This morn­ing I woke up to the nicest morn­ing yet. A beau­ti­ful sun­rise was shin­ing through the trees and across the riv­er, light­ing up a wedge-tailed eagle in her nest in the tree direct­ly above my tent. Com­pared to the wind of last night it was a beau­ti­ful tran­quil scene.

I had a bit of rain today, but noth­ing too heavy and after the past few days, it was actu­al­ly quite refresh­ing. I woke in Cohu­na, had my cof­fee and break­fast and packed down my camp quite quick­ly. I didn’t have phone recep­tion so was keen to get into a bet­ter area for it so I could let my part­ner know I was OK, etc. I was also low on water so decid­ed to ven­ture away from the Mur­ray to detour through Cohu­na township.

I slept in today, and had a nice camp­fire break­fast of fried eggs, mues­li bars and espres­so cof­fee, before pack­ing my bag and explor­ing the Camp­bells Island State For­est on my way down to Barham and Koondrook.

I got up nice and ear­ly this morn­ing — 0500 — to catch the Bal­larat V/Line train to Mel­bourne at 0615. I packed the bike last night, mak­ing sure every­thing was lashed and ready to go. Then lo and behold, the skies opened up and rain start­ed pour­ing! Not the most aus­pi­cious start to the trip…