A Leap Back In Time - Day One

I would like to dedicate the next two blogs to turn back the clock and copy the diary entries that Dave and I wrote together after a few drinks.

Day One:
Sunbury to the You Yangs - 77.3km's

Had a very nice send off from my family and Tom Pickering. My sisters made a great goodbye banner for me to ride through. It was a special moment.
Felt strange to be leaving for such a large trip right from the front door. New address: #1 Highway, Australia.
No worries getting from Sunbury to Bacchus Marsh, but we were hungry so stopped to smash down some pricey Jolly Millers. Dave's quads were screaming as we entered Bacchus, due to lack of nourishment.
Dave's iphone slipped from his pocket, and as he went to grab it before a car ran over it, his bicycle launched itself backwards. Scrambling for his phone he found himself in the middle of the road with his bicycle upside down.
We stopped in at the local 'Flannigans' for a few schooners. We carried all of our bags in with us (quite a lot of gear!). There was a middle aged man with his daughter who was just overly loud in conversation - it was border-line yelling. He was the loudest stranger that Dave and I had ever met.
Just outside of Bacchus we encountered a small, low, moving brown cloud. We decided to inspect the phenomenon more closely after a small debate. I was keen to take a photo. As we pushed through the thin scrub we soon realized that it was a swarm of small insects. After some rapid-fire picture taking, a glance at the display screen revealed that we had been taking photos of nothing.
Walking up the hill out of Bacchus Marsh (yes, not riding), and suddenly we were slapped in the face by a blistering headwind.
Both fighting some serious demons, we had to overcome the worst pain we had both experienced. But hours later we arrived at around 6:00pm in the You Yangs, completely unimpressed. Camping was prohibited in the state park but we decided to ignore this small detail.
We hauled our heavy bikes over the fence (only to find a gate meters down the road). Dave snapped a branch off a tree, and made a kick-arse Big W broom to clear the area of ants and debris. This made for a crisp, clear campsite for a crappy nights sleep.
Dave had a terrible sleep due to a very sore bum, back, quads and neck, which left him with about 3 and a half hours sleep. I on the other hand, had no less then 7 hours sleep, broken only by the occasional body cramp. Dave's sleep was haunted by the incessant 'koo' of a local bastard bird.
We had both had a horrific, horrible first day on the bikes.