Braidwood to Huskisson (Huskie)
Today started with a visit to the one thing that Braidwood is best known for, it’s bakery and pie shop. Breakfast pies a whole new concept to us were being served to the Aussie workmen queuing , being European and unsure of the content we went large filled croissants and large pastry followed by large coffee. Ready to face the day we he headed out.
Yesterday had been brutal, no doubt about it. I had gone to sleep wearing everything until I warmed up under the very substantial duvet in a very warm room and had woken in the morning feeling slightly wiped, however when you are on a schedule you have to keep moving and there is no doubt a substantial breakfast revived us both.
Heading out of town we turned off the crazy busy main road that had been with us all of the previous day onto something smaller ( no choice) , heading out to the coast where we needed to be by evening.
Today was meant to be the big one at 120km with climb up through the great dividing range after lunch although we were gaining height through the morning – note to self not to eat too much at what looked like a decent lunchtime pub stop.
We set off and the road was lovely , much quieter although definitely undulating. The countryside was almost West Country hilly but of course the fields were vast, wildlife could be heard in abundance which made a pleasant change from the air horns of trucks as they screamed by.
We were 20k in and the air was warming up when Jeeves got another puncture, on the front again. Fortunately we had a spare tyre with us and another new inner tube, so we went for a full change. Changing tyres in the middle of a very open space in a quiet road means you need to keep your eyes open for any roaming wildlife. My main concern was brown snakes, having been warned about them and their speed. Mission accomplished we headed off. The road kill from the previous day was significantly less on this road at this stage, however we started to see a few more as we rolled on into more wooded areas. My strategy today was not to inhale as we cycled past, so spot it take a last breath and then exhale when it was behind. For some the atone was quite disturbing whereas for those carcasses where they had gone back to nature ie eaten and little flesh remained there was no aroma to speak of.
At 30k conditions suddenly changed and it became a gravel road . This was what we had feared as there was no way of identifying road surface. Trying to stick in tyre tracks resulted in success initially then the inevitable puncture, this time on Jeeves back wheel. by this time also it was warming up. We flagged a passing truck to ask how far the road surface was a gravel track, thinking that this was too difficult for us on touring bikes and we may have to turn back and come up with a plan B, not that there were many options for plan B. Thankfully his reply was that the gravel continued for another couple of k’s only, then became tarmac again.
The combination of 2 punctures had taken time , plus of course jeeves was cycling at a compromised speed although I was doing my best. The hills were a dig in endurance ride which I quite enjoy but he was stronger as you would expect, both on the ups and downs. The latter as he has more body and baggage weight! It was therefore about an hour later than planned we arrived at our lunch stop. A stand alone pub which was clearly a destination meet for locals.
Here we met Ralph. Ralph (a retired financial consultant who had originally lived and worked in Canberra, then moved to Huskie before leaving the business of the coast for a 100 hectare plot on the mountain top), was going our way, dropping his dad, who he has brought out for a lunchtime beer, back at his care home on the coast. Ralph had space in his truck for 1 bike. We were running late and had a good few k’s is to get done before sunset when you absolutely don’t want to be on the road. I loaded my bike (wheels off again) into his truck along with a couple of panniers and we arranged to meet jeeves some 14 k on at a bend in the road – sounds easy, however…..what ended up happening was that I went with Ralph and his dad Carl to his place, did a quick weight train g session in unloading the many Jerry cans of fuel into one of his many outhouses, then sat surveying the view for 10 mins whilst he drove his dad around the estate showing him the latest changes and then with the truck empty we drove back out onto the road in search of Jeeves.
Liberated by the lack of wife Jeeves had decided to push on up the hill and had got much further than Ralph had anticipated. “Does he time trial?” he asked me, “only against himself” I replied.
Thanks to the wonders of WhatsApp, me having an Australian SIM card and jeeves having a flakey Vodafone signal, we managed to catch up on tracking and found him by the side of a bend in the road. Carl, Ralph’s dad who aged 94 had slight dementia seemed to enjoy his day of adventure, Ralph took it all in his stride and could not have been nicer. We loaded bike 2 and headed downhill at speed discussing an array of current topics ranging from defence to renewables. Ralph was very proud, and rightly so, of the fact he was carbon neutral. His wife Di was a diabetes expert who worked with indigenous members of the population both in Aus and Alaska, – again something he was clearly rightly proud of.
At the bottom of the hill Carl was offloaded, as were, we and we said goodbye to Ralph.
We had a mere 10k left to Huskie, along the coast road (no it’s not flat Jeeves), Ralph meantime was going back up to his 100 hectare estate with a great view to have a few beers with the neighbours as it was a beer day.
There and Back: 