Hamilton

“I have stopped finding fault with creation and have learned to accept it. We have some power in us that knows its own ends. It is that which drives us on to what we must finally become… This is the true meaning of transformation. This is the real metamorphosis.” 

-David Malouf's Ovid

I rode to Hamilton yesterday to stay overnight with a friend, and returned to Melbourne today.  The weather was forecast to reach 11 degrees and then 13 degrees today, and I think that forecast was about right.  Drenching rains were also forecast and that came true.

I took scenic routes both there are back.  Yesterday I took back roads out from Melbourne and made through the Brisbane Ranges and Meredith.  I continued on such roads beyond Meredith.  The dense rain made it hard to see my surroundings (including the road ahead) but I found my way along slithers of tar and then dirt roads.  Now and then when the rain stopped I pulled over for a photo or to check my paper map.

I continued in this way until Skipton, stopping to look at interesting buildings as my whim dictated.

My friend expressed surprise at the fact that I went ahead and rode to him despite the weather.  But I quite enjoy winter riding.  Riding is in important part about losing oneself in the elements.  That means that in the heat I get hot, in the cold I get cold, and in the wet I get wet.  It's a matter of not fighting whatever happens, not finding fault with it, but giving oneself over to it as an inviting experience, as something with the potential to surprise, enliven and transform us.  And to focus on the shifts, the constant new details.  The most obvious example of this was the sudden transformations into sunlight, that lasting a moment or fifteen minutes, before the rain and clouds came again.

Today I left Hamilton at 10AM and headed north to Halls Gap, in more drenching rain, rain that was thick, cold and misty.

I took an arc northwards that returned me to Melbourne via Ararat, Avoca, Maryborough, and Bungaree.  It was a good ride.