Day 3 & 4

Wednesday November 26th, Day

The alarm wakes me at 5.50am - uhh...

I reluctantly get out of bed and my body feels like it is riddled with rheumatoid arthritis. Everything hurts as I wander through for breakfast with Chris, who is all ready and raring to go!! We leave at 7.15am and head the 45kms to Beechworth - "There's a bit of a hill, but it's nothing!", Chris tells me as we cycle back into Wangaratta and up to Beechworth. It is another beautiful morning, and the countryside is once again fantastic! The 'hill' upto Beechworth is an absolute b*gger. My bike+pannier bags weigh so much that any sort of resistance and I struggle. So hills, headwinds, road surfaces made up of knobbly tarmac and its a battle. All 3 are present this morning, coupled with stifling heat.

Eventually we arrive into Beechworth, a lovely little town perched up in the hills. Famous for its gold in the 19th century and its Chinese community of gold miners, it is also house the local courtrooms, where none other than old Ned Kelly himself appeared several times. More importantly though, it has possibly the best bakery I have EVER been to! Chris and I have a veg pasty and a coffee, before Chris says his goodbyes and cycles back to Wangaratta.



I am extremely grateful for his time and energy both on email in the past month and his hospitality these last couple of days.

I now have 2 options, head onto Hume Weir (65kms) - my destination for tonight's camp, or chill out here for a little while. I decide upon the latter and end up spending a whole 6 hours finally relaxing!! I get a chance to read the papers for the 1st time, but a little disappointed in the weather section:-



Wandering around town, I visit the Burke museum and the old courtrooms, both very interesting, before stumbling upon the bicycle shop, which also doubles up as the "Saw shop". I imagine the saws are for all those people who decide to hire a bike, ride 10 kms out of town (downhill in every direction) and then struggle to cycle back uphill, in the 30 degrees heat, on the knobbly roads... hence upon their eventual return they then need a saw to hack through the wrists to finish themselves off! I may be wrong?... I pop in and purchase a cycle top as I have worn the same base-layer top for 3 days... niiiiice! Wayne, the owner, is a nice guy, likes what I'm doing and gives me $10 to the Claire House fund - good on yer! (as everyone says here).

A quick 'Ned Kelly' pie at 4.30pm and I'm on the road again for the remaining 65kms, all into the breeze, passing through 400kms en route:-



and through dusk:-



...before eventually arriving at Hume Weir at 10pm. The last 90mins are in the pitch black and seem to be in the middle of nowhere. Lighting thunderstorms are visible to the east and the south but I escape. I cook noodles at 11pm, leave them for 2 minutes to finish putting up the tent, only to find 2 possums exploring the contents of the pan. I have no other food, so eat them anyway. Hope they weren't rabid possums?

START: Chris's house, Wangaratta, 7.16am
FINISH: Hume Weir, 10.00pm
DISTANCE:- 111.86 kms
AVERAGE SPEED:- 16.3 km/h
MAXIMUM SPEED:- 61.9 km/h
CYCLING TIME:- 6hrs 49mins 44s

OVERALL DISTANCE:- 426.97 km
OVERALL TIME:- 24hrs 27mins 20s


DAY 4

Another long slog today, kicking off with 98 kms from Hume Weir to Walwa. There are no towns between these 2 places, so I carry lots of water and ration myself to 1 gulp every 2kms. It is another hot, sunny day and the breeze is straight into again! I ride along the undulating road alongside the Murray river, which marks the boundary between Victoria to the south (where I am riding) and New South Wales to the north:-



I stop at 55kms for lunch and collapse into the grass at the side of the road. I feel a short sharp pain in my R calf and realise I have been bitten by something. Agghhh, snakebike??? hmm, no tell tale "double puncture marks", and I'm in the middle of nowhere so there is not much I can do about it anyway. As it happens I am still here now, so I assume it must have been an ant or something!

After 75kms, the sky is changing quicklie from sunny to very dark:-



...and I get caught in an electric thunderstorm for the next 90 minutes. I fear for my life and daren't stop pedalling in case I get hit. I think I read somewhere that the rubber tyres protect you as long as you don't touch the floor??? Anyway, I get soaked, but it is quite refreshing, and for the 2nd time today I 'escape' death!!

I arrive at Walwa, refuel for an hour, and get lots of advice from a couple of guys there on how to deal with the Australian wildlife. "Don't go upsetting a kangaroo, otherwise it'll beat the s*** out of ya"... "if you get bitten by a black, you'll be right, but if it's a brown, then you need to get to the hospital otherwise you'll be dead in 2hrs".... "you're heading upto Thredbo?? on a bike?? that's 70kms of 2nd gear... and that's in the bloody car!". Despite this, I am glad of the conversation, it's the 1st I've had all day:-



I then head another 25kms south to Tintaldra, a small town with a population of 25 and 1 pub! I decide to stop here for the night. Alf, the owner (an ex-Yorkshire man who is delighted to hear my surname!) tells me it's $40 for the night or $10 if I take a caravan. I opt for the the latter (4 quid!) and end up having several 'pots' of Carlton beer and a fanastic steak with the locals (Alf, Al, Greg and Steve). Their business is growing grains/grasses and servicing the machines that they use. I struggle to for the 1st 30 mins with accents and Combine Harvester terminology - but end up having a great night. This is one of the proper Australian experiences that I had hoped for, and despite copping a load of flack for being a Pommie, we have a good laugh, (albeit mainly at my expense!), cheers fellas:-



Another good day!

START:- Hume Weir, 9.30am
FINISH:- Tintaldra, 7.20pm
DISTANCE:- 122.91 kms
AVERAGE SPEED:- 16.6 km/h
MAXIMUM SPEED:- 56.8 km/h
CYCLING TIME:- 7hrs 23mins 52s

TOTAL DISTANCE:- 549.88kms
TOTAL TIME:- 31hrs 51mins 12s