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. 

Cootamundra to Wagga Wagga

 There is a cycling God and she looked after us so well today. We had the coffee stop before leaving town in once again overcast conditions however what sets today apart was the back wind we had for our 90 km ride! Yes! With a lot of downhills as well meant we had a dream ride frequently getting alon in the mid 30's kph. This meant we were at our planned lunch spot by 10:30 AM and here at the motel before 1:00 PM. The average speed today as around 24 kph.

There was no rain (nor sunshine) so all in all the perfect riding day. It did however make us stop and think about what this ride would be like in a month or two when the flood waters have all dissappeared and the temperature is in the 30's and the ground is parched - all very hard to imagine at present however I am sure it is the case.

This is like having a day off with the afternoon free! Well not really coz there are things to be done and the bike needs a good clean and service.

Yass to Cootamundra

Another 120 km day with mixed weather - didn't know to have the raincoat on or off. We made the decision to leave Yass and tke the Hume Highway for about 3 km which was not a problem other than the noise. There were two lanes for the traffic and another nice wide shoulder for us. We made it to "Bowning" and discovered a wonderful old railway station now disused and the pub was closed at 9:00 AM on a Sunday morning - there seemed not to be anything else in town then Peter said he may have found a cafe! Well, he had, and what a cafe it turned out to be. It was a replica "slab hut" that the owner's late husband created from their dream pre 2010 before he passed away. It really took my fancy and the ambience and story it has made up for "yesterday's scone" which would have been absolutely magnificent on the day/s past when it was baked! But like I said everything else was superb.

Again we were relatively high up for most of the day travelling through wonderful lush green farmland that is difficult to imagine as being scorched and barren come summer. There certainly is some large scale farming goin on here with one wheat paddock that I saw that was probably 400 or 500 hundred acres.

Peter disturbed a mob/herd/group of kangaroos that then took off across the road and over the fence as they do. Later on he spotted a dead snake and we had a fox run across the road in front of us.

There was quite a bit of climbing  today and by the time we got to Harden at 1:30 we were ready for some lunch. After checking out the main street of this rural town where the only surviving store was the grocers - all else vacant and in a sad state of repair. We then headed up to the golf club that also did meals and today's Sunday Roast was chicken so that's what we sat down and had knowing that we only had 40 km to go.

A good day to have behind us and also it marks our halfway point at six day's riding and about 600 km's travelled.

After Harden there were more undulating hills although we also began to lose some of our elevation so there was more downhill than up and we got in to Coota mundra around 5:00 PM.

The three cups of tea have gone some wat to quenching the thirst!

Canberra to Canberra then to Yass

 We amended our original route after talkng with the guy from the bike shop as he told us of a far more scenic and quietr route. So off we went at 7:30 AM and happily rode through then out of Canbera in the rain and as we were warned that there would be no coffee shops along the way we drtoured before we left Canberra for Peter's coffee. After that it was back on the trail and out of town - I got to see live kangaroos in the wild this time however that experience was spoilt by the magpie that kept swooping on me and they had another go at me a bit later on as well. It was really good that was until we saw the "River Crossing Closed" sign! Bugger. No we had a good hill to climb back up and head back to where we came from some hours earlier! After another Cafe stop where we re-mapped our route to Yass we headed out once again only to find that there was another road closure on tha route due to flooding,

Eventually we left the last suburb of Canberra at about 2:30 PM! 

While iy was raining on and off for most of the day we struck it lucky a couple of times as we were stopped and under shelter when it really bucketed down.

Ou route once we left Canberra had us on the Hiighway mostly and although noisy we were well away from traffic on a good shoulder and at one point for about 5 km we had a brand new section of road just for ourselves.

We srrived here at Yass at about 6:30 PM and having travelled about 55 km's more than we could have had we taken the route directly from Canberra without the flooded crossings!

On our rest day in Canbera we found a bike shop for a bit of servicing and walked and bussed around the city taking in the Paliament Buildings and the War memorial museum - The War memorial museum makes one think quite deeply and emotionally I find and there are over 103,000 names of Austraians on the rememberance wall - everyone - somebody, someone's son or daughter - their lives cut short because of war.

Last night we popped around the corner to "Edgars Inn" for a meak and found quite full however there was a table upstairs for us. Just as we were about to leave a young lady began dancing through the diners and then began to remover her clothes! No we had not taken ourselves to a strip club but to the local suburban pub! Of course it would have been rude of us to up and walk through the middle of the younf ladies choriographed dance routine so we stayed put. Would you believe before we had had sufficient time to sort the bill out low and behold she began a second dance!

Adjacent to our table was a table with four young woman enjoying themselves at the end of their work week and they were  most appreciative of the young ladies dancce routine.

I commented on this to them ano one thing led to another and before you know it they were asking me for my contact details! They were all very fit young things (26) and  amazed at what we were doing and insisted on becoming. Strava frineds! So now I have Larissa, Laura and Emily from Canberra following my rides! How cool is that.