Heading South – a long way south

Florey to Braidwood

Today started with a ride into Canberra after a quick trip to the local bike shop to pick up a link after replacing the one that had bent in my chain with the spare. Having provided the link and a couple of spare back lights the owner of the bike shop seemed most entertained by my Marmite water bottle,telling us he had a marmite cycle top. (So did I until leaving it in a hotel on LEJOG last year).

Unusually our route to the capital was predominantly down hill, we had decided to stop at Parliament House after swinging by the lake in the centre of town to start.

Aside from the feeling you were cycling in the middle of the capital city alongside the main freeways, the fact you were on cycle lanes at least left a feeling of some protection. We arrived at Parliament House having found the tradesmen’s entrance and cycled through the very fine gardens surrounding the building where bizarrely we both got independently swooped by magpies protecting their nest. Gus had warned us of this but a substantial smack around the head from a magpie makes you thankful (again) you are wearing a helmet!

Having parked the bikes in the underground car park we headed up to see the impressive building which was as good as it looked from a distance.

Sadly we didn’t have time to go around the building (sadly) it was time to head out of town and ride off on what was going to be the first of two long hard days out to the coast.

Given that there are not many roads in Aus, everything (I mean everything) uses the few that exist. We set off on one up a long haul hill, which split into 2 after some 30k. we chose the road that was slightly longer but at least afforded the opportunity of a lunch stop.

The climbs were long and with panniers it became harder, despite the fact we had really packed a minimum. It was with a sense of relief we hit the lunch spot at Bungendore, not to be confused with Bangalore which could easily be done as Bombay was relatively close by!by lunch time I was feeling wiped, not being a confirmed cyclist like Jeeves, I was hoping to get through on rowing fitness and a few spin classes. I hadn’t really factored in the endless climbing so I’m afraid to speed us up (make it less painful for Jeeves) when he asked if he could take one of my panniers, instead of my usual response I said yes.

The traffic was consistent meaning we were grateful for a thin but equally consistent hard shoulder. The road surface too made life tougher, gravel and truck potholes where heavy weights had forced the overheated tarmac to ruck up meant you had to pay attention the whole time. Gravel on the hard shoulder also reduced the run on the tyres making everything feel much harder. There were trucks with trailers aplenty, cars, artics, some motorbikes but no bicycles. The air horns on the trucks as they hooted shooting past kept you focussed, there was a consistent trail of roadkill meaning that you frequently had to pull out to avoid a roo’s paw or other bits of animal that had made it to the hard shoulder but not to the ditch to the side. As the climbing continued I amused myself by identifying the remains – what was sad is seeing 2 koalas \wombats along the route. The peak of our climbing was at 850m. After this the weather started closing in, raincould be seen in the distance , the wind was picking up and the temperature dropped meaning the last 40k was a battle. We were tired and the traffic was incessant. For me it was a case of just pedalling onwards, conscious that jeeves was slowing for me. Ironic it was 6k out of our overnight destination that he got a puncture. It’s no fun stopping when it is cold and windy by the side of one of the few roads to the coast. With trucks and cars flying by. I was grateful to be able to start pedalling and head into our overnight stop of Braidwood.

Our final destination that night was The Royal Mail Hotel. Looking at it from the outside it gave the impression it had just been lifted out of a western. However the room was warm and clean and the food served was good. Having turned myself inside out on the bike ride in addition to getting pretty cold whilst waiting on the puncture change, the hot shower was very welcome. It’s not often you see a body battery figure of 1 on Garmin – an early night was definitely called for.