We started out early at 8am with a little trepidation about the hills to come.  The weather was clearing and we made good progress out of town and into the forest.  The trees were spectacular and got better and better the further we biked.  Large old rain forest gums got older and older the deeper into the wilderness we got.  We had the road to ourselves with less than one car per hour which was nice knowing that someone would come along if we needed help.

We originally planned to bike to Martins Creek picnic area which was 46km.  We made good time and the hills seemed easy to bike up.  The previous 500km of cycling has built up our leg muscles and slopes that would have been in bottom gear two weeks ago are now easy in higher gears.

We got to Martins Creek at mid-day, well ahead of expectations.  We revised our days destination to Goongerah, the only settlement between Orbost and Bonang.  We rolled into Goongerah at 3pm and set up tent in the free campground.  Goongerah has a reputation (according to the Orbost Caravan Park manager) of self-sufficient hippies.  It’s beautiful here and it’s easy to see why people would want to live here.

Camping in a non-serviced campground means there is no camp kitchen, lounge etc and therefore no light after dark.  At this time of year that means it will be pitch black at 6pm.  We will cook, clean-up and be in the tent by 6pm.  It won’t be hard dropping off to sleep early after a long and very rewarding days biking.

Highlight of the day: The spectacular trees and the surprising fitness we’ve build up.

Lunch at Martins Creek

Spectacular Trees on the Bonang Highway

Writing the blog at Goongerah

Yesterday we cycled the remaining 41km from Nowa Nowa to Orbost on the rail trail.  The trail was almost entirely through forest and was a great ride.  The day started with great weather but rain threatened by late morning so we put the foot down and cycled fast to Orbost before it rained.

We checked into the Orbost Caravan Park then went about the normal routine of unpacking, showering, walking into town to do grocery shopping, then having a schooner at the local watering hole.

Today we are having a day off for logistical reasons.  We feel we don’t need a rest, but the next section will be tough.  We have to carry food for 4 days and will only get a rest at Delegate in NSW.  So having a rest today means we are setup for the next section.  That decision works well with the weather as today it’s forecast to rain and tomorrow less likely to rain.

Here’s the plan.  We will cycle from Orbost to Delegate in NSW on the Bonang Highway.  It’s remote but not as remote as our original plan of cycling the Barry Way to Jindabyne.  Chatting to the friendly caravan park manager, we gained lots of information about the Bonang Highway.  It’s sealed for most of the way, has no shops, the road will be quiet, and it’s not too steep.  Steepness depends on the mode of transport as most cyclists on the internet say it’s steep.  Google maps app says there is a total rise of 2971m!!

It’s interesting the difference between drivers and cyclists point of view.  When we arrive at a town we are smiling and happy to be there.  People wave and smile at us as we work our way to the local caravan park or café.  Pulling up outside a café we must be interesting as locals comment or chat to us.  We see out-of-town drivers getting out of their hermetically sealed cars looking dazed and tired and they don’t have the same point-of-view of a town as us.  Often the drivers are just passing through doing 100s of km and a town is just a place to refuel.  For us it’s been the destination all morning or all day and we are happy to be there and we interact with the locals.

This will be last post for a few days as there is no mobile coverage until near Delegate.  We will try to write posts each day then upload them when coverage returns so you’ll get a flurry of posts.

Highlight of yesterday:  Cycling on the Rail Trail and beating the rain.

Rail Trail all day!!

Jen looking happy on the Rail Trail

The ‘once’ mighty Snowy River at Orbost.

The planned route up the Bonang Highway.

We were unsure whether to call this day 11 or day 17.  In the end we decided that our trip back to NZ is part of our adventure, so this is Day 17 even though we haven’t biked for nearly a week.

The trip to NZ went well and it was great to see the family gathered for a joyous occasion.  The travel was easy but cumulatively hard as it was 15 hours each way which included a bus, train, airport shuttle then flight.  Flights across the Tasman seem to be at unsociable hours (apparently because landing fees are less early in the morning and late at night).  We arrived in Christchurch at midnight on Friday and left again at 6am on Monday.  This meant we got very little sleep in NZ and were very tired when we got back to Bairnsdale.  We decided we needed Tuesday off and spent the day relaxing, planning, shopping and visiting the art gallery.

Today we set off again on the bikes, a day with 100% rail trail.  We  had the luxury of biking from Bairnsdale to Nowa Nowa on the East Gippsland Rail Trail.  This is the longest rail trail in Victoria and it is superb. The first 10km were sealed then the rest was a nice riding surface. The trail passed through tea tree groves, manicured horse estates, wineries, groomed lifestyle blocks, beautiful farm land then many km of state forest.  We went through tunnels, along impressive raised embankments and saw an amazing trestle bridge.

The Caravan Park in Nowa Nowa is nice and we have the well-equipped facilities to ourselves.  Incidentally, Nowa Nowa means Mingling Waters.  We pondered while biking how the words Nowa Nowa translated into Mingling Waters and decided some artistic license had been taken in the translation, though we are yet to find out.

Tomorrow will be a shortish day on the rail trail to Orbost.  Orbost is the last shop and town for some time as we will be heading inland, up, up, up into the highlands.  It might be the last blog post for a while too as internet connectivity drops out.

