Prologue (Adelaide to Pt Adel)

DAY 1 (Adelaide to Victor Harbor)

DAY 2 (Victor Harbor to Meningie)

DAY 3 (Meningie to Robe)

DAY 4 (Robe to Mt. Gambier)

DAY 5 (Mt. Gambier to Port Fairy)

DAY 6 (Port Fairy to Port Campbell)

DAY 7 (Port Campbell to Lorne)

DAY 8 (Lorne to Melbourne)

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The Hilton Hotel (Adel)

After a long night to make sure I packed everything, perhaps more than I would ever need, I woke up to catch an early flight to Adelaide. I had booked the cheapest flight to Adelaide on the internet but the drawback was the scheduled time of 0745. What the heck! I guess I would have plenty to do in the city. Stephen at the Le Tour Cycles has a friend by the name of Keith Wong who owns the Bicycle Express, the biggest bike store in SA. I could not wait to have a look! Before I even finished the morning newspaper, the chief pilot announced that he was landing his plane. The air flight only took 55 minutes! It made me wonder whether it was justified to spend the next 8 days on our bikes to get back to Melbourne!

I took a taxi to city as it is only 5.5 km west of the city, and only costed me about A$8.00. I checked in to the Hilton Hotel near the Victoria Square. The rooms were nice. Gym, swimming pool and tennis court were located downstairs, but all I wanted to see is bikes. My bike was carefully transported by Phil and Susan in their truck. and they would not be in town until mid afternoon. Anyway, I found out Bicycle Express open at 0900 so I walked to the Halifax Street and had a look. The bike shop was huge! There is not a bike shop in Melbourne equals to half of its size! Cannondales, Treks and Colnagos were lying casually on the shop floor. The most eye-catching piece of art in the shop had to be the Black Lighting Ltd Ed CAAD 7 Cannondale. What makes it worth A$15000 (oh yes it is not a typo) was not only the integrated system and weigh a UCI prohibited 6.5kg, but also it the #1 of 300 sold around the world!

Adelaide is not that big! The casino, Rundle Mall, Botanic Garden and University of Adelaide only took 4 hours to see all. Damn, I overestimated the size of the city. Luckily I went back to my room and met my roommate, Andrew, who was busy to his bike together. He travelled from the WA and it was a great idea to pack your love machine in a TC-1 suitcase like he did. His Fordriest bike was with Dura Ace groupset and Mavic Cosmic wheels.

Not so long later Phil's truck arrived with my bike. I rushed to get the pedals on and the bubble padding off, changed to my jersey and knicks, and rode out. It was a pleasant warm afternoon, and I decided to go north to Port Adelaide where I had never been before. The Port Road led me out of the North West corner of the city and just kept going. About 12km later that was it - Port Adelaide. How disappointing! There was not much to see as I got there at 15 minutes past 5 pm. All the museums and stuff were closed. I stayed for a little while and took a picture and two.

Time Trailed back to hotel for dinner at 6pm after Phil has the first of funny briefing, with his 'not-to-scale' map and 'estimated' distances marked on each section of the road. Later we called this phenomenon 'Phil's factor', which will be obviously shown in later days.

We had an overpriced meal with pasta and steak at the hotel. After a good conversation with the training partners from Melbourne, it was time for more carbo-loading in my room and get ready for an insult tomorrow.