Gravity-assisted. Finally! - Riding Slowly South - CycleBlaze

August 6, 2021

Gravity-assisted. Finally!

Wooroolin to Wondai

The night was very cold as forecast but, by dint of using a silver foil blanket and wearing so many clothes that an archaeological dig would be hard put to find me, I was toasty warm.

We planned a very short day, so there was lots of time to thaw out in the sun.
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While I sat in the sun I learnt about the Wooroolin wetlands which currently aren't wet at all. Apparently back at the turn of the century the wetlands went dry following some earth tremors. Whatever drain the tremors opened must have plugged up again because the wetlands eventually refilled and drowned all the trees that had grown there in the meantime. Then in 2013 the wetlands over filled and flooded the township, and now in 2021 they're all dry again and the moral of the story is the wetlands are either too wet or too dry but rarely just right.

I went for a walk around the not-wetlands.
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There were lots of birds and pretty flowers.

Everlasting daisies.
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Pretty purple flowers. You can tell I've got these botanical names nailed.
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The walk around the wetlands was 7km, and then we got on our bicycles and rode to Wondai. You could be forgiven for thinking that this required effort, but you would be wrong. Every inch of the trail to Wondai was downhill, so we just sat aboard, concentrated on staying upright, and let gravity do the work.

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Bike beside a big log in Wondai. Log 405, according to the plaque. Log 405 is from Monto so I'm not sure why it's in Wondai.
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We're camped in the free camping area in town, with the pleasure of hot showers and sneaky electricity from the pole in the park.

We took ourselves for a tour of town. Some of the child mannequins were decidedly creepy.
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Even better than mannequins, we had the company of real live cycle tourists (not each other!) over a very sociable takeaway dinner.

Home for the night: free camp, Wondai.
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Today's ride: 15 km (9 miles)
Total: 148 km (92 miles)

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Mike AylingThose silver foil blankets do a great job!
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2 years ago