Day 4, Sunday 17th Feb. Portland to Millicent

Day 4

Sun 17^th Feb

Portland to Millicent

156.4kms

 

It ended up being a late start leaving Portland. There were a few things we wanted to buy in town, like a little portable stereo that now exists as “Stez,” our new mate that gives us news updates, and some musical entertainment here and there.. The sun was still really hot and I think we left Portland around 11am or midday.

A friend of ours Clare had arranged for us to head to the Nelson hotel, about 80kms out of Portland for some lunch. After all of the riding in the heat we jumped into the Glenelg for a bit of a swim to cool down and refresh the legs a bit.  It was a great time but unfortunately we ended up hangin out at the pub for a bit to long. The owners of the Nelson hooked us up with a couple of free dinners, once again another brilliant steak, and the most massive salad bar, which we had several helpings to. Thanks for that guys!!

The locals there were really interested in what we were doing so it was hard to escape conversation, and Harv found it hard to escape a couple of Jager-Bombs that some bloke hooked him up with.

So finally we hit the road, it must have been around 7pm now, and we still have another 80kms to go before setting up camp for the night. So it was set to be a late one. Riding away from the hotel we were both stoked, the sun was sinking and we had Stez crankin some really dodgy pop tunes from the only radio station we could tune into.

A bloke at the pub had arranged for Clare to ride with us about 30kms to Mt Gambier. So they took off earlier form the pub to go and get a bike he could lend her, and then dropped her back out to the freeway to meet us.

Clare did well and road into the night with us to Mt Gambier. When we got there we stopped at a servo for some late night snacks. A full on healthy diet of ice cream, chocolate, and a couple of Red Bulls to keep Harv and I going for the night.

With another 40kms to cycle for the night we left Clare in Mt Gambier and headed for the Millicent Rest Stop. It wasn’t a hard ride, but we were both really tired and it felt like a sleepy ride.

There was some kind of mill about 15kms out of Millicent that seemed a bit weird at that time of night. It was all lit up and seemed like some kind of alien space ship or base or something. Of course it wasn’t, but we were joking about it at the time.

We got to the rest area and set up the tents. Our first night camping for the trip. It was 3 am and we were pretty excited about sleep. A couple of peanut butter sangas and off to bed.