Today Britt lent us her mountain bike and her friend Ken did the same, which enabled us to tackle a rail trail that they deemed (quite rightly) too bumpy for our little Bromptons.
The North East rail trail between Tonaganah and Ledgerwood lasted for 22km and had a good bit of climbing in it. We encountered many Wallaby and were, just as last week, we thought that was mind blowing, we had now got quite used to them hoping about around us. We had our first snake encounter of our trip on the trail, when I spotted a snake basking in the sun right across the trail. We were told that if you make a noise the snakes will wonder off, but this guy was going nowhere. We put the bike between us and the snake and walked around him.This is actually our second encounter to be honest as we came across a snake in the road some days ago.When we looked closer however we realised that it had a head the shape of a shraeder valve and then worked out it was a discarded cycle innertube.Today's was for real however.
We were running short of water so we deviated of the trail and went to Branxholm where we got a drink and sat in the park opposite the shop. Britt had made us a lovely lunch, she can really make a mean sandwich. In fact it was so good that I needed a snooze afterwards. We are being so well looked after. It is back to cycle camping next week and when we finally start doing our own cooking it will come as a real shock.
We were just about to set off on our return trip when Catherine spotted that her front tyre was fully down.Britt had equipped us with a spare innertube for the borrowed bikes however, which we soon sorted.
It had been recommended that we see the wood carvings at the end of the bike trail at Ledgerwood, so we diverted off the main road to see them.
What had been an old station had been turned it to a fantastic picnic area.It had old railway carriages turned into little rooms and even had free electric hot plates for a barbecue.Some trees had been planted many years ago in memory of the village inhabitants. The trees had to be cut down when they became dangerous and so they had turned them into fantastic carvings which depicted the fallen inhabitants.It was really well done so "good on ya" local community in Ledgerwood, you did a real good job.
After that it was back to Scottsdale for tea and 68 Kms done, but not on the Bromptons for once.A good inch of snow back home but sunny all day here with a manageable high of 23 C
Too icy for cycling here.
ReplyDelete