Rail Trail Adventure - Day 2

Yesterday's blog was a nightmare to produce. After I returned to my room I tried to upload my photos from my phone and it took me ages as I failed to see that after initiating the Blue Tooth transfer at the phone I had to authorize the download at the tablet. Next when typing the blog notes I could not get the spell checker to work which is a big problem for me as I am lousy typist and speller.  Also my tablet kept sliding across my little desk. Using it's bubble wrap cover as a stand stopped this.  Finally my                Blue Tooth keyboard is a pain as it loves to occasionally repeat characters like soooooooooo.

From now on I am now using a word processor to produce the text and pasting pasting it in the blog as a block. I will insert the photos at the end of the blog with short captions to connect them with the text.

Carrying on from last night I didn't mention that my dinner was actually two Baramundi fillets in  Thai sauce with salad and chips.  It was delicious and went   well with two glasses of locally produced Riesling.

This morning the first thing to be done was to assemble my bicycle. It takes about ten minutes to get it ridable with wheels and pedals but another forty five minutes to put on the fiddly rack, bottle cages and mirror.   So in under an hour it was ready to put the bags on.  

I had a light breakfast of cornflakes and toast and packed up my paniers and was ready to go by 9.00am.  As I only had an extremely short day I had a look around Mansfield which is a typical small Victorian town with a main   main street, War Memorial and a park. Then it was off to the old Mansfield station and the start of the trail.  I began taking photos using my camera but due to the very bright spring morning I could barely see the sceen so I was mainly point and hope.  Later I realized that I had mucked up several good shots by letting my finger get in the way.  I will be back on Friday to try again.

Then it was on to the trail. What can I say.  It was a chilly bright morning and I was wearing arm warmers under my rain jacket for comfort but as the day progressed I soon took them off.  The trail is made of a hard packed gravel and quite smooth.  I pedalled along at 15 to 20KPH but stopped regularly to look at the scenery and take photos some of which are shown below.

At I approached my destination, Bonnie Doon, Ibegan to get passed bby other cyclists using the trail for a Saturday morning ride.  Bonnie Doon is at the top of Lake Eildon, which was formed   when the Eildon Weir was built.  The old town was inundated but there  is a newer town on the edge of the lake and I am staing in a cabin next to   the lake to night.

Apart from a couple of screws working loose, on the bike that is, the ride was                perfect.  I stopped for lunch at pub just off the trail before riding to my cabin at 2.00pm.  With a couple of extra bits such as crossing the bridge acroos Lake Eidon twice I rode just on 30km.  Dinner was a hamburget at a local bar before watching TV and an early night.