Again with the heat! What's with Victoria? Hot in the city tonight and in the morning too.
I rolled out of bed early this morning so that we could walk even earlier than yesterday because of the forecast high temperatures. I hit the road around 5:30am when it was 31º. It was still so dark that I actually used one of my lights as a 'light' (novel, I know) - not as a strobe to say 'I'm coming, please beware'. At least I wouldn't be concerned about the anti-social beahviour of riders down here - so few people actually wave. In fact, they go out of their way to ignore you so they don't have to wave. Any rider getting close to genuine eye-contact and it's head down, stare at the road. What the ...? I don't get it. In NSW if you don't wave or nod or acknowledge another rider in some way it's considered rude.
Last year I had my old bike and wore matching colours in blue/white/black and I thought it was me because everyone else seemed to be in red/black/white - it is St. Kilda territory. This year, with a different bike and a colour set of gear in red/black/white I thought I'd be welcomed to the Peninsula. Not so. About one in ten waves. Undeterred, I continue to nod and wave. Anyway, this morning was too dark to see what any other cyclist was doing. Waves and politeness not required.
After a 30km roll to Mt Martha and back - twice - I was back home changing from lycra into boardies and a t-shirt for our obligatory 6-7km walk along the espie. Just to prove how accurate and faultless a GPS system can be, Jayne and I both tracked our walk through Strava. Despite the fact that we walk side-by-side, this morning Jayne recorded an extra 0.5km! No idea.
Back to Cafe Biscottini for breakfast and then through the street stalls to Coles. The Mornington street markets (Wednesdays) are not much to get excited about, unless you get your thrills from fresh fruit and vege. And yes, I know this can be really cool, but DOC have the most beautiful fresh fruit and veges everyday, you don't need to wait till Wedneday. Coles? I hear you ask gentle reader. Well, for some reason I cannot fathom, in the last two days, the flies have come from nowhere and they are particularly annoying. In fact, they are generally the topic of conversation as we pass other walkers of a morning. Tomorrow, we will be prepared with Aeroguard, the switches of broken branch proving unsuccessful this morning.
Back to the unit and a quick change into clothes that are more appropriate for wine tasting. The talk then moved to lunch/dinner possibilities. We had decided, long ago, to eat at Ten Minutes by Tractor, a hatted restaurant at the winery of the same name. However, the heat, the fancy menus and a few other factors saw us explore other options, and then other options and then still other options. As we drove off toward Dromana we still had no idea where we were going to eat.
To get to Stonier Estate I decided to go the long way and drive up Arthur's Seat Road. It is an incredible climb straight up the mountain side. Yes, I was thinking of having a shot at riding it - I still am, as I sit here and write this. It is incredibly steep and there are no flat sections, just steep and steeper. The original thought was to ride half-way up and take a shot of the scenery with my bike in the fore-ground. Now? I'll just settle for the coast road and Mt Martha. If I lived down here, or if Dan was with me, well, that would alter things, but on my own ... there is no one to share the experience with and telling Jayne when I get back isn't enough.
The wine at Stonier was as good as we'd remembered and Rob (behind the bar) remembered Jayne! Amazing! How unforgettable is my wife? We haven't been there for 12 months, almost to the day. After some discussion on cycling, Rob rides too, and wine, we had a tour of the facility, as they say, and then back to tasting. Rob also doesn't understand why Peninsula riders don't acknowledge each other. Given the heat we didn't risk going for lunch and leaving wine we'd purchased in a hot car - even at 6pm it is still 38º in Mornington.
New lunch plans were required. Somewhere air-conditioned and close to home. The Bay Hotel proved to be the winner. Not so Frank's Bakery where they had sold out of baguettes! Mon Dieu! A problem discussed from the depths of the hotel while waiting for lunch. The answer, as it often is here in Mornington, was DOC. More cheese was procured and an experimental purchase of their version of a baguette. We'll see.
After lunch it was time for novels, tennis on the TV and a nanna nap. Nice. And then more tennis and air conditioning.
Finally, the temperature began to fall, unlike last evening. By 8pm it was very pleasant on the balcony with a glass of Stonier Pinot Noir. It is quite interesting sitting out there because snatches of conversaton from the disembodied voices of passers-by float up to us. A more diligent student of human nature might record the snippets of these people's lives and do something with them - free verse perhaps, Ern Malley style. Mostly, it just makes me laugh - arguments, apologies, random statements - the lives of the Peninsula people.
Tomorrow promises to be similar to today, so there will be need to be discussion about what time we are walking. I will ride of course, sometime around sunrise. There was no Facebook photo of my bike leaning against a railing overlooking the bay this morning because it was too dark - that should be remedied tomorrow. It's a tough life: ride, walk, breakfast, read the paper, tourist activity, lunch, relax, read, dinner. A pity it doesn't pay.
PS. My parents called from the mid-north coast of NSW to see if we were safe from the bushfire on the Morning Peninsula. Easy answer. What fire? It didn't make the news broadcast that we saw, so I'm still not sure where the fire is/was.
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