Grace & Brad's Bike Ride
Sunday 22/1/2006
Left Melbourne at about 1:30 and headed off along the Hume Hwy. It was hot - damn hot (40). Had a stop for coffee in Benalla. Too hot to go for a walk so didn't stay long. Had a quick look at the rail station. It has changed a lot since I drew it in the early 90's. Arrived in Myrtleford at about 4:30 (about 300 km). After unpacking we headed off and did some shopping before looking for the local pool. We got there just as it was closing for the day. We then drove to Bright for swim in the river. After a beautiful dip we headed back to Myrtleford for dinner. Grace had a hamburger and I had pizza. A very warm evening and the air-conditioner only just taking the edge off it.
Monday 23/1/2006
A bit cooler this morning. Forecast is for 37 in Wangaratta and 41 in Wodonga. Left our motel at 8 and it was a lovely ride to Ovens, then on to Eurobin. Took a few photos on the way. After a rest at Eurobin we headed off to Porepunka where we cooled our feet in a wading pool by the river. The final 7 km to Bright is very pretty. Had morning tea at a coffee shop then back to the river for a swim. Had lunch at a bakery. It was starting to warm up by now. Rode back to Porepunka and had another foot-bath. Getting hotter all the way to Eurobin. Had a rest and refilled our water bottles.
Had many stops on the way back to Ovens. We were looking forward to a cold drink at the Ovens Hotel: but it is shut on Mondays. Rested in the front verandah of the pub and drank the rest of our warm water. It's only 5 km to Myrtleford from there but we had a head-wind, it was hot and we were tired so it seemed a very long 5 km. Back to the motel, got changed and drove to the pool. Back to the motel for a bbq tea. On the news we saw it had been 37 in Myrtleford. No wonder we thought it was hot. 69 km for the day. Saw about 30 other people on the trail.
Tuesday 24/1/2006
The forecast for today is 34. The plan is to ride to Everton and back. It could be a hard ride because it has a couple of decent climbs on it. We headed off at about 8:15 and an hour later we were at the top of the hill at Taylors Gap. A great down hill run to Bowman. The scenery so far has been great as we've mainly been in the bush. Now it opens up to farmland with little shade. Just out of Bowman were a couple of calves that had strayed onto the track. They didn't know what to do with us so one had a few goes at the fence before jumping over it. The other one trotted along in frontof us until he found a wider part to take refuge in. We got to Everton at about 10:15. It was starting to warm up as we started our return about half an our later. We had a slight head-wind and little shade until we got back to Bowman. We met a farmer there repairing the fence where the calves had been earlier. From here was the long climb back to Taylors Gap. Grace powered up the grade and I had to work hard to keep up. From there it was pretty much downhill all the way home to Myrtleford. Saw about 10 other people on the trail. Temp. was about 33. After lunch we drove to Bright to swim in the river. Grace went on the water slide. On the way back we stopped for a lemon squash at the Ovens Hotel. Had tea at the Savoy Club next door. The fisherman's basket was disappointing. Pedalled 54 kilometres today.
Wednesday 25/1/2006
Left the motel at 8:15 and drove to Everton. Unloaded the bikes and then tackled the 16 km climb to Beechworth. It is long and surprisingly steep. The sun was beating down but luckily we were in bushland most of the way so there was dappled shade. We saw an echidna and a wallaby on the way up. About half way up the hill a head-wind sprang up, making a hard task even harder. It took nearly 2 hours to get to the top. We rewarded ourselves at the bakery before having a look around town. The roll back down to Everton took just 40 minutes. We had thought of continuing toTarrawingee but we decided it was too hot and that we had done enough for the day. We saw about 10 other riders on the trail today. 34 km and about 32 degrees. Before heading to Merrijig we explored the future Murray part of the "Murray to Mountains" trail. We had a look at Rutherglen and Wahgunya but it seems the trail will be a while off because the actual rails are still intact.
Total distance pedalled for the trip: 157 kilometres.