Wednesday 30 Jan 2019
Goodbye Rocky River, it was a pleasure seeing your again after all these years!
For two days I thought these were little water pump huts. Turns out they are dunnies! And fully stocked with toilet paper, lye, brush, broom, air freshener, and one of them even had some incense or something to make it smell really pleasant!
So I got up before dawn again to take full advantage of the cooler morning temperatures. Ten more kms of backtracking to Billyrimba Road and then onto Tenterfield. Alas, no traffic until I almost reached the top of the range. But, actually it wasn’t so bad. Fifteen years ago I wrote that it was steep but rideable, so I feared I would now find it super steep and pushable, but it was still mostly rideable. Just the odd part I had to push up 10-12% grades.
Yesterday I felt exhausted long before I got to my Rocky River campsite, but that was because I’d forgotten to have a smoko snack or anything at all after breakfast. And you just can’t go for 8 hours without fuel, duh! Today I got back to my regular routine of smoko snack and lunch. Way better.
It’s been years since I haven’t shaven for 6 days! Doesn’t look too bad though, does it? I pretty well have a permanent helmet mohawk hair style.
I got to Tenterfield at 13:00 and checked in at the little caravan park behind the United Petrol station. $25 for two nights unpowered and I can borrow a table and chair from their convenience store to be more comfortable under a shady tree. Good on ya mates, thank you! I had a shower and shave (yeah, why? It looked so cool) and went into town to have a coffee and guess what at the bakery. No, you couldn’t guess, it was a blueberry turnover this time, with cream of course. Very good, but I still prefer apple. The coffee was excellent, and since they open at 6:30 that’s where I’m headed tomorrow morning and probably the next day too since I’m taking a rest day tomorrow.
And this is where I’ll have dinner tonight. Buffet breakfast, lunch or dinner for $9.95! The operators are SriLankan and the menu reflects that. Should be good. Also, I couldn’t resist the temptation and fell for a box of DeBortoli tawny port. Mixed with sparkling water it makes a great afternoon drink. You can tell what 6 days of abstinence will do to me! This afternoon, sitting at my table and chair under my shady tree, I’ve just been updating blog entries and such. They aught to be really witty after a couple of those drinks in my system….
Good, so tomorrow a rest day and I probable won’t report on that. I’ll check with the trail coordinators, Cherrie or Paul Jones, to find out how best to continue from here. I did the same detour 15 years ago, but I forget exactly what roads to take. It was a nice route though, if I remember correctly. But it seems that I very often don’t remember so very correctly!
Total 42k 4:40h 1045m+ 625m-