Highlight of the day:  Being back on the bikes on a wonderful rail trail.

Starting the rail trail in Bairnsdale

A great trail!!

Biking through tunnels

The fire was a surprise.

Until we found out it was an official burn-off.

Impressive rail bridge.

Impressive rail bridge.

View from Nowa Nowa caravan park.

Camping in Nowa Nowa.

Today was the perfect biking weather. It was warm early, but not too warm. We packed up in Hollands Landing (we now call it ‘My Name is Earl”) and hit the road at 9.30am. As we only had 45km to bike it was leisurely although now our legs are fitter we keep a good pace and motor up hills. The road was rolling and there was very little traffic.

As we approached Bairnsdale we saw the normal signs of a population centre. First we might see the ‘school bus turns here’ sign. The houses get closer together as we transition from farms to lifestyle blocks. Next comes the gun club or aero club and as we get closer traffic increases, golf courses or pony club, and roadside rubbish increases. Most towns we’ve visited then have a cycle trail but Bairnsdale didn’t. We joined the A1 Princess Highway 3km outside Bairnsdale which was busy but had a nice wide verge.

We made it to the Caravan Park and were greeted by friendly staff and a really nice cabin at a great price. After showering and unpacking we took our bikes to the bike shop for a tune-up, went to the train station to get tickets back to Melbourne, then did some groceries. We came back to the cabin and ate, ate and ate, with a beer or two.

We are happy to be in Bairnsdale. Tomorrow is a day off to do laundry and relax then on Friday we catch the 6.05am bus then train to Melbourne. Normally trains travel from Bairnsdale to Melbourne but in what ABC Radio is calling a debacle, Vline discovered the tracks need cleaning and have been waiting for 6 weeks to get a machine from WA and then NSW. So we get a bus that connects with the train in Traralgon.

Highlight of the day: Great weather and Bairnsdale which is nice.

My Name is Earl

Will happy with the apostrophe

Great road to bike on

Mitchell Gardens Caravan Park

Mitchell Gardens Caravan Park

We didn’t want to do a big day from Sale to Bairnsdale so we found a caravan park in Hollands Landing* which is approximately half way between the two cities.  It’s really the only option on the quiet C road.  Tourists probably don’t come to Hollands Landing, fishermen do.  From what we can tell, there is great fishing here in the lake.  We are the ONLY people staying in this Caravan Park. No Grey Nomads, no residents, just us. It’s a bit weird.

Cycling today ranged from dead flat and quite similar to NZ scenery to very Australian gum trees and views.

Tomorrow we will head to Bairnsdale.  We’re looking forward to Bairnsdale as it’s been the destination since we started biking and will be the end of this leg of the trip.  We’re looking forward to popping back to New Zealand and really looking forward to cycling after Bairnsdale.  There are lots of options and we are leaning towards cycling the Bonang Highway.  Plenty of time to research and chat to bike shop staff about possible routes.

Highlight of today: Being a day away from Bairnsdale

*Will is a card carrying member of the Apostrophe Protection Society and he wonders why Hollands Landing doesn’t have an apostrophe.

Lunch at the fire station

Flat

Jen coasting

We had a day off in the city of Sale.  It’s funny that a place is called Sale because as we wonder around it seems like everything is for sale, a bit like visiting a Kathmandu store in New Zealand.

Sale is a small city and is the oldest town in Victoria.  We went for a walk around town, visited the supermarket and had another beer at the Irish bar.  We also visited the city art gallery which was interesting.  It feels more autumnal in Sale as there are lots of deciduous trees which are losing their leaves.

Although the photos of the camping area are empty, there were a lot of Grey Nomads in the Caravan Park.  Grey Nomads are retired, couples with big caravans permanently travelling around Australia.  They are chatty and interested in our trip.

You can click on any of the photos below to see a larger view.

Today we biked from Yarram to the city of Sale.  It is our longest day biking and we cycled on the South Gippsland Highway which is an A road.  We had engineered this day to be on Sunday and  traffic was light to non-existent for much of the day and there was a wide verge which made cycling nice.  We saw kangaroos and lots and lots of gum trees.  There was a straight section which lasted for over 20km but it wasn’t boring riding.

We arrived in Sale at 2pm as we’d made good time biking.  We set up the tent, showered then went for a walk around the CBD.  We did some groceries and then went to an Irish bar where we met a nice Aussie who had just got back from a holiday in NZ to watch the AFL game in Wellington.  He is married to a lady from the Orkney Islands so we chatted about Scotland, AFL, NZ and the cycling coming up.

Highlight of the day:  The distance and the heat lamps in the showers.

Cycling the very straight road

Jen taking a break

Will entering the Gippsland Lakes region

We woke up to another beautiful crystal clear morning in Port Welshpool.  The weather forecast wasn’t so nice with gale winds forecast for the afternoon.  A severe warning was issued by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology for Gippsland and a fire ban was issued for the day due to the high winds.  Obviously it didn’t sound like a good day to bike but we thought we’d get the cycling over before the wind picked up.

