Day 12 - Broadford to Melbourne

A cool but sunny day with no rain! A first for this ride.

A good ride in to Melbourne and after the second and last small hill climb there before us 6o km's away in the distance was Melbourne, our final destination. Photos were taken however because of the distance it takes a bit of looking at them to see the city in the distance.

About 50 km's out of the city we got on the the cycleway network and from there in through the suburbs we were off road for it all bar the flooding which caused us to detour and as this was Peter's backyard so to speak there was no need to consult maps for a way around the flooded cycleway it was simply a case of following the leader.

We stopped for our lunch at one of the BBQ shelters in a park and had a lovely chat with a couple who were cooking up a BBQ for a visit from their disabled son who was in care - sadly for them they got the phone call that said there was a problem with is special seatbelt and there would be no outing for him to the park today! Matthew their son was 28 and they took this disappointment in their stride - this was after they cooked the sausages in anticipation of his arrival. One must take their hat off to parents like these two.

We arrived at Peter's home at about 3:15 PM after a 95 km ride. Congratulations were had all round - Peter and myself for the Sydney to Melbourne ride and Elio for his first unsupported multi-day ride. Yes I think we may have converted him - he certainly took to the navigation using my Garmin over the last three days and he now has it on his "birthday" list for family.

As with my three previous rides with Peter we had a great time riding beside each other and discovering a great ride here on this side of the world - I saw a lot of great country, a variety of Australian wildlife (bar a Koala) and quite unexpectedly experienced first hand NSW and Victoria during one the wettest periods on record. 

So, overall we rode 1,136km, 95 km per day and climbed 10,443 meters or 870 meters per day. We had two "tourist" days when we did not ride, we took the train one day when we deemed it unsafe to ride.

What's next? Well there has been some serious discussionaround possible future rides so watch this space.

Day 11 - Euroa to Broadford

Today, at times a grey, even dark grey image appeared just off to our left side of the bike and a little in front. It kept the same speed as we were travelling and remained alongside of us for a short time. We all commented on it and then again a bit further down the road it appeared yet again. When we stopped at the Cafe it was one of the locals who pointed out the reason for those images and of course when they did we then remembered what a "Shadow" looks like and when outside what is the cause of it. The sun of coursee!

Yes, today we began to see glimpses of the sun - not lots but enough to know it was still up there and today we did not need our raincoats on for rain as there was none (a first) however as it was a cool 8 degrees when we started today we had our raincoats on to help keep us warm.

We stopped at a lovely town "Avenal" for our morning tea stop and then a pie at Seymore for lunch.

All good riding and not a lot of navigation required other than our route upon leaving Seymore ended up at a locked gate! It wasn't too much of a problem as we were able to backtrack a little and pick the route up again. We came upon another "Closed Road Ahead" sign and decided to carry on and maybe ask at a farmhouse along the way. We didn't have to as I stopped a car coming the other way and he said "no problem, you'll get through". Get through we did although had we been a few days earlier we wouldn't have been able to as the bridge approach had been washed away in the recent (and ongoing) floods.

We arrived here at the Motel a bit after 3:00 PM which is a good time as it gives us time to clean up and chill a bit before sorting out where to go for a meal.

Tomorrow will be the last day of the Sydney to Melbourne ride and ti would be nice if again for a second day we will get to see those shadows on the road beside us. Fingers crossed.

Day 10 - Wangaratta to Euroa

It probably goes without saying that it was another day of rain, but a lot of fun all the same.

Our route took us right through the middle of "Ned Kelly" country and we stopped for our coffee at "Glenrowan" the village of his last stand and capture - we went and saw where Ann Jones's (no relation) Inn stood and where he was holed up with the police just across the road.

Again our route pretty much followed the Hume Freeway but on quiet back roads - so quiet in fact that at one point the seal became gravel, then became less gravel, then became gravel strips with grass down the middle then finally becoming mostly grass with a little bit of gravel. We wondered as we progressed whether or not there was going to be an exit for us from this trail and fortunately there was and the flooding and creek crossings we had to do were only ankle deep!

We founf another lovely town "Violet Town" with a cafe and we made thi sour lunch stop. It was the local counillor's day to hold counsel for his constituents and as you might expect he was happy to chat with us about his Shire (and very clean toilets).  He was also able to answer my question about the size of the farms and it seems the norm would be in the 3- 5,000 acre range and that made sense when on sees the size of the paddocks. With all this rain they have very "New Zealand" paddocks full of feed - however they are naturally worried as all this feed will turn in to "fuel" ahead of the Bushfire season!

