DAY 37 - MILDURA VIC

MILDURA VIC

DAY 37

15.08 km

Total Time: 12.45 – 18.15 (5h 30m)

Time on Bike: 56m 22s

Max. Speed: 36.1 km/h

Av. Speed: 16 km/h


All good things must end and I’m out of Mildura at first light tomorrow.

It is also farewell to Victoria for now as I am due to cross into South Australia at some time tomorrow.

Tomorrow is destination Renmark – just short of 100 miles (160 km) and possibly the longest day of the trip.

I am getting better at pacing myself over the longer hauls, in terms of fluid intake and covering distances without a break - food intake also counts but not as much as these factors.

58 km leaving Colleambally a couple of weeks back is the longest stretch I have put in on this trip without rest.

The opening run of each day tends to be the longest, usually 25 - 40 kilometres although mostly, I prefer working in 15 – 20 km stretches once everything is moving.

Naturally, it always depends on prevailing conditions but this is close to what happens on a regular day of say 100 km or more.

Daylight is available at this time of year between 7 am and 5.30 pm, so the maximum day is around 10 hours anyway – 100 miles really is optimum distance in such a time frame.

Solid tailwind and extended downhill stretches are the only factors that can make a difference here.

My final day in Mildura has been pretty well low-key.

I got in fairly late after jamming downtown in a café last evening.

Folkways in 8th Street is run by a Maori guy called Joel and informal jam sessions are the norm on most nights of the week.

Instruments are already set up so it is just a matter of being there.

Informality is the key here and after 2 full years of basically not playing at all, this suited me just fine.

The standard of musicians and equipment was not maybe what I’m used to but like I said, this was very much off the record.

If there was anything to write about here, I was at least able to blow off some cobwebs and play from memory for a few hours and it really wasn’t so bad after all….