Saturday 23 Feb 2019

First part of the route was fine, a smaller road to and beyond Kandos, where I stopped for an early coffee break. Then the road joined the Castlereagh Highway, which was busy and very unpleasant. In addition it was a long climb up Cherry Tree Hill at 1100m with a stiff head wind and drizzly rain off and on and only 20º, although it felt like even less.

When the highway started to descend on the other side I was ready for a break and I could hardly believe it when there was this sign “Cafe in 500m”. What perfect timing for coffee and scones, and they were possibly the best scones I’ve had, with three different kinds of jam and lots of nice thick whipping cream. Just the fuel I needed. There was a group of four people at the next table that were all very interested in my mode of travel. Lots of fun comments.

From here on it was mostly downhill and reasonably level all the way to Capertee which has a nice old hotel dating back to 1840 and a rest area a couple of hundred meters further down the road. There are toilets, tables and rainwater tanks, but no showers. But a big plus is the great playground right next to my table and tent!

So I paid $5 for a shower at the hotel, which even included a real towel — still preferable over my super light travel towel. Then some brewskies while sitting in the comfortable seats in the library section of the pub, blogging and reading a book. It’s not particularly pleasant outside and this is just the perfect place to hang out. Dinner will be served at 6pm.

Today’s totals 54k 4:15h 840m+ 660m-