From there we carried on in to Euroa in between showers and downpours which has become the norm for our daily rides. What was not normal nor expected was my puncture! Even very good tyres were no barrier to what was equivalent to a 1 cm fine sewing needle that went through the middle of the tyre and the tube! Fortunately it happened during one of the reasonably "dry" periods!

We are now out of the "hills" and so our rides only have a few hundred metres of climbing involved.

Day Nine - Albury to Wangaratta

We began with a false expectation that today we were going to be clear of the rain - there was some blue sky visible as we were preparing to leave amongst the grey clouds. Before too long those grey clouds turned to dark clouds that turned to rain at too many times through the ride for us to count. Strange thing being that in all but a couple of iinstances just as it began to bucket down we happened to either be at a Cafe or out in the Whop Whops and lo and hehold there within 100 meters was a rural fire station with a veranda to shelter under while we had a bite to eat for lunch. As we were getting close to Wangaratta it really came down and this time there was no avoiding it and our motel was right on the other side of town! We were saturated when we arrived.

Our cyle route through the Victorian border town of Wadonga was along the riverside route and of course that meant for us a detour as the flooding was widespread in any area close to the river. Fortunately it did not involve a big detour for us.

We had an enjoyable coffee stop at barnawatha where Kat at the cofee cart was so excited that our ride was going to equal the 1,200 km's she was doing as a challenge at the gym! So that like Canberra involved yet another young lady asking to be our friend!

We rode in to Chiltern which is a lovely old gold mining town from the 1850's although one building was built in 1817 - there was not a building in the main street that  would have been less than 100 years old and so it really was a ride back in time.

While we more or less followed the "Hume Freeway" which is the main route from Sydney to Melbourne we were adjacent to it on either the old main road or a service road and for the best part of the ride we had the road  pretty much to oursleves.

Elio has joined us now for the ride in to Melbourne and has been fun to have along for the journey.

Overall a wet days ride but a great day in the outdoors all the same. 

Albury touristy day

  As we have come to expect it was raining again today so we had a slower start as it was also a touristy day for us. Seeing as though we took the train yesterday it meant we didn't get to visit the "Ettamogah Pub" so we decided to make that our short ride for the day. It looked it was every bit you might imagine - not that it was open but the accompanying Pub next door was so we stopped there for a break before heading back in to the rain and at times the sun.

We are spoilt here at this pub/motel as it also provides a free complimentary breakfast which we enjoyed ahead of this mornigs ride.

This afternoon is going to be a chill out time and later on Peter's mate Elio will be joining us for the next four days and our ride down in to Melbourne.

Day Eight - Wagga Wagga to Albury

  The weather forecast was not looking good for our journey today with heavy rain in front of us on our ride. With this in mind we made the decision this morning based upon our safety to take the train through to Albury rather than ride. The only problem with this was the train people wanted our bikes in boxes! what a pain that is, fortunately they provided the boxes. The tran didn't leave till 2:30 PM so we went for a walk down town and had a great roast pork lunch.

The rain that was forecast certainly didn't fall where we were however here at Albury it looks like there had been quite a downpour.

Tonight is "Budget Night" and this new Government is saying all the things any new Government says - " after ten years of neglect we are taking the responsible position of delivering a sustaianable budget that promises and will deliver a better future for all Australians"!!!!   The same the world over irrespective which party it is that is delivering the budget.

A day off tomorrow and we've just read that this motel comes with a coplimentary breakfast! Good news except I've already bought our Museli and milk. Looks like we'll be carrying our bag of museli. 

Day Eight - Wagga Wagga to Albury

 The weather forecast was not looking good for our journey today with heavy rain in front of us on our ride. With this in mind we made the decision this morning based upon our safety to take the train through to Albury rather than ride. The only problem with this was the train people wanted our bikes in boxes! what a pain that is, fortunately they provided the boxes. The tran didn't leave till 2:30 PM so we went for a walk down town and had a great roast pork lunch.

The rain that was forecast certainly didn't fall where we were however here at Albury it looks like there had been quite a downpour.

Tonight is "Budget Night" and this new Government is saying all the things any new Government says - " after ten years of neglect we are taking the responsible position of delivering a sustaianable budget that promises and will deliver a better future for all Australians"!!!!   The same the world over irrespective which party it is that is delivering the budget.

A day off tomorrow and we've just read that this motel comes with a coplimentary breakfast! Good news except I've already bought our Museli and milk. Looks like we'll be carrying our bag of museli.