Day 23 - Heading home to Canada🇨🇦 - Australia Gold Fields, Grampians and Great Ocean Road plus The 7 Peaks - CycleBlaze

November 20, 2019

Day 23 - Heading home to Canada🇨🇦

Some final thoughts

It was been another great cycling adventure through the wilds of the State of Victoria Australia.  There were new sights and new friends plus new adventures almost everyday.   The rides were beautiful (albeit long) with a wide variety of scenery.  I ended up with 1367km in total distance despite electing a few extra rest days.  I completed only 2 of 7 climbs but I know I could have done them all given more time. Seven peaks in 2 weeks is really a tough test.  The most anyone completed was 5 because of bad weather on the first two climbs.  However, as a result of the difficulty I learned that this was probably my last real hard cycle tour since I prefer not to spend 7-8hrs travelling by bike to get to my next destination and then have little time to see it.  This trip reminded me of my trip across France where the mileage and days were long.  While I can do tours this hard I prefer 5-6hrs max per day (including breaks) at a more leisurely pace so this will be my new norm.  In BAC parlance that would be 3B or 2C tours as a maximum.  However, I do want to do one more iconic climb, the SteIvio in my 70th year even if it takes me all day to do it.  I also confirmed that if I don’t have a roommate I know then I will pay the extra, it is worth it.  

Special thanks to Ron, Deb, Richard and Paul for all of their hard work planning and executing these tours.  We experienced all 4 seasons on these trips and while there were significant weather issues affecting the tours they couldn’t control the weather.  Everything in their power went very well.  My next major adventure will be a family and friends golfing adventure in Ireland and Scotland rather than a cycling trip.  Nonetheless I am not done cycle touring and have several things in the works for NZ, Germany, Denmark, Italy and France plus some domestic travel.  G’day from Aus.  Hello Canada, my home.

I can’t wait to reacquaint myself with my 7 month old puppy Murphy. My dog sitter will also be happy for me to relieve her from his antics of chewing my best cycle shoes, dragging a special carpet out from under my bed and running away from her into traffic. We are signed up for training starting in December.
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