Herding the Chickens

Yesterday afternoon Maggie and I decided to drive out to the previously designated start point for today's ride, just to confirm that it would be suitable. We discovered that there was only about 3 parking spaces - nowhere near enough for our fleet of cars.

After driving around Bonegilla for a while we found a much more scenic location by the lake, and it even had the always essential public toilets. We sent out a revision to the group to let everyone know of the change of plans.

Our message advised everyone to meet at "Kookaburra Point at 10 am". Although even Blind Freddy could have understood such a message, it was obviously far too complex for a group of geriatric Ghostriders, We immediately received a string of queries.
"What type of kookaburra ?"
"Is that near the St Kilda boat ramp ?"
"Are the toilets clean ?"
"Is it possible to get there from here ?"
And so on it went. We eventually had to tell everyone just to drive to Kookaburra Point, and the rest will take care of itself. And it did.

If anything, today's weather was even more perfect than the weather we have enjoyed for the first two days of our Central Victoria Cycling Adventure. In fact, not a single cloud appeared to blot the sky all day.

With the arrival of Paul Cowen, our peloton has swollen to 19 riders. Unfortunately, although Paul and his bike arrived safely, he realised to his horror that he had left his battery charger back home in Cockatoo. This was not the ideal way to start a quite long ride.

The aim today was to ride from Bonegilla to Old Tallangatta and back - a round trip of around 70 km. That was the plan, but it was not the way it actually turned out,

When I arrived at Tallangatta I assumed that the rest of the riders were ahead of me. I put my head down and ploughed ahead, little suspecting that EVERY ONE OF THE OTHER 18 RIDERS had chickened out and headed to the Tallangatta Bakery for lunch.

I pushed on, slowly increasing my speed and wondering how they had managed to get so far ahead of me. If only I had known that they were already sitting in the park at Tallangatta, happily eating pies and cakes.
It was only when I finally got back to Tallangatta that the full truth emerged. By that time the others had finished their lunches and were already mounting up to head back to the start. At least I could take some comfort in the fact that I was the only one who had occupied the moral high ground.

Back at the car, my computer told me that I had ridden about 70 km, while the others had ridden a somewhat piddly 50 km.

Tomorrow we leave Wodonga and head to Beechworth. Our next ride will be the Beechworth to Yackandandah trail.Read more