Sunday 3 Feb 2019

There was only one other couple camping at Mann River last night, Ally and Henrik. People, families, came and went, obviously just for a swim and not even for a picnic. A+H invited me over for tea this morning and we had a nice visit. They have travelled extensively in South America, Patagonia, which is where they met, and they are now touring around Australia, Ally’s home country, in their converted school bus. And what a superb job they’ve done at renovating and upgrading their bus! It has all the conveniences of a small house.

So it was a little slower than usual departure. I just followed the Old Grafton Road down to Dalmorton. For following rivers downstream it started with a substantial amount of uphill initially, but then it mellowed considerably. Newton Boyd school isn’t much anymore. It is a camping site, but it was too early and not appealing enough so I continued on. I came by Broadmeadows Station, where I spent a number of days last time I rode through here but the then owners sold it years ago and I did not stop by this time.

Just before Dalmorton there is the hand hewn tunnel. I would have expected some tourist information about it by now, but there wasn’t anything. Dalmorton isn’t much any longer. It used to be a gold mining area with 3,000 people, 4 taverns, banks, post office, but their glory did last very long and once the Gwydir Highway was built the town of Dalmorton essentially died. But there was an old grape vine growing against one of the old delapidated houses and I had a good feed of nice ripe grapes!

At Dalmorton I turned onto the Chaelundi Forest Road and there is a nice wild camping area right by the bridge over the Boyd River. There is one other couple camping there and while he and I were having a beautiful soak in the river under the bridge he invited me over for tea this evening. It sounds a lot more appealing than my dry kibble, so I gratefully accepted.

I had a wonderful evening together with Pat and Kathy. Dinner was a mixed grill of pork chops and chicken with potato, sweet potato and pasta salad, and beer and wine that kept flowing. Delicious. P+K are from Yamba and Kathy knows Lisa Brown from tennis! I’ll have to call Lisa and Allan when I get to Ebor or Armidale, just to say hello. P+K are going to BC in May, but it isn’t likely they’ll get to Osoyoos. Too bad, I would love to treat them back.

Tomorrow the long, long ride up the range towards Ebor through Chaelundi National Park, although I’ll only make it about ½way.

Total 60k 5:05h 755m+ 950m-