On an interesting conversation with a cousin

Yesterday, I was at a rather late birthday party for people in my family with birthdays in April, a.k.a. the April Birthday Party. In many ways, this serves as an annual family reunion for my Father's rather large side of the family. (Just to put you in perspective, I have more than 30 first cousins on that side! "Only" 24 assorted relatives were there!)

I made of point of closely questioning a cousin of mine who had just come back from Australia. I wanted to know which airline and route he had flown and his opinion of the two areas I am thinking of (Perth and Melbourne). It turns out that he had been to Australia on a number of times. He was of the opinion that generally the best option was to go on Air Canada via Vancouver, and to change planes in Vancouver rather than Toronto. He knew the where and what of Kalgorlie-Boulder (the theoretical starting point of a Perth oriented trip) as his business involved him in mining concerns which are definitely dominant in that town! His two cents worth of the two areas was that Victoria was a more interesting state to visit compared to southern Western Australia. From my reading, he does have a point.

However, I recently came across the fact that the climate in Western Australia would be sub-tropical whereas Victoria is largely temperate. Given that I have spent the vast majority of my life temperate climates, it might be fun to try out the sub-tropics! Then again, it might be far too hot.

I have spent part of this evening working on a date-distance chart for the Broken Hill-Melbourne option. The timing seems to work though I am uncertain as to the exact terrain I will be facing. As well, I am fully aware that it only an approximation as the area is well populated allowing for the easy extension or contraction of a cycling day. I am going to have to build up something of a database of the facilities along my projected route.

I have been using Google Earth to get an idea of what is available. In some shots, there is dramatic evidence of the wildfires that swept the region not too long ago. I can only hope that I don't have any problems with them! Not that I am terribly worried about that as there is bound to be reasonable warning that would allow me to change my route and/or get a lift to somewhere safe.