March 10, 2024 to March 12, 2024
Kangaroo Valley
Sunday the 10th of March8
There was a heavy dew last night so the tent was still quite wet when we packed up this morning. We had a big climb ahead of us so we wanted to get away early so we couldn't wait for it to dry.
We were on the bicycles and on the road to Berry at about a quarter past eight, our earliest so far. Given that daylight saving is still in effect is was barely an hour after sunrise. The tree lined road undulated gently through farmlands with little traffic and it was enjoyable cycling.
Berry was the last town with decent shops on our route so we stocked up at the IGA. One of the staff there told me we should also be able to buy limited groceries in Kangaroo Valley so I held back on buying any fruit or vegetables.
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 0 | Link |
We started out of town on the Berry Hill road but we're soon stopped by a guy who warned us off using that route and that we should rather take the Woodhill Mountain road. While in Kiama we had also been told that the Berry Hill road was dangerous for cyclists so we turned back through town and headed up the alternate route.
Two thirds of the way up we came upon some roadworks and the worker manning the single lane traffic would not allow us through on bicycles. We had two options, either turn back to Berry and take the Berry Hill road or hope that a driver in a truck would arrive who could give us a lift through the roadworks. We decided to waIt for a possible lift and after about half an hour the bicycles were on the back of the Rev David Millikan's ute and we were on our way to his house a few hundred meters past the end of the roadworks for a cup of tea. The reverend was an intriguing character in many ways (for example, see https://davidmillikan.wordpress.com/) but he certainly saved our bacon.
After that there was a bit more climbing until we made our way down into Kangaroo Valley. Even though our trajectory was downwards once we had made the summit of the climb there was no shortage of short and unpleasantly steep climbs along the way. It was an easy decision to book into the campground on the outskirts of the village for two nights and enjoy a rest day.
The camp kitchen had no stove, just a few gas BBQs that didn't work very well so I took a ride to the petrol station at the far end of the village to top up on fuel for our MSR stove. The gas canister I bought in Sydney cost four times what I would expect to pay in South Africa so we are saving it for when we can't use the multifuel stove.
Monday the 11th of March
Tomorrow's temperature is expected to hit thirty four degrees so we decided to extend our stay by a day. We're both pretty tired - clearly we aren't as fit as we needed to be - and an extra day's rest will do us good.
We cycled through town later in the morning and were pleased we were having a day off . Kangaroo Valley is a very pretty little village that must be a nice getaway for folks from Canberra and Sydney. The many restaurants and coffee shops and lack of grocery stores suggest they do a good job of lightening the wallets of the visiting city folk .
After a relaxing afternoon doing very little else we were feeling a lot more refreshed by the end of the day.
I had woken up this morning to discover that my self inflating mattress was now a self defalting one. We traced the the problem to the valve so a simple patch isn't going to solve the problem. If I can't fix it I'll have to buy a replacement when we get to Canberra (it seems likely that we will end up there sometime).
Tuesday the 12th of March
I woke up feeling fresh again this morning, despite sleeping on a flat mattress on top of a 6mm thick compressed foam pad. Thank goodness our site was grassed and not stony.
The campground is full of Little Corellas (Cacatua sanguinea) amongst other parrot and cockatoo species. Of course the other comm9n birds are here too. The Corellas make a dreadful racket and seem to spend a lot of the time fighting with one another.
While out photographing birds I managed to lose my cellphone. Because it had fallen out of my pocket and was lying in the hot sun (thirty four degrees here today) it didn't ring when we called the number because it was overheating. It was a tense hour or so in the middle of the day. We have become disturbingly reliant on cellphones and it would created a great number of inconveniences if I hadn't managed to find it.
Tomorrow we head up the escarpment to Moss Vale. Leigh has declared that she is now over the EFI approach and if anyone offers her a lift up the hill she will accept it. I'm no longer so vain as to not do the same.
Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 213 km (132 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 8 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |