Hey all,
Remembered this morning that I never really ‘concluded’ this ride with a ride report. First of all, thanks for the help I got preceding this ride - not only in this thread, but all the touring threads re gear and stuff.
This ride probably stands as one of the hardest things i’ve done on a bike. The riding itself wasn’t too bad after the Brindabellas, but the cold, the camping outdoors and the mental state I found myself in (not talking to almost anyone for three days) all contributed to making it quite an endeavour. It’s funny to think that I went from starting to riding road bikes two years ago, and was still riding only BMX three years ago, to riding and camping over three days - but its a natural transition I suppose. My parents (and others) didn’t quite understand why I was doing it.
Edit: Sorry if a bit of this becomes a bit drivel-y, I started writing and I realised that I remembered, and internalised a lot more than I imagined!
Anyway - Day 1 - Canberra to Tumut via Brindabella Road. 135km.
I knew when I started planning the ride that this would be a hard day, but I was determined to do it anyway. It would be the most climbing i’ve ever done solo in a day, on the heaviest bike i’d ever ridden. Being the middle of winter, I expected some ice on the roads up there, at the very least.
I woke up on the day to overcast skies, with the weather report (that i’d been trying to ignore) predicting showers all day. I cooked up a big breakfast and packed the last few things onto my bike and set off to work for a coffee with my girlfriend and to pick up a loaf of bread and the best (peanut butter and peanut) brownies ever. I was somehow already an hour late by this point, and I realised that my nerves were beginning to get the better of me. Three or four time wasting coffees later, I packed my final things, which included a hot water bottle from my very thoughtful girlfriend (best decision ever), and set off from Lyons, two hours late.
Part of me really didn’t want to do the ride by this point. It was raining, my bike was a lot heavier than I expected, and it didn’t look like the weather was going to clear up at all. I kept debating with myself all the way down to the Cotter, over Mt McDonald and onto Brindabella Rd. The only cyclist I would see for the whole trip passed me and sort of chuckled in disbelief when I told him what I was up to. I stopped on Brindabella Rd for a brownie and a banana and had a bit of an internal debate and somehow decided that going on to Tumut was going to be easier than climbing back out of the Cotter or Uriarra Rd (go figure) so I kept going… quite slowly.
I should mention that I tried to get a bit of a crew out to do the first part of the ride with me, but everyone had prior engagements. The one friend that almost made it had to pull out the week before and ended up riding to Tumut a few days before and did some scouting for me. He did forget to tell me though that he’d gotten a lift to Brindabella Rd from Canberra. In hindsight I probably should’ve done the same. The first 30km or so out of town were quite draining.
Once I hit the dirt, I got some energy back, simply because #stoke. The rain stopped for a bit and I got some energy back and started rolling a bit faster.
Then the climbing started.
I knew it was probably going to snow, but I wasn’t prepared for it to start snowing as soon as I hit 1100m. Almost on the dot, it started lightly snowing. A bunch of cars passed me, a lot of them just people driving up to see the snow and driving back, and they all waved excitedly. One kid especially was super excited, and for some reason made me feel good.
Riding on the ice/snow was one of the coolest things i’ve done. It could’ve gone a lot worse if it was any deeper, but it was just right. I think the slightly heavier bike helped, and I didn’t slip or anything. It was quite exciting to finally peak the first climb and ride along the side of the mountains for a bit.
I cracked the biggest smile ever when I came out into this view down to the valley. I think I even shouted “FUCK YES” into the wind. It was the first bit of blue sky i’d seen all day and I knew a good descent was coming, and I finally knew that i’d made the right decision coming out here.
The descent down to the valley was amazingly long, and very welcome. I hit one bump a bit too hard and got a flat, but was back on the road rather quickly.
Stopped down at the river for a quick (not really) lunch of spicy two minute noodles and eggs. I knew there was another climb coming pretty soon. And it was very soon. This part was perhaps what made it the hardest ride i’ve ever done. Somehow I don’t remember much from it. I don’t think I really bonked, but I think I was feeling so down mentally that I managed to erase it all from my mind. It should probably be said that not long after I crossed the border into NSW State Forests the road turned to shit. I don’t have many photos from this point onwards to Tumut - it was roughly 60km. The light rain started again, and the dirt turned to mud quickly. I guess it had been raining all day out here. I don’t even remember if there was a good descent after the big climb.
By around 4:30, with 50km to go, I knew there was no way I was getting to Tumut in daylight. I’d just spend two hours riding through mud, mostly in the rain and I was exasperated. I put my lights on and started binge eating chocolate. Someone stopped and offered me a lift into town, and said they’d been following my tracks for a while. He assured me Tumut wasn’t too far away and that I was going to hit sealed road soon. Really nice bloke, when I said I owed it to myself to finish, he wouldn’t stop saying ‘good on ya.’ I think he was a bit confused by the brown guy on a bike in some NSW State Forest.
Finally hit the sealed road, in the dark, and knew I had 40km before Tumut. Figuring i’d get there just as the caravan park was closing at 7, I called them and they nicely agreed to leave me a key and have me pay the next day.
The ride into Tumut was incredibly dark. I think I ate 4 chocolate bars in that time. Got overtaken by a bunch of logging trucks, which was scary as shit. At one point I hit this super long descent which I went down incredibly fast. I realised how lucky I was afterwards to not have hit any kangaroos - I had two run ins with some right after. The lights of Tumut were amazing. I got to the caravan park, set up camp, had a long hot shower and went and got takeaway KFC rather than cooking. Getting to bed was incredible, and I had a great night’s sleep thanks to the hot water bottle and just being exhausted in general.
