Day: October 19, 2019

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Saturday 19th October

By on Saturday, October 19, 2019

3rd night in a row staying in motels. We seem to be in the middle of nowhere. We have had no mobile service and no WiFi. There’s been hardly any house’s, no shops or petrol stations for miles. I really didn’t expect this for the south of Australia especially so close to the coast.

So today we are headed to a town called Orbost. I’m really not expecting much, but the map says it has all facilities and a campsite. It’s also the start of a rail trail that will get us off the highway for a bit.

9am on the road, the motel owner is keen to get rid of us early as it’s up for sale and we believe that someone is viewing it today. $400 k just less than £200k it has lots of land and owners home not bad. I’m sure I could run a little campsite here and 2 rooms easy!

We have to do 10 miles before we find some where for breakfast it’s funny you don’t get a breakfast in motels just room only and we have run out of porridge.

We find a cafe bosting home made pie. They must be good if we’re to believe the cat!

Tea and egg roll for me, we only have 15 more miles to go to Orbose the weather isn’t that great a bit cold and wet with a head wind against us. At least the hills are good nice long climbs and fast dissents a good day. We make town 12:30pm. Just as I feared not much here. A small store so we can buy tonight’s meal and tomorrow’s breakfast. A row of shops however all closed, we find that a lot in small towns over here they don’t open at weekends. And a tourist information centre which is in a old house built in 1872.

We pitch up the tent, shower and change and at last we can wash our smelly cycle clothes there’s a laundry room 😊 better still we have WiFi and phone service this town knows how to spoil us!

It’s a cold night so we have to rap up warm in our little tent, there is no camp kitchen to sit in but you can’t have everything.

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Friday 18th October

By on Saturday, October 19, 2019

Yesterday was a nice relaxing day eating junk food watching junk television and drinking junk fizzy drinks. Not much else to do, maybe a walk but the weather was so bad we didn’t venture out.

At lest today we can get back onto our bikes, we still are in the middle of nowhere. We have 70 miles to do before the next town but can split that up and stay in a motel 35 miles away. Or head south to the coast where there’s a campsite just over 26 miles.

To help us with our decisions we call into the tourist information centre. The nice lady informed us that the road south was gravel and didn’t advise us to take it after yesterday’s storm so that was out. Back on the princess highway it is. When we get to the motel we will make the decision whether to stay or push on.

More hills but getting easier. They are now long and not so steep. Just keep on rolling. I have the tune to rawhide stuck in my head driving me mad.

We reached the bellbirds motel just after 2pm a small motel just with two rooms set at the side of a pub/cafe. Google maps said that if we carried on we still had over 2000ft of climbing to do. We decided to stay.

Another big room and 3rd night in a row in side better watch out mike will get used to this.

Showered and changed we head to the bar for food, there is nothing else around so we have no choice but to eat here tonight. The food isn’t great but it will do. There is another couple staying originally from the Uk but now live in Barbados. We are very down south and they are driving to cairns which is very up north they have hired a camper van and think that they will get there in two weeks. Good luck to them. It’s a long way!

Time for bed.

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Wednesday 16th October and Thursday 17th October

By on Saturday, October 19, 2019

After a night of wild camping we said our fair wells to Burt and Kerry, they did offer us breakfast but we declined we already had eaten porridge with banana and hunny. And boy we need the energy.

Burt was lovely and out of mikes earshot he asked if we were ok financially did we have money put to one side for our flights bless him, not sure what he would have done if I said no!

So on we go up more hills, will we ever get to the top if we carry on we will be on the moon.

Tonight’s destination is Cann River there’s FA here I looked in my trusty guide book for inspiration on what to write about it. Cann River centrally located for traveling to the coastal region around point hicks. So yeah it’s just a passing through town basically. We have a motel, bakery, petrol station and small store. It did have a pub once but that was closed. So into the motel it was,we didn’t have to pay for last nights. one night in a motel will do us good.

Motel was nice and clean with a big room. Big enough to fit both our bikes in the room with us. We also have a tv but no internet and no laundry facilities a bit of a bummer my cycle clothes stink what with all the sweating up these hills.

Next morning the weather was shocking, we checked the forecast with reception and it was thunderstorms all day until 10pm. We booked in for another night. So the day was spent reading and watching crap tv. The rest will do us good.

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Tuesday 15th October

By on Saturday, October 19, 2019

Next Morning we said our goodbyes leaving as friends, so many great people out there.

We took there photo in there lovely garden in-front of a pretty red flower they told us it was a waratah the emblem of New South Wales . We are leaving New South Wales tomorrow and into Victoria.

Still following the princess highway it heads inland. Traffic is lighter now and we are on a strip that is hilly with over 70 miles between towns. We opt to break it up with a overnight stop wild camping ; we have a app that gives us approved sights there’s one mid point.

The long road out off Eden is straight up, thankfully after