Heat Wave Hits Victoria

Hi all,
It's been a tough few days over the last little while on the tour. A heat wave has hit Victoria (the worst in 150 years!) and my misplaced stereotype that "Australia is 40 degrees in every part of the coutnry every day at every part of the day" has actually come true. We stayed in a tin-roofed shed in Camperdown and, while grateful that there was a roof and showers, the temperature was reaching the high forties inside. We actually had +46 in town! I am surprised at how much I'm affected by the heat - it's tough to move! One of the highlights of Camperdown was joining a community lunch put on by one of the churches... they try and promote people who may not eat well very often to at least have one healthy meal a week. We put on an impromptu performane of a couple scenes from our skit. To beat the heat, a few of us rode to a couple lakes that formed in volcanic craters. One lake is freshwater and the other is salt water. It was a straight uphill ride to get to a lookout point where you could see both lakes, then we plummeted down the side of the crater to get to one of them. It was beautiful water - clear and crisp and very salty! The ride back was tough, climbing out of the crater, but totally worth it!

We woke up at 4 am on Thursday and were on the road just after 5:00 am trying to cycle as much in the coo0l, dark night as possible... it was mostly just dark though as the temperatures were above 30 degrees by 6:30 am (though it was really nice to see the sun coming up as we rounded the 25 km mark). Our 70 km ride that day was verging on unreasonable craziness. I was in a fast group, so we made it into Warrnambool by quarter after 9. A northerly wind (very hot and fast) was picking up just was we arrived and made the last 10 km quite difficult. As the other groups made their way in over the next hour and a half, signs of heat stroke were becoming apparent in a lot of the group members. Getting electrolytes and water into people became my job - I was like an eDisc fairy! It was definitely a little scary to see people so disoriented and breaking down. I did really well - I think having spent so much time running and using gels and the electrolyte discs really helped.

Unfortunately, one of our groups had major mechanical difficulties with one of the trailers and two flat tyres and getting stuck out in the hottest part of the day was pretty disastrous. Luckily, some motorists who had heard of our arrival pulled over and asked if they were the Otesha project and a few trips managed to get the last four girls back to the house we're staying at. One crew member was severly dehydrated and we ended up taking her to the hospital. It was a long long long day and hard on everyone. We all recovered pretty well and the next day was fairly productive - temperatures cooled a bit and we had a performance of our skit for the South West Sustainability Group near the Civic Centre. We also had a meeting with one of the shire councillors who wants to make this area more "bike friendly" and was hoping to get our input of the experience in Warrnambool so far.

Today is a well-earned day off for everyone - completely Otesha free. While I'm enjoying our crew so much, I am so much looking forward to some down time alone, exploring this town. It's so beautiful here! It is oceanside with a small historical fishing port that has been rebuilt from the olden days. I spent a little time this morning op shopping (checking out the thrift stores - "opportunity shopping") and decided that my new goal for when I get home is to outfit my entire new work wardrobe through op shops.

Tomorrow we're off on our 100 km ride to Portland and our first two school stops!

Gotta jet!
Cheers,
Candice