I knew I
had a big day ahead of me, but certainly didn't realise how big!
Blue
skies and gentle breeze welcomed me on my way and soon I was off on the road to
Forth - past pleasant farmlands and rolling hills… The River Forth surged under the bridge -
fringed with snowdrops. Very
pretty! The pub was a bit old looking,
but looked loved. I turned south and
soon I was pedaling through beautiful tall eucalyptus forests - birds singing
and yep, this is what I love about cycle touring. A yellow-tailed cockatoo had me stopping in my tracks!
There were Superb blue wrens and Grey Fantails flittering around. I heard so many sounds that I hadn't heard
before, with no real clue who was making them….
But time ticks along.
I was
stunned by the sight of the Western Tiers, Mt Roland and Mt Vandyke appearing
suddenly when I crested a hill - blam! A
mighty mass of uplifted land! Welcome to
the Wilmott Valley Views! Very nice -
and there in the far distance, was the peak of Cradle Mountain… Yoiks it looked so far away.
Lunch at
Wilmott then the serious climbing
began… the downward swoop into Wilmott
was nice, but I knew I would have make that up and even more… Up until now, I had managed to cycle up all
the highs but now we were in serious steep country with little or no lows at
all, just climbing and more climbing. I
thanked one kindly local couple who stopped to offer me a lift to the top, but
I couldn’t see how Hennie and all the bags and me, would fit into their station
wagon, so I declined their offer - oh how I wished later that I had not!!!
But
riding, walking and huffing and puffing saw me reach the top of climb and there
afterwards it was just up and down - but steep bits to make me get off and
walk. By then I was getting pooped and
then got pissed off when I passed a new Holiday Village, complete with cabins
and camp grounds… I had searched that
whole area on google and there had been no accommodation until Cradle Mt… so I had already booked in for 2 nights
there… so surely I can do another 30kms
- but cranky!!!!
Daylight
saving is a wonderful thing - but soon I had to haul out my spare bike light as
the Fly12 had died… and managed to
attach it to my helmet, but was just shining down onto the road right in front
of my tire… I would need to fix it later
for sure.
I huffed
into the Cradle Mountain visitor centre and eventually tracked down the Visitor
centre and retrieved my cabin key from the safety box and knowing I only had
another 5.5km to go, bravely rode out of the village. With the help of a spotlighting tour, I saw 2
wombats muddling along side of the road and decided that I had better get the
light fixed a bit better, because I wouldn't want to run into one of those!!!
That
sorted, I struggled bravely on… by then
it was pitch dark and starting to very lightly rain - But!! still the road rose and fell and I struggled
bravely on… it was pitch black all
around and so quiet… I heard and saw
nothing on the road. surely I was there
soon, but no sign was to be seen… I
waved down a car and asked if I had missed the turn off and yes I had, but just
1 km back, so aided by his slow driving and bright lights, I found the turn off
and the steep 500m climb up to the cabins.
After a lot more stuffin around, I found my cabin - which was cosy and
warm and bugger the shower - I had a cup of hot soup, some ryvitas and cheese
and I hit the sack… phew!! 90km is a tad further than the 77kms that
Google had promised, but ain't that always the way!!!
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