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.
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