uturned our bikes, waved to the grumpy guy and headed back down the hill. There were plenty of other places to explore.

A short time later we were at the other end of the town and looking out over the beautiful waters of Anderson Inlet. If we are going to be locked up for the next few weeks, this is not such a bad place to be.

Later in the day we returned to the beach with our dog. Over the past few years the beach has been steadily retreating away from the Esplanade. There is now a wide expanse of sand at least 500 metres wide where the sea used to be. This makes for a lovely quiet walking location - absolutely perfect in times where we have to practise social distancing.

I guess the only people who are probably not excited about the retreat of the sea are the people who own the mansions along the waterfront. These places used to be able to boast that they were within a few metres of the water, now the water is a 10 minute walk away.

The Weather Burea is predicting that the fine weather might be over for a few days. That probably means that we will not be able to get out on the bikes for a little while. It's just as well we have plenty of books to read.Read more