Friday 1 March 2019
Lyndhurst was a nice camp, but it is spitting distance from the highway, and boys was it noisy overnight. Lots of trucks going by all night long.
Not as quiet a road as yesterday, but pretty scenery again. Funny enough, I didn’t come by a single apple tree today, just after mentioning that yesterday.
Today is the first day of autumn in Australia. I was informed of this I was having smoko at a cafe. I didn’t believe it at first, but after discussing it with some of the locals and verifying it on Google, I reckon it is really so. The rest of the world uses equinox as their date, but Australia is a little bit different, bless their hearts.
On my way to Canowindra today, my front tire felt bumpier and wobblier than yesterday and I felt I couldn’t really trust it to last me to Canberra. Max, a bloke I met at the cafe, went to check at home if he had a spare, but no, and he then put me in touch with Don Percival, who although he does not operate a real bike shop, has a fair bit of stuff in his shed and was able to find me a replacement tire. Great, that saved me a hitch hike into Cowra or Orange!
Now, this is the second WTB Velociraptor tire that had failed me! The rear one failed when I almost got to Biloela, and this one with almost 4,000 kms on it but still lots of tread left and only 3½ months old is failing totally prematurely also. What’s going on WTB?
As I was trying to put my new tire on I somehow managed to totally wreck my spare tube. Regular steel bead tires are sort of tight on my rims and I need my tire lifters to put them on, and I somehow pinched the tube in the process. So I called Don and he came and delivered a new tube to me and helped putting it on. What a guy!
I initially checked out the caravan park, but $23 for a tent site far away from any picnic table and nothing much else to offer I found rather poor value. So I then went to the showgrounds where for $10 I was able to set up under a roof again, with benches all around and nice toilets and showers. That’s more like it!
Canowindra is known for the abundance of fish fossils that have been and continue to be found here. This used to be a shallow sea or lake that dried up in a long drought (yes, 350 million years they had those too!) and fish fossils have been found in great concentrations. There is a very nice museum that explains it all. I was automatically charged the “concession fee” so I reckon I look like a proper old fart now! Well, I am 65+ …….
After the museum it was high time for a cold one so I went to the Canowindra Hotel where they had a new one on tap which I haven’t seen anywhere yet: Kosciuszko Pale Ale. “Buy three and get a free cap”, but the barkeeper said I only had to buy two, just because I pronounced it correctly, I think. It is made by Tooheys, hardly a craft brewery, but pleasant suds nevertheless. I’ll be back tonight for tea, since they have beef stroganoff on for just $10. I cannot afford to cook my dry kibble for that price!
Other than mechanical failure a fine day again.
Totals 46k 3:00 465m+ 805m-
(I’m now at or just below 300m!)