Second solo slog, later in the year this time so Cardinia Shire has had its annual rubbish collection, not quite such a third world view to the roadsides Sitting at oakleigh station waiting for the train, double check everything. Everything present... all except a pen for my little notebook, the one I thought I had ain't there. Hot air balloons coming in to land in Huntingdale, first time I've seen them since pre-lockdown. Ugh, the train to Pakenham lurched around so much I was feeling motion sick. No station announcements and destination board said 'welcome to metro' the whole time. Perhaps it was on its way to the wreckers yard. 7.10 start on the bike, the road on the north of the station -- Railway road -- is now marked "no through road" but I ride along it anyway, sure enough, there's now bollards to stop motor traffic but a footpath to let pedestrians & cyclists through. A block south along the Healesville - Koo Wee Rup road and left into Bald Hills road. The local utes start speeding past immediately, generally with reasonable clearance. Manage to figure out how to convince the Garmin to both navigate the route from 2017 and record the ride today, although it had some interesting quirks with the turn prompts not coming up unless I'd woken the screen, but then the screen stayed on until I swiped onto a different screen and back. Rabbits alongside in the grass most of the way for the morning stretch down to Lang Lang, pausing for a sticky bun in Bayles. Lots of birds in the paddocks, creeks and ponds, including a solitary emu in a paddock, wild or farmed, I couldn't tell. Lang Lang for coffee, not a bad little cafe, same place I stopped last year. Lots of gravel trucks coming into Lang Lang, and there'll be plenty on the way out until I'm past the quarry. All gave plenty of passing room though, the standard of gravel truck driver seems to have improved out here. Countryside has changed by now, sandy coastal scrub and lots of bracken alongside the road Lang Lang to Poowong, a bit of stress & eyes in the back of the head to watch for the gravel trucks to start, but all well behaved and a relief to be past the quarry, a pair of black cockatoos flew overhead as I entered Nyora, another pair in a tree on the edge of Poowoong. 11am in Poowoong, second coffee and a takeaway salad roll from the shop. Half an hour later and the Cycliq Fly12 craps out for the first time today on a brand new SD card I put in last night, less than 4hrs use. Turn it off, wait a few minutes, turn it on, this time it runs about half an hour and dies again, flashing red-orange and be-doop sound all the way to lunch (now) then turned off. Later when I turned it on it flashed briefly solid red & hung, so I fished out the reset pin and restarted it, again got 2-3 minutes of running before red-orange error light & noises all the way back to Packenham Lovely swoopy ride down along the ridge from Poowong to Ellinbank, very grey skies & I had to keep chosing between too-dark sunglasses or no glasses and bugs. Lunch was at 103km under a tree at Ellinbank church, same spot the official ride used to pause. Light rain started as I left Ellinbank for the outskirts of Warragul, then stayed with me most of the rest of the day, at times only one or two raindrops a minute but thankfully not much wind. Warragul to Drouin with increasing Saturday afternoon traffic and the first real idiots of the day, roaring past well under a metre away "because there's oncoming traffic" Today the Bunyip River road time trial was enjoyable, I suspect a slight tail wind, and cool & grey. Still plenty of insects, but far more enjoyable than the very hot days or strong south-westerly headwinds I've had other times. I managed to keep my average riding speed just over 20km/hr for the day. As I was on the last stretch to the turn off for Seven Mile Road the block of trees near the corner started thrashing about wildly and I turned north and slowed to a crawl -- the wind & rain had arrived. North to Bald Hill road then west back to Pakenham was into a shocking wind and rain, reminding me that "the Slog" is a slog. 4pm back at Pakenham, the Garmin decided to beep once that the battery was getting low, turning off bluetooth & charging it at Poowoong made for a much better battery life. Then straight onto a waiting train and wait 10 minutes before heading home