Day 16: Nach uns die Sintflut (after us comes the Flood)

Route taken: Daylesford-Ballarat-Ararat-Horsham-Nhill-Bordertown
Distance covered: 410km (approx.)

It was a nice surprise to sleep through the noise of the cockatoos. It wasn't such a nice surprise to discover that I'd also slept through a lot of rain. Whilst I was dry inside my tent, it was a sign of things to come...

Packing away a sodden tent and ground sheet into my scooter, everything getting wetter as I prepared to depart, I obtained a large bin liner from the campsite so that I could cover my backpack. Before getting on to ride away my jacket was already sodden. It would be a good test of the waterproofing qualities of it...

Last night I had decided to set course for Swan Hill and along the Murray River back to Adelaide. However, the weather and forecast made me change my mind. If I'm going to get saturated, I'd prefer to do that for as few days as possible. Especially when the start of the day was so abysmal - and the forecast suggested heavier rain over the coming days.

Setting off for Ballarat for the direct way back to Adelaide through Horsham, the weather confirmed the sense behind my decision. I don't think I've ever driven, let alone ridden, in such abysmal weather before (other than on one occasion in Germany when it was so bad that the car's GPS failed and doing 50km/h on the autobahn was fraught with danger).

Think this is bad? At times I could see far less than this recreation (taken from inside my helmet) shows

I could barely see where I was going at times - between the fogged up visor and sunglasses (necessary for the glare and to keep the visor ajar), plus the teeming rain and spray from passing trucks, it was a nightmare. I considered pulling over on a few occasions, but there was nowhere to safely stop at those times. So I carried on.

Reaching Ballarat, I stopped for breakfast and to refuel to allow the rain to ease. Sated, I headed off, riding the five kilometres of the freeway from Melbourne. With little traffic on it, it was fine, but I would not want to try doing so on a 50cc scooter on a busy day. Freeway by, the interstate highway commenced, but it was still bucketing. My jacket was saturated, my gloves weighed at least triple their normal weight and my kevlar jeans were very damp, despite the waterproof pants over the top. The inside of my helmet was wet from my packing up to leave (wet hair). My shoes were full of water. But the scooter hadn't been as clean as it was for some time.

At Ararat it seemed appropriate that the rain eased, and by the time I made the climb to the lookout above the town, had stopped. No doves in sight though:

It was at this point I dared to wear my camera across my back again. The bag was wet and the camera damp inside it, so it did need a decent airing.

Under 500km from Adelaide...

Setting off for Horsham, the rain returned, albeit more lightly than had been the case earlier in the morning, but still heavy enough to need waterproofs. The camera went into the backpack again. Only on the outskirts of Horsham did I dare remove the waterproof pants and fluoro yellow vest.

On the third day I passed through Mount Gambier and saw the Blue Lake. Today I stopped at the Pink Lake:

As the weather improved, I did wonder whether I shouldn't have driven towards Swan Hill, but quickly cleared that thought from my mind. No regrets - I cannot change my decision, so there was no point in dwelling on it.

Scooter versus road train... Hopefully not

I motored on through Dimboola, Nhill and Kaniva. I stopped to refuel again. A truck driver who had passed me earlier asked me how I coped with the road trains overtaking me. I'm guessing that well over one hundred passed me, with maybe even more travelling in the opposite direction. On the whole, they have all been fine. The truck driver shook his head in disbelief when I told him where I'd been in the last fortnight or so.

Pushing on, I reached my destination for the evening: Bordertown, just inside South Australia. A different timezone, a different state. Given the differences between Melbourne and Bordertown, it may as well be a different planet.

Having dried the ground sheet, I erected the tent. Now that it is dry, it is as if nothing happened at the start of the day. That's the way I like it.

Covering maybe 410km, today is the longest single scooter ride I have ever done. And certainly for the longest period in such abysmal weather. It was all rather satisfying, all in all.

Question is now: carry on to Adelaide tomorrow, or take a more leisurely route home? As was the case today, it may well all depend on what the weather looks like when I wake up.