Coddiwomple

Junee to Cootamundra 68km To all of those following this blog from countries outside of the British Commonwealth, apologies in advance.  Many Cricket references will be made.  But before we rest here in the birth place of the late, great Sir Donald Bradman.  We had to get here first.  And the weather, she wasn't with us.   When, I ask you people, does the wind ever come from the East?  Seriously, the last time we had weather from the East in South Australia, the storms took out the entire state's electricity grid, and everyone had an unscheduled camping holiday at home.  While they tried to figure out how to fix it, it took three days to get the lights back on and bloody Scomo blamed renewable energy. So, as I was saying, wind from the east, it's just not cricket.  However, since we were heading east, of course that's where the wind came from.  The best I can say is at least it keeps the flies off.  Also, we added an extra 20km to t...

Wagga Wagga - Junee  42km Today provides more proof that we are small town people. While in Wagga, we feel a bit out of place and awkwardly try to be friendly with the space around us. But rolling into a country town, where the bad smell of a sheep abbatoir hits you at the town welcome sign, we are just fine and feel relaxed. But before we get to Junee, we decide to give Wagga Wagga another chance and check out the Art Gallery. Cultural hour at the Art Gallery Once inside we are quickly absorbed in the often curious world of the arts. Titled 'One does nothing alone' is an exhibition of artworks from April Glaser - Hinder, who now lives in nearby Cootamundra NSW. My Swiss mind is fascinated by the geometric and well organised looking pieces and soon we find out that this visual artist lived and worked in Switzerland and Germany for a while.    April Glaser -Hinder exhibition But our favourite piece of art is one of her poems -  Poem: Waiting for you in Sun Yellow ...

Holbrook to Wagga Wagga 87km (+4km for pizza and beer) Today would not have been the day it was without the kindness of strangers.  We were quite apprehensive about todays plan, with the longest distance yet attempted and the weather forecasting lots of rain.  However, last night we were rescued from our pessimism by a group of strangers also staying at the Holbrook Motor Village.  We were treated as guests at their table, poured a very generous glass of wine, and shared in conversation and music.  Three couples who didn't know us at all but made us feel right at home. So on waking this morning, we were well nourished in both food and positivity.  And rolled out of early morning Holbrook with strong legs and big smiles.  The kilometres went quickly past, my ear worm for today was Waltzing Matilda, triggered after we passed Billabong Creek.  Kerstin got to enjoy a live rendition, despite my inability to remember the first line of the third verse. Which ...

Bowna - Holbrook  53km Google Maps promised us a 'mostly flat' route to today's destination. We ponder the definition of 'mostly flat' as we slowly pedal the rolling hills towards Holbrook. Probably some kind of algorithm. But once we got the hairy and very brief stint on the Hume Highway out of the way and turn into Mountain Creek Road, we find ourselves in cycling backroads heaven. And some flat stretches, too.  Rolling along with ease. We notice the change in the flora around us, different shades of green and blue, but the sight of a Wedge Tail eagle is still as breathtaking as ever. We have the road almost to ourselves and if there is the odd car passing, it always comes with a friendly wave and a big smile. We pass numerous cattle properties, big hay sheds and sheep paddocks,  always accompanied by the screeching sounds of the cockatoos. I always get a bit of a thrill when we ride into places that are mainly associated with motorised vehicles. And Holbrook is c...

Tallangatta to Bowna, via the Wymah punt, 59km Tallangatta, definitely on the short list of Louise and Kerstin's places to visit again!  Regardless, when the alarm went off at 0600 this morning we were up and on the move,  rolling out of town by 0720.  All in the knowing that the forecast was for high humidity, 33C and the chance of a late afternoon thunderstorm.   Also there were 60 hilly kilometres, a river and a border between us and our destination.  It seemed prudent to ride as far as possible in the cooler morning.    The back roads were quiet, the views over Lake Hume amazing, and the random roadside fruit trees keep on delivering, today was all peaches and figs.  As we climbed so did the humidity.  We definitely rode the first big hill in the right direction, the descent was crazy steep.  Kerstin took her hands off the brakes for the last 500m and hit 55km/hr no problem.   The Wymah Punt, which started operation so...

Mongans Bridge - Tallangatta 52km Today's title is the slogan of the Towong Shire in which the lovely town Tallangatta is situated. It's a matching motto for a lot of things that happened today. The town goes straight to the top of our favourite small town ranking. From the moment we rolled into the township, we just liked it. Sometimes these feelings are difficult to explain and I am sure there is also an element of 'at the right time in the right place' playing into it. The welcome couldn't have been better. From the rail trail (The High Country) we spotted the sprinklers going at the flash footy oval... best sprinklers ever! Wet bike shirt competition on the oval But before we keep raving about all the good things in Tallangatta, we need you to meet Eric. Eric is the caretaker of the Mongans Bridge Caravan Park, a relict from the good old days of caravan parks. Eric falls into the category of "it takes all kinds of people" to and then dot dot dot. He wa...

