Brisbane Ranges to Inverleigh

The Ride
 
I had a beautiful exit from Brisbane Ranges camp site, when hundreds of butterflies gave me a send-off, following me all the way up the track to the main road.

The rain continued throughout the morning, and I had a strong head wind of around 15 mph. Very tough conditions!

Today's ride took me further South towards the Great Ocean road, with Inverleigh the destination, as a convenient camping site.

See Full Ride Stats 
05:19:25    47.1 Miles    8.8mph Av    37.1 mph Max        22.0C    15mph W

 Notice there's a U-turn about half way. This was because I had used Google maps to plan the route. Unfortunately Google Maps is very bad quality in Australia and often invents roads that don't exist (when you use Cycling as an overlay).

That's what happened here. I ended up in a crop research area, at a dead end, with a very puzzled security guy quizzing me what I was doing. The  U-turn cost me 9 punishing miles along a poor dirt track, and a lot of time. 

Lethbridge General Store was a welcome stop for a Steak sandwich "With the lot", Australian for, put absolutely everything in there. Meat, egg, cheese, beetroot, and whatever else they have handy.

On the Road to Inverleigh. Bike very heavily loaded.

The pain with Google Maps continued as I approached Inverleigh. It sent me across Inverleigh Flora Reserve, along what looked like a nice track to start with, and pretty scenery.

Soon however, the track turned to sand, then to nothing, and the scenery got worse too. Google maps however defiantly insisted I was right on a road. Tired as I was, I had to push the bike for a distance through sand.

The Camp Site - Inverleigh Rest Area

Finally arriving at Inverleigh at dusk, I discovered there was no provision for camping. Bit of a shock, I had misread the "Camps 6" book and it was just a rest area for self-contained vehicles. Luckily in Australia they are not too strict about this.

The bike chain had dried out in all the dirt tracks and I had no chain lube on me, so had to use Peanut oil. The next  bike shop I came to were horrified at this!

The Characters

I met a couple in an RV (Camper van) who hid my tent behind their van because I was so worried about it being illegal for tents there. Cheers guys!

I also discovered today that RV drivers think of cycle tourists as kindred spirits. I started to get honks on the horn from today as my travelling brothers and sisters passed by.