Day 1 Melbourne to Euroa 125 kms

We are missing Jan and Annie and Alf

The first day is nearly over and so far it has gone pretty smoothly. The group seem to have bonded quite well with lots of swapping of riding partners throughout the day. Jan and Michael had trouble packing all their gear into their car, so they were late and missed the start at Craigieburn Station. Then they ended up at the wrong service centre so following a frantic phonecall from Jan, all worked out fine. Jan rode like the clappers and caught up to the tail enders (actually passed a couple of them).
Our support crew on this leg is Michael (Jan's partner) and Anna (Alf's partner). Michael has had a rude introduction today but has come up trumps. Let's hope he doesn't back out tomorrow as his support was very much appreciated. Anna is an old hand at this capper and nothing surprises her anymore.

We all had planned to meet at Southern Cross Station and then Collis would put them all on the train to Craigieburn Station, where we would meet them again and they would start riding.

The planned route was changed already today. The amount of traffic on the Hume Hwy this morning was unbelievable. I've travelled this road thousands of times and never seen so much traffic. Everyone must have known there was a group of brave cyclists riding their way around this wide brown land and wanted to give us a big send off.

Morning tea was at McDonalds Rest area and lunch at another service centre.

We got off the Hume at Seymour and had a leisurely ride along the old Hume until Avenel. It was very pleasant and a good suggestion from Rob & Alf. We arrived in Euroa in good time.

Most of the riders headed off down to the Euroa Hotel for dinner which was recommended to us by the caravan park manager. It is known locally as the middle pub and I did not hear one bad word about any of the meals.

Tomorrow we have a similar day as today doing approximately 130 kms heading to Chiltern. We did 125 kms today.
After a very early rise by everyone this morning, we are all in bed (maybe not all asleep) by 9 pm tonight. Very tired group of people. Good night.