Wild camp site outside Bright to Mongans Bridge 42kms Who remembers those inspirational posters from the nineties, black background, photo of an eagle or a dolphin or some dude bungee jumping, paired with some twee saying.  We didn't know it at the time, but those were the precursor to the meme.   And 'to triumph without risk is to conquer without glory' has been on repeat in my head all day.   A quote directly from one of those posters,  I think it had a hang glider as the aspirational image.  We risked a wild camping spot, hoping for quiet.  But the moment we laid our heads down, the local feral bucks began their mating calls.  If you've never heard it,  I don't know what to say except imagine an eerie screeching bellow, with plenty of stomping.  After such an excellent night's sleep,  I was super glad for a breakfast of foraged fruits and museli, yum! We were keen to start pedalling, as it was chilly and damp.   Ho...

Myrtleford - Bright - Tawonga Gap Road (bush camp)  44km After waking up, we do a quick round robin of the various sound effects that impacted our sleep, from a family party that lasted until midnight, crying children at o'dark hundred, to the town rubbish bin collection. And I thought that the campsite right behind the baseline of court 3 of the Myrtleford Lawn Tennis Club would have me dreaming of Ash Barty winning another Wimbledon title... a bit of "quiet please" would have helped.  No 'quiet please' at this campsite Cycling together can occasionally be a prickly affair. And being on two individual bikes,  you are hardly ever in perfect sync. Different mindsets and different physical experiences can lead to misinterpretation. On one day 33km can be a ride in the park, on another day it can feel like a slog. Communication is key and so is reading between between the pedal strokes. So when we both realise that for the next days we are adding a whole other meanin...

Kergunyah to Myrtleford 57km Colour me pleasantly surprised, last night's choir were all off to bed by 2200.  So I actually felt bad when our alarm broke the sunday morning quiet at 0600.  But we wanted to be up and riding with the birds, in the cool and damp of the first few hours of daylight.  This does not mean we skipped breakfast (heaven forbid).  However the campground was sadly lacking in any kind of facilities, so we just used the laundry/storeroom as our breakfast nook.  The resident frog was not amused, and hid behind the washing machine. The first 10kms were glorious, cool and quiet, shared only with the birds and the bucolic countryside.  This is dairy country, and cows are an ever curious audience, pausing their day to watch us go by.  The hills introduced themselves just as the day warmed up.  With an 18km climb ahead that I was not looking forward to.  Kerstin was very kind when I miss read the map, and added another 4km to our...

Day 12  Leneva - Wodonga - Kergunyah 62km Tonight the ambience light in our tent went out at 9:30pm. Just when our neighbours started singing to Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline"... it wasn't pretty but kind of matching. I thought, if Caroline was a bike ride, she sure was a sweet one today. And much better than next door's singing!  But let's start at the beginning. With plenty of soulfood and good memories on board we hopped back onto the saddle just as the sun started smiling at us. The aim was to beat the busy Saturday morning traffic in and around Wodonga before finding some calm riding on the High Country Rail Trail. Wodonga seemed like a fancy number of a town and they love their roundabouts there. We tried to remember at which one we had to turn right but there are so many that we missed the turn and had to backtrack to eventually hit the trail.  The little detour expanded Louise's foraging portfolio - with figs! Second breakfast The High Country Rai...

Levena 0km Our first 0km, genuine rest day.  Brought to you by some lovely family of ours and their absolutely gorgeous property.  Stewart and Dao, and their (almost 10yo) kids welcomed us with the gift of time together, excellent home cooked Thai food and great conversation.   At night we sat out on the deck and watched the full moon rise over the range, and in the morning, we watched the sun do the same thing.   We of course took the opportunity to rest and relax, but also undertook some all important repairs.  The bikes both got a clean and lube, and our little green house was repaired with the always amazing Gorilla tape.  She's looking much more weather proof now! We closed the day with a highlight, a Thai banquet, Australian wine and four generations sitting around the table!  Nan is an absolute cracker.  When I was growing up my elders  always said they had taken the best bits of Australian and Italian culture and mixed them ...

Beechworth - Levena  33km Today's distance looked pretty harmless as a number on paper. We could have had it even more casual by taking the most direct route from Beechworth to Yackandandah and adding a few hilly kilometres at the end to reach Louise's cousin's stunning countryside property. But Louise's elaborate mapping research to find the perfect cycling route deserved all our pedalling capabilities. And it promised some off-road riding. Look, I love maps. And the map we have been using to guide us through this beautiful region of Victoria has served us well so far and has taken us to the right places. But we may have been a little ignorant to an important detail. Can you see it? Right! It has a fancy 4WD vehicle on the cover and it promotes 'detailed 4WD tracks'. And that's where the devil sits... it's for cars and not for bicycles! So when I realised where Louise's in-depth route planning is taking us, it was kind of too late.  The first obstac...

Around Beechworth 9km Today we were proper tourists, Kerstin even wore a bum bag!  We kicked off with a walking history tour of Beechworth, I'm happy to report that we lowered the average age of the tour group quite significantly.  This is such an excellent way to take in history, no dry facts, just great story telling from a local history buff, all while surrounded by the buildings and places that saw these events happen.  My highlight was standing under the one tree that survived the Beechworth gold rush.  A massive crone of an Apple Box, standing for at least 400yrs. Then, true indulgence, our first coffee shop coffee so far.  I'm totally impressed we made it more than a week.  The indulgences kept on coming with a trip to Billson's, est 1865, makers of some very fine traditional cordials.  Another tasting was obviously had, with flavours such as mint julep, heritage cola, portello and a warm spiced apple.  For me, I couldn't go past the Raspbe...