Day six summary

Elapsed Time: 13:00:00

Distance: 144.16 miles

Average Speed: 14.1 MPH

Riding Time: 10:13:08

Maximum Speed: 27.7 MPH

Odometer: 81,704.26 Miles

Traveled from Dandenong to Ararat

59-74F; SSW Winds 0-15 MPH

Today I woke up around 4 AM again.  I wanted to get up early enough to help decrease the chances of Melbourne being too busy to ride through.  Luckily, there was not too much traffic when I left around 4:30 AM.  The temperature had cooled into the upper 50s.  I believe it was still about 100 degrees last night around 10 PM.  I made it through Melbourne without too much hassle.  Most of the road I took were relatively unbusy heading west.  There was a ton of traffic heading east though.  I think a lot of the traffic heading east was traffic leaving town after the New Year's celebration.  After about 25 miles or so I was getting into the western edges of the suburbs and almost into the country again.  After about 34 miles I noticed my back tire felt funny.  Sure enough I was getting a flat.  God has watched over me well so far in this trip.  I am completely amazed I haven't had a flat before this.  Logic surely should have dictated a flat tire through the harsh gravel roads at Mt. Tantawangalo and the rough gravel roads south of Delegate.  I feel truly blessed to only have this one flat so far.  Changing the tire was a little challenging since I had a heavy pack above the back tire.  A few swarms of those pesky flies found me while I was changing the tire, but it was nothing to complain about really.  The flat also happened right next to one of the last gas stations I would see in a while.  So if my pump didn't work at least I would probably have air nearby.  My pump was a little troublesome at first, but then I did get some air in my tire.  I pumped it up to 70 psi (my pump has a gauge).  For some reason I always feel like I'm going to pop a tire using that hand pump putting more in than that, although I should be able to put in 100 easily if I wanted.  Today's ride shortly after this became increasingly challenging.  I started fighting the wind and was doing some pretty serious climbs.  It was way too sore for me to sit most of the ride, so I stood for a majority of it.  I stopped in a place called Ballan.  There was a gas station/McDonald's combination.  I stopped for lunch.  Outside there was a motorcyclist I talked to.  I asked him if there was much for hotels in Ballarat or Ararat or Stawell.  He said there was.  He advised me against going to Stawell however, as there were actually bush fires going on there.  I continued on after lunch.  The sky was rather gray and around the 90-mile mark for today the rain fell.  By the time I reached Ararat, my mileage was at 144.16 miles.  It was still raining at this point, so I was soaked.  The cool rain was a nice change, but I was actually a little COOL, believe it or not.  I ended up staying in Ararat at a Golden Chain hotel.  The owners were extremely friendly and I had an awesome room complete with a mini-bar for under a $80.  It was a very pleasant stay.  He joked around with me about me getting thrown Australian dialects!  He called my bike a "tredlie" and I had no clue what he was talking about a first.  He also mentioned the bush fires to me and made it sound like they should be in control by tomorrow morning.

Below was an article about the bush fires.......