Monday 11 Feb 2019

Another 10º start of the day, but by the time I got going it was already a balmy 14º. A nasty surprise was to discover that I must have left my sturdy plastic cutlery in the draining rack at the Armidale camping. Darn!

We’re really in sheep country now. Do the poor creatures look as dry as the grass and the forest behind them?

It was going to be another easy day, just 42k to Walcha along Thunderbolt’s Way, which is a paved road. But, I didn’t make it. I was cruising along just comfortably when about 10k before Walcha I must have ridden over a piece of steel wire which wrapped itself expertly around my rear wheel and instantly tore off my derailleur. My third and final derailleur hanger gone!

I don’t think I have ever in my life had so much bad luck with derailleur hangers! Three hangers, an average of less than a month per hanger. The first one snapped when I went through the grid south of Ravenswood, the second from hitting too many downed trees near Jack’s Hut in the Timbarra Valley, and now this one.

A very nice young woman, a German tourist, stopped and offered to transport me, but we couldn’t even fit my bicycle in her little campervan. Awfully nice of her though. But soon after a plumbing mechanic from Uralla stopped and drove me the rest of the way to Walcha. I’m now in the Walcha Caravan Park, right behind a beautiful camp kitchen.

Malcolm Cook and his son Kenny in Canberra are working hard at finding me a replacement derailleur hanger. Kenny is a bike mechanic, has a hanger in the shop, not quite the same model, but he claims that it will work.

……. To be continued

It wasn’t even 2pm yet and Kenny had managed to find two derailleur hangers, exactly the right kind! He’s mailing them as I write this. Who could wish for anything more perfect. Thank you mates, thank you!