Today was my first day on the island. It wasn’t really supposed to be that way but this is me, remember? I left Wollongong around lunch time planning to do part of the trip, sleep in the van and complete the journey today. It sorta worked. I was aiming to sleep in the camping area at Lake Nillacootie along the Midland Highway and, after taking a break in Albury (it was very hot on the road), I pushed on into Victoria and arrived at my destination around sunset. It was as I remembered and a great place to stop..
..and so it was. The problem soon became apparent that, while it was a great place to stop, it wasn’t a great place to sleep. The van was hot and, even with the window open and mesh over the opening, it was still impossible to nod off. I tried for two hours without success before giving it up and getting on the road again.
I pulled into the front yard of the house where I am staying at 0200, hopped into bed and crashed. I awoke at 0920 having had a great sleep.
I wandered inside, did the necessary introductions and renewed the old ones, had breakfast and then headed off with the guys who had a tour of the KN Engineering factory in Hallam on the day’s schedule. KH is, of course, Ken Horner, whose company makes the Irving Vincent race bikes. We travelled in two cars, me driving the team’s VW Golf (my local driving knowledge being seen to be an advantage) As an aside, I was distinctly underwhelmed by the Golf, but that’s another story.
Several carloads of American team members (plus one Australian interloper) were disgorged at Hallam and they were treated to a couple of hours in the factory, being hosted by Mr H himself with a pretty much “access all areas” brief. I could tell you lots of the things that I saw but, if I did, I would have to kill you, so please don’t ask. Tomorrow is “unpacking day” where the teams begin opening the shipping containers and getting ready for the practice day on Thursday. It will be busy; hopefully the weather will be kind as it was pretty warm today.
Stay tuned, much more to come, I hope. 🙂