Day 2 - Tumut to Coolamon. 130km.
I conveniently forgot that it was -7c in Tumut that night, and got up to ice everywhere. The cold made it incredibly hard to get moving, and I screwed around making a huge breakfast and having about 5 coffees before I got on the road.
It was, however a beautiful day and I got back on the road around 10am wearing shorts and only my long sleeve jersey. In the back of my mind I knew I was running rather late again - the caravan park in Coolamon closed at 5:30 and I probably wasn’t going to clock 130km in 7 hours. That kickstarted what became the most difficult part of the trip - racing time, and hating myself for not going faster. I kept looking down at my Garmin every 30 seconds to see if I was sitting on the 25kph that I wanted to be on, to see what climbs were coming up, how much time I had to finish etc.
Getting to Gundagai (the last decent sized town before Junee, and then Coolamon) was strange. I’d stopped off there a bunch of times on the way to Melbourne, so it was just plain weird to be there on my bike. The three climbs over 35km really took me out for some reason, and I stopped at Hungry Jacks for some chips and a coke. I called dad to tell him where I was (it’s his first toilet break on the drive to Melbourne) and he didn’t really believe me.
I don’t really have any photos from here onwards. I started to sway a bit and became convinced that I was being too slow and that I had no time for anything except riding faster. It was a weird, and gross mindset to be in. I wish i’d stopped a bit more and eaten the delicious food i’d carried all the way (fresh bread, cheese, jam, etc).
At around 2pm, about 30km out of Junee and 60km from Coolamon, I finally stopped for lunch. The constant debate with myself was becoming too much, and not talking to anyone was getting to me. I sat down by the side of the road and had an excellent lunch of Jalsberg, then jam sandwiches. I threw out half my loaf of bread because I knew I wouldn’t get through it and it was unnecessary weight. I began toying with the idea of staying in Junee rather than spending another afternoon in the dark before setting up camp. Some lovely people driving into Junee stopped and had a chat, and also told me that I should just stay there that night, and that there were two decent climbs coming up. So I called the Junee Caravan Park and told them I was coming.
That last 30km was really nice. The climbs weren’t too bad, and it was good to know I would be getting to camp during daylight. Junee was a nice town, and the lady at the caravan park was super lovely. She was impressed at where i’d come from, and gave me a huge discount on the fee and picked me a nice spot to pitch my tent.
The thing I wanted most before I left on the ride was to get to the town I was heading to and going straight to the pub. But both nights I had no energy left. In Junee I just set up camp, cooked a huge dinner, had my third coke for the day (I never drink Coke, so that was strange) and got into my sleeping bag at about 6 with a gigantic cup of tea. I called some people for a chat and read a bit and promptly fell asleep. It was another -3 night but the hot water bottle (omg yes!!!) was again, the best thing ever.
Day 3 - Junee to Leeton. 130km (after calling it short the previous day).
I did a lot of faffing around in the mornings on this trip. As much as I didn’t want to admit it to myself, I think I just didn’t really want to get back on the road yet. It was another beautiful day though, and I managed to get on the road at 8am (an hour later than ideal).
The plan today was to head to Leeton and run into my girlfriend who was driving from Canberra at some point, and get a lift from her to the end if I wasn’t feeling too good. I rode out of Junee in pretty good spirits, waved at some nice people and hit a dirt road. #stoke levels went up again but the dirt road didn’t last long. Soon enough I was crossing the Olympic (I think) Highway and onto sealed road onto Coolamon and then Leeton.
I was keen on the flatness out here for a while, and was pretty amazed at the never ending farmland, but it all became pretty boring after a while, and I found myself glancing down at my Garmin every few minutes again. I’d put it away out of frustration the last couple of days.
An hour or so in, a car pulled over in front of me and a head poked out the window. I’d totally forgotten Sabrina was somewhere on the road, and it was great to see her. We chatted for a bit about what my plans were. Her uncle in Leeton was expecting us for lunch and it was already almost 10, but I said i’d like to keep going for a bit. And so off she drove, not before taking a #foreverbuttphotos of me as I headed off.
I didn’t quite realise in the build up to this how boring the roads between towns would be. I was looking forward to visiting the country towns (I love the country), but the endless farmland soon got the better of me. I thought I had a slow leak on my back wheel and stopped to pump it up a few times, because I didn’t have the energy to take the wheel off and change a tube. I started playing mind games with myself and soon enough, I called Sabrina to come back and pick me up. Figured I had nothing to prove at this point, and I just really couldn’t be bothered fixing a flat.
It was a bit of a sudden finish, and I hit just over 300km of the intended 350km. In the car, I realised that the last 50km would have been the most interesting, with about 6 towns to go through. If i’d ridden through, I would’ve loved to start the #riverinasilosurvery, but alas it was not to be. We got to Leeton at lunchtime as planned, and Sabrina’s uncle put on a great BBQ and wine.
The next day he took us to his orange farms and I spent a couple of hours learning about orange farming, picked about 30 kilos of citrus, and learnt a fair bit about farming in the Riverina in general.
All in all, it was a superb way to see a part of Australia i’d never been to before. It’s easy to forget that there’s a lot more than the coastal parts of this country, and indeed, quite a bit of the food we eat here comes from those central regions.
In New Zealand, I lived near a lot of farms, mostly dairy, and really enjoyed learning about where our food, and people’s livelihood, came from. Being a much smaller country, I had a bit more understanding about how it all worked and where most things were. I didn’t really anticipate how vast Australia was when I first came here, and exploring more of it is proving to be amazing.
Anyway, ride report done. That ended up really long, but I enjoyed writing it. Maybe I should go back to writing my essay now. Thanks for reading!