Saturday 2 October 2010 – I rode from Robe to Port Elliot today – a 300-odd km journey. The roads were relatively clear apart from a plague of flying bugs everywhere, presumably brought out by the sunny skies and increase in temperature. By the time I stopped for lunch in Meninges I was covered in the little critters. When I went to the loo, one of them must have got caught in my clothing as when I took my trousers down I got bitten about 5 times on the bum! Having just read something about scorpion bites I waited for the onset of poison-induced paralysis but after about 10 minutes I figured it was probably just a bee so got some sting relieving ointment instead.

A few other bikes were on the road today, most of which seemed to pull into the servo at Salt Creek. One even had a trailer attached to it which the rider assured me made no difference to the handling, although a 1300cc engine was required to pull it.

On arriving at the Port Elliot YHA I was informed that I’d be sharing a room with another girl, but that she’d already claimed the bottom bunk so I’d be on the top one. Now, for a 20 year old backpacker this is no inconvenience, but for a 47 year old stiffie like myself it was a major challenge. It doesn’t take a structural engineer to figure out that if you put the equivalent of a flattened whale on top of 4 lollipop sticks it is not going to be the most stable assembly, so clambering up the tiny set of ladders attached to the side of the beds almost toppled the whole lot. However, I’m glad to report that after a few attempts I have now perfected the technique and can manage the assent and decent without incident - much to the relief of my roommate!