The day for me started at 6.00 am ….a good night of sleep despite being on a mattress on the floor.
After breakfast we packed the ute and were ready to leave at 8.30 am only to find that Phil had a flat tyre! Phil is quite efficient at changing tubes we were away half an hour later.
Steve was the designated driver for the morning and his main task was to travel to Tongala to pick our lunch and morning tea!
The rage today was completely on back roads with no towns so we were to have snacks and lunch on the road.
The weather was quite cool to start off the ride but warmed to a pleasant 22 degrees throughout the day. The breeze was behind us for most of the day. The road surface was mainly gravel with some very poor surfaces as we approached Shepparton… more on this later!
We traveled for about 15 kms then Ellio had a puncture… courtesy of the rough road surface. After repairing the tyre we were on our was to morning tea at the 20 km point. The Billy was boiled for coffee and Steve’s cakes provided a welcome break!
After this it was on to the 35 km half way point with a break for lunch. Once again we enjoyed a bread tool an drink courtesy of Steve’s earlier shopping at Tongala.
At lunch Ellio noticed a bulge on his tyre which on further investigation showed a split in the tyre.. Ooops this meant Ellio was the driver for the afternoon so he could make his way to a bike shop In Shepparton.
After lunch it was back on the bikes to Shepparton.
At this point I should give you some idea of the country we travelled through…
As we are in the Goulburn Valley we are in very much irrigation country. Whilst we saw some dairy cattle it seems that this has given way to wheat cropping. Sad to see a lot of the dairy farming equipment being idle !
Closer to Shepparton we passed through large fruit orchards of all types of fruit.
I am guessing that this will be a given of activity when the fruit is ready to be picked.
As we got closer to Shepparton we finally made it on to some paved bitumen…. Great after the gravel roads!
Then we took a turn off at Cemetery Road…. Well this reminded us all of the great Telegraph Road we travelled on some years ago!
Yes it started with a reasonable surface which deteriorated quickly into a severe rough road only for for mountain bikes. On several occasions my Garmin gave me an idea with turns that it might end,,,, but to no avail!
Finally near the end the surface was so bad I stopped in a mud puddle and could not get my feet out of the cleats!! Yes I fell over!
Fortunately no damage other than my ego !
After this we made our way into Shepparton to meet Ellio at a milk bar for a coffee break. I enjoyed a lovely strawberry milkshake to settle the nerves.
After this it was on to the motel to freshen up .
Today was a good day of riding with the challenge of gravel roads and some really rough surfaces.
Tonight we have dinner at the Shepparton Club which should be interesting.
The pictures today:
Ready to start the day
Some dairy cattle… they seemed interested in us!
Morning tea…. The Billy is on the boil!
Ellio’s tyre looks bad!
Tucking into lunch!
Fruit orchard
I will send through a few more pics….
