It's a cool, clear, perfect, windless Canberra spring morning and I am ready to roll. I got back from Indonesia late yesterday from a work trip where I did very little exercise, went to lots of meetings and ate way too much nasi goreng.
Today will be interesting to see how much residual fitness there is. We are aiming to ride about 114 km, but we might pull up early if our fitness is wanting.
My co-rider John is on the way to meet me and another friend is going to ride with us for part of the day.
We could look a bit like this in an hour or so..
This could be John, Alex and me at the beginning of today's ride. Except Alex will be on his recumbent.
Today's ride reminded me that the scent of the countryside is one of the pleasures and discomforts of cycle-touring. Being early spring, the air was warm enough to carry whiffs of canola blossum, wattle flowers, pleasant farm smells and a pervasive fresh grass odour. The downside was the occasional stench of road kill. Roos mainly. Boy were they pungent. On balance, the pleasant smells of spring outweighed the nasties on today's ride.
We set off from central Canberra at about 8.30 am and arrived in Boorowa, about 120 km away, at about 4.30 pm.
This was a reasonably hard ride for a first day and we were well ready to stop. Along the way we rode on an urban cycle-way, then a minor but very busy highway, then for a few, noisy kilometres on Highway 1 then onto the pleasant Lachlan Valley Way. It has lots of traffic but a decent road shoulder most of the way to Boorowa.
Boorowa is a small country town which, like all the area we cycled through today, has a history of wealth based on the wool industry. Up until the early 1990's Australia was still riding on the sheeps' back. That is, wool production was an economic mainstay. Then we fell off the sheeps' back as the market collapsed few decades ago. Country towns like Boorowa suffered the consequences. Twenty years ago it was looking very rundown.
Now Boorowa appears to benefitting from a resurgence in fortunes. It a lovely town.
A few pics of today's ride:
Loaded and ready ready to roll. Only 700 km to go.
Being rugged outdoor types, we honed in on this garden cafe in Murrumbateman. It was the first of many similar coffee stops over the next 6 days.It's rough out here in the wilderness.
I could tell from the look of steely determination on John's face that we were going to do well over 100 km on day 1.Here he is powering along the Barton Highway.
Exiting Yass across the Yass River. Note the rail bridge. Yass rail station is on the main Sydney to Melbourne line, but it is about 10 km out of town. This spur line is unused.
A finely restored Holden car in Yass.Holdens were Australia's first home brand manufactured car. Started in the late 1940's and the era is about to end with the closing down of the factory near Melbourne.
Boorowa was our destination for the day. About 114 km from Canberra and we were ready to stop.Note the signature tourism event for Boorowa. It is next weekend.
Our accommodation for night 1. Single rooms in Australian country pubs are a good option for cycle-tourists. Prices range from $40-$80 depending on location and quality.It is a short, fast but comfortable tour.We were carrying tents for this tour but were only intending them for emergency use. Emergencies like not finding pub accommodation.
