The prom in Australia is much different from an American prom. I'm not sure if prom is the Australian word for hill, cow, or don't try to bike this but it's definitely one of them. On Sunday morning I woke up and headed east. My first stop was the royal botanical gardens where I saw my very first kangaroo.
It was quite cute bouncing along the road.
The garden was architecturally impressive
There were some nice exhibits
but the plant life was lacking.
There was however a large collection of taxidermy. I won't bore you with all of them but here are a few since I didn't get pictures of the live ones.
From the top of the observation tower I was able to look 45 kilometers back to Melbourne.
I kept going and took in the scenery again at koo-wee-rump.
Koo-wee-rump is an old mining town that puts on a historical tourist village but I didn't stop. I did stop at a farm that boasted the best dairy in Victoria for a passion fruit milkshake.
After that I stayed on course until I made it to leongatha. I had booked a room in leongatha because it was the closest hotel advertised on the Internet. There were actually plenty of places to stay but most of them I hadn't found online. Anyway by the time I got to leongatha I was ready for a rest. My hotel was way better than I had hoped for and had a fantastic view. I couldn't get the camera to focus correctly in the dusk so you'll have to believe me.
I was going to go out for dinner but nothing was within a kilometer and I didn't feel like walking or biking. Instead I had a cup of coffee and some snacks from my pack. I woke up every couple of hours to drink water but otherwise thoroughly enjoyed my 11 hour nap. At 6 I was up again and continued on my way to Wilson's promontory national park. It was only 60kilometers away but the visitor's center was another 30 after I got into the park.
I had a bit of bike trouble but some wonderful people helped me out along my way. Wilson's promontory was absolutely gorgeous.
Unfortunately I was unlucky with the wild life and didn't get many pictures. The birds were fantastic, I did get another good look at a kangaroo. They look an awful lot like deer with big butts while they are eating.
I made it up and down some massive hills to the visitor's center. I asked for some bike but they told me there was nothing they could do for me. I grabbed a rum raisin ice cream and headed the now 60km back to my hostel. Back up and down the hills I went. I was feeling good and then exactly 40km from where I had gotten my last fix my tire blew out again. I must be the luckiest girl in the word because one of the girls from the visitor's center had seen me on her way home and had sent help. The friendly carpenter Dave took me to my hostel. I was so relieved and incredibly grateful. I settled in and went out for dinner. I headed to bed early again so that I could be up for the bus at 715. The ride home took 3 hours. I bike a 3 hour bus ride. I'm impressed with myself. I got back to southern cross station and took a series of trains to get to my favorite bike shop. The busted wheel was $50 bucks to replace making it the most expensive part of my trip. Once I was fixed up I rode all 3k home. At home I raided the kitchen and made a fantastic salad.
I showered and rested and went to work tonight. I think I've gotten better at biking because I got to work super fast. I am mostly recovered from my trip but I have a tiny bit of an irritated bicipital tendon on my left shoulder.
Let's look at my totals here. In all I burnt 5550 calories and went 140 miles
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