wheelieharro: Day 8- Portland to Mt Gambler

Lots happened today!

We had the usual early morning start to be on the road by 7.30 am!!!!

A sleep in might have been better…..

Shortly after we left it was coffee time…. Yes an early morning fix was just what was needed!

The good thing about an early start is seeing the sunrise each morning!

The first part of the ride today was a steady climb up to about 150 metres with a gradient of about 3%.. The weather was cool at about 10 degrees and during the day it warmed up to about 22 degrees.

At about the 60 km mark my crank was making an awful noise and after riding about 5 kms I met Ian and the Ute and decided to take a lift to Mt Gambier to a bike shop to get the issue resolved.

It was good to ride in the Ute to Mt Gambier and watch the kms fly by! Ooops I forgot to turn off my Garmin!!!!

At the bike shop the attendant who would be no older than about 20, a look and determined that the issue was the chain rubbing on the front derailleur. So after an adjustment I was right to go!

So back into the Ute it was and off back to Nelson to meet the boys for the 30 plus ride back into Mt Gambier.

By this time the rest of the guys had their lunch at the Nelson pub which seemed very good.

So it was off again for the final 35 plus kms into Mt Gambier

The ride from Nelson took us past the border into South Australia and after adjusting our watches by half an hour we were off. The ride then took us along the Glenelg River to Donovan then through pine plantations through to Mt Gambier….

We arrived at our accommodation at the Mt Gambier Goal which is interesting!

We are in 4 cells which is interesting and there is a big group of Japanese divers in for a few nights as well. They have been diving in the limestone caves and fishing on the coast.

For me the ride route shows I did 186 kms at an average speed of 34 kph…. The included the time I was in the ute so I was cheating as noted above. Discounting the travel in the ute I rode about 85 kms only!!!!

The day also marked the halfway point of the ride for us all. We can celebrate in the gaol!

FYI…. My grandsons on the Elg side took out most of the trophies at the cricket awards night last night and Sam ( their father) took out the best clubman award. Congratulations all!