Day 8

Sailing through to the Entrance

About an hour or so out of Melbourne, just after crossing the Bunyip River, Cameron (who was one of the riders who escorted me in to Melbourne) and I met up with 6 local Ulysses riders who travelled with us to Stratford.

Thanks for the company guys.

As we slowed in to Sale I spotted a girl holding up a sign about Winston (the little celebrity that he is!) so we pulled over to see what this was all about.

Her Mum had heard about BDR on the internet and decided to come out and support us. Lots of photos, a few laughs and a more serious chat about how suicide had an impact on her life then it was time to hit the road again.

Beautiful Lakes Entrance was our next stop for morning tea with the Lions. Cameron left me here to head back to Melbourne via "a more interesting road than Highway 1" but I was accompanied out of town by a fellow Lion/Ulyssian who kindly bought me my only non BP tank of fuel thus far. In my logistics for the trip I hadn't accounted for a country petrol station being closed on a Sunday. After crossing the Snowy River I was into the hills of the Great Dividing Range for a fairly spirited ride which Winston and I both enjoyed.

Mid afternoon and I was hanging out for some late lunch when, in the middle of nowhere, Kiah Postcode 2551 appeared. It was just one of those old fashioned country "one stop shop" places which were everywhere before the big roadhouses took over. Mum and Dad operation, Dad out the front chatting about the bike and Mum inside doing everything including making a sensational burger to ease my hunger pangs.

Eventually I reached the pretty seaside town of Batemans Bay where I was taken out to a sumptuous dinner by the Lions who were very concerned about the whereabouts of their young President (at 22 he is almost definitely the youngest Lions President in Australia) who was MIA. Lion Wayne drove me to dinner in the brand new Commodore wagon he won in the Australia wide Lions raffle. Lucky Wayne!