May 31, 2023
Day 21: Merton to Yea Springs
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We aired things out as best we could in the early morning but the mist was still quite heavy. One last Indian cuppa at the roadhouse and off again. We were keen for another day off to clean up and recover, rain really takes it out of you, there is a tendency to just keep going when the weather is rough, you don't stop to smell the roses. A cabin at Yea caravan Park would have been ideal but the park was closed due to flood damage. I checked out hotel/motel accommodation and came up with a place called Yea Springs. Unfortunately, I'd read the prices wrong which led to an unfortunate misunderstanding when I called the owner. Turns out this place was way above our price range. The owner called me back later, made a slightly better offer and I accepted. It was still a bit of a luxury for us, to be fair, anything that isn't free is a luxury for us. So we had two nights accommodation lined up 10km the other side of Yea.
The trail to Yea continued on as the previous day, stunning scenery and pleasant riding. There are parts of the trail that seem quite remote, it is heavily wooded the whole way but the surface is okay. The day's highlight was the long haul up to the Cheviot Tunnel. It's hard to imagine a steam train making it up there. The top of the hill is cut off by the tunnel which is fun to ride through.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts... This is a video of Annette riding through the Cheviot Tunnel. You'll have to highlight the link and right click to see it until I figure out how to add it properly.
What goes up must come down and the Cheviot tunnel exited into a long downhill. It was great rolling downhill but I left Annette behind, the hill ends at a road where I pulled up to wait, crunch. As soon as I stopped my rear rack and luggage hit the ground. The two bolts holding it to the upper stays had come lose and it pivoted on the bolts near the wheel axle. This looked like a trip ending disaster. I have no idea why it happened just as I stopped and not when I was careering down the hill but I'm glad it was the lesser of two evils. After the initial shock I assessed the situation and realised that no damage appeared to have been done to the bike, rack or panniers. This could have been much worse. One of the bolts was still there but the other had disappeared. I unloaded everything and found a similar bolt that wasn't doing anything too important. In fact I tried a few bolt combinations. Added to this I attached two large, strong zip ties. It didn't look pretty but it did the job until I could fix it properly.
We got to Yea mid afternoon, the people we were renting the place from said that they would stick around until 4.00pm. This seemed ok, just another 10km to go. I went to the local hardware store and managed to get some suitable bolts and some locktite. That done we went to the supermarket and stocked up on supplies. It wouldn't have been much of a rest day with a 20kmround trip to get food. Loading already full panniers with food and luxury items, read beer, is an art form we were getting better at.
After the stress of the breakdown the day had taken its toll, the 10km to the accommodation seemed like a 100. It was just gone 4.00pm when we got there, the owners lived in Shepparton, one and a half hours by freeway, so luckily they were still there. The accommodation really was above our normal standard, better make the most of it.
Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 1,212 km (753 miles)
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