We packed up and hit the road and after a little excursion getting lost due to Google Maps taking us down a non-existent road (probably a paper road), we cycled along quiet country roads.  Things conspired against us and Will’s pedal started playing up.  He’s not happy with Racers Edge in Wanaka as the pedal is brand new.

We reached the highway and cycled 16.5km to Alberton then hopped on another lovely rail trail.  It was nice to be off the road as we saw the stupidest driving manoeuvre to date when a truck coming towards us decided to use our lane to overtake cars.  Luckily there was a verge for us to take evasive action but it showed his attitude towards cyclists.

We cycled the short distance from Alberton to Yarram on the rail trail and checked into a nice caravan park.  We like Yarram as it has lots of services though we expect most people don’t stop here as there is nothing in particular to draw tourists.  Cycle tourists have a different view of towns than car tourists.  Yarram reminds us a wee bit of Oamaru though without the limestone buildings.

On the list of things that went wrong yesterday, the camera stopped working and more worryingly Will’s phone misbehaved.  It wouldn’t shut down, some apps wouldn’t work, then sometimes it wouldn’t start up.

Overnight the storm arrived with a little bit of rain and a lot of wind.  It was nice being snug in the tent listening to the storm.  By morning it has mostly cleared although there is still wind and the odd shower.  Luckily we’d planned to two nights here.  That gave us time to find a spare peddle, Will fixed the phone by doing a factory reset, the camera started working by itself, and we celebrated by eating lots of food and lazing around reading.

Staying in Yarram is part of a plan for the next week.  We will bike from Yaram to Sale tomorrow, spend a two nights in Sale getting the bikes serviced, then bike to Bairnsdale via the lakes.  We need to be in Bairnsdale by next Thursday because on Friday we store our bikes and gear and catch the train back to Melbourne and fly back to Christchurch for Jennie’s parents 50 wedding anniversary.  We then fly back to Melbourne on Monday and train back to Bairnsdale and start biking again.  Just popping back to NZ for the weekend.  Bairnsdale is the end of the rail line so there is no point biking any faster.

Highlights: Not having to pack up the tent in the morning, relaxing, reading, and for Will, fixing his phone.

Reading: Jen is reading Robert Long’s “Life on Gorge River” and Will is reading “Back Story”, comedian David Mitchell’s autobiography.

Will in Yarram

After yesterday’s wet day, today was sunny and bright with a clear blue sky.  We packed up slowly in Foster and left at 10am.  On the way out of the caravan park we met a man who has cycled across Australia and around New Zealand.  It was great to chat about cycle touring.  We had a quick look around Foster then cycled along a quiet country road to Toora.  Both Foster and Toora seem like desirable places for downshifters, or sea changers as they are called here.  We had morning tea in a classic old tea shop in Toora and chatted to the Dutch owner (still celebrating the new king) who introduced us to the old ladies and everyone else who came in.  All were amazed at our planned trip.

After Toora we had no choice but to cycle on the South Gippsland Highway (A440) which wasn’t too busy but did have commercial traffic and no verge.  Luckily we only had 10km to bike on the highway to Welshpool, a pretty little town with nice old oak trees.  We then headed 5km to historic Port Welshpool which boasts the third longest wooden jetty in Australia.  We’ve heard claims like this a lot, eg the largest desalination plant in the Southern Hemisphere.  Let’s face it, nobody lives in the Southern Hemisphere, and having the third longest wood jetty is bronze medal claim.

The Long Jetty Caravan Park is the nicest, quietest place we’ve stayed and we have a site with a great view.

Tomorrow we plan another shortish day to Yarram.  The two short days work well as they set us up for a push to Sale over the weekend.

Highlights of the day:  biking along a quiet country road, and a great camp site.

It poured with rain.  We got up at 7am and packed up before it started raining.  We were on the road before 9am and the first 30 minutes were nice but then the clouds started looking very dark.  The first 30km was on C roads which were reasonably quiet but with little verge.  Biking in the pouring rain, we got looks from drivers that ranged from “are you mad” to “good on you, keep it up”.  The family that gave us big waves as we biked up a hill in the rain made us smile and spurred us on.

The second half of the ride was on another rail trail.  The trail past through spectacular forest and was a nice gentle way to make it over a range of hills.  The only downside of the trail was the sand and mud covered everything and gunked up our gears and brakes.

When we got to Foster there was flooding and some cars had water up to their bumpers.  We checked into a cabin as the grass looked very wet and it was still raining.  We’ve spent most of the afternoon washing, drying and cleaning the bikes and gear.  It will be nice to sleep in a bed too.

Today was a very successful test of our gear.  We’ve spent months talking, reviewing and buying gear including new Ground Effect jackets, MacPac over trousers for Jen and new Daddy Longlegs for Will, polypro, beanies etc etc (Dave, remember the first Daddy Longlegs in New Plymouth?).   It all worked well and we were warm and mostly dry.  The key equipment is the Ortlieb panniers which have a roll top and are waterproof.

A plan is coming together for the next few days biking and we are considering heading to Port Welshpool tomorrow and maybe spending 2 nights with a day off.

Highlight: The wave from cars in the pouring rain and the superb rain trail, whoops, rail trail.