Ride Fitness

 Debbie had a software hiccough where she was unable to work this morning, as the IT guy in the UK turned off a switch he shouldn't have, so we went for a bike ride instead.  It feels so easy to ride these days with the legs better trained for it.  We only went 18km compared to the 60km the other day.  A good half way stop is the coffee van at Drysdale station. While there, I noticed the Q Train has completely moved shop to the new railyards at Drysdale. There are old train carriages being worked on in the yards and the long sheds have trains parked as well. 

coffee van

passing Tassie boat again

Q the carriages

3km run

 We have done the jog to the Dell and back again for a third time. At this rate we might get to make it a regular thing. I also got on the bike for a short ride into Drysdale and back. That is my first go since the cadel ride and the stiff Southerly wind I rode into was not helping.  Speaking of rides, SBS has started coverage of some OS riding like the Alula Tour, mainly because the Aussie team Jayco Alula are in it. We are back to the workaday Pure Bookkeeping online activities and maybe these will speed up as I see NBN optic cables being layed in our area.  I have a photo here of the Thomas Thomson which we saw going thru the Heads the other day. It is a research vessel hence all the attachments.

Snorkel Legs

 The swimming has taken a bit of a back seat lately even though the legs have been pumping on the bike, it is a different motion and muscle usage when trying to kick thru some water.  Our beach is not suitable for the groyne to groyne swim at the moment but I still went out at high tide as it occurs mid morning this week. I did see a huge snapper coming toward me out of the shadows but as soon as he spotted me he was off. Yesterday I tried something different, walking along the tops to the previous ramp down. This beach is non existant at high tide. There are mounds of sea grass to stand on but the water was so clear with large sandy tracts to follow. I have never gotten the snorkel out here but I swam towards our house until I was directly opposite. You can briefly see the house in the top left corner near a water spot.  I followed a ray for a while then made my way back. Swimming into a low Sun is tricky.  By now this beach, being a Sunday morning, had three dogs in the water, 10 kids in the water and someone doing stand up paddle for the first time who nearly ran over me.  

We have been invaded by these white moths. If they lay eggs this is going to be caterpillar city

Nectar of the Fruits

 We did some fruit picking yesterday with punnets of strawberries and tomatoes but the big ticket item was the picking of one nectarine.  There was another harder one that fell on the ground so we have that one on the window sill.  We have a new approach to eating strawberries which is not to put them in the fridge but to leave them at room tempearture and to have eaten them by the end of the day.  You can tell the difference between what's grown out the back and bought in the shop. The neighbour cut down his nectarine tree as he said it was too messy. We ate a number of those fruits before the chop and I can report that this first single nectarine was just as good.

Fit Levels

 The bike fitness that came in the last month or six weeks was hard earned and not to be given back too quickly.  So we are going to try and maintain some of it, although we have not been for a ride as yet, since the Cadel Ride. Last week it was restuarants and lots of drinks so we are already behind. Today I went for the swim even though the water has much suspended grass in it.  I did spy some good fish including a large snapper. The fishing boats are out in droves so there is good amounts of fish out there.  We went back again for a jog/slog. This was a 3 km effort to the top of the Dell and back.  The temperatures are warming up so most likely I will be back there for the third time later today.  

From the top of the Dell.
The artificial reef is opposite the raised boardwalk

YHA

 The Youth Hostels Association is still going strong as you can often spot the signage as you are moving around.  We were heading back into town and passed the local YHA in Port Fairy which stirred some memory bank thread.  I took a quick photo but moved onto catchup.  I dug some stuff out of the archives this morning which proves a long history of visiting Port Fairy. This stamp was acknowledged in 1982.  Most of our YHA usage was in the 1970's so this is likely one of the last times we used the YHA and for two nights on the 30/31st Jan.  Debbie is under the limit of 26yrs with some kind of Bob haircut while I look fairly suave in an unkempt criminal mugshot type of way.

YHA Accommodation

key details have been altered and removed

Plovers All Over

We have made it back to the Springs this arvo just in time for Debbie to make a 2:00pm meeting. Phew. I think it must be nap time by now but first I have had alook at the photos.  The plover action from yesterday is best seen on the video. One of their strategies is to remain perfectly still and all aligned in the same direction. You could walk passed and easily not see them.  I also have photo looking out at the  Moyne River from the neighbours house where we went in for coffee. Its amazing some of this gear doesn't break, as in an 1860's cottage, they did not make room for laptop/phone/watch/computer charging stations. I dropped a hard drive at one stage and the phone was covered in fine sand but they kept going.