Lovely People

April 9, 2024

An Enjoyable Day Meeting Locals

Merriwa to Murrurundi

My cunning plan to follow a country backroad over the Liverpool Range was foiled this morning. The Coulson Creek Rd had been washed out and work crews said that not even cyclists would get through. Plan B swung into action and we headed to Scone.

This unexpected detour turned out to be a good thing because it meant we could call in and have morning tea with ARLP graduate Martin Nixon and his family on their cattle property which was accessible from the road to Scone.

Our good luck meeting lovely people continued into Scone. The ride there was a hard, hilly 67 km, with Owens Gap being especially testing. So we looked for a cafe to rehydrate, and lucked onto the Cafe On Kelly, a social enterprise set up for people with disabilities to gain work experience and other skills. There we met the amazing Jill Hamling and Cassie Fisher who told us the story of the cafe.

From Scone we pushed on hard to reach Murrurundi in about 43 km along the New England Highway. The highway wasn’t our preferred size of road, but there was no other choice. It turned ok as the shoulder was fairly wide.

Tomorrow we’ll try to start early to climb the Murrurundi Range, and reach Tamworth about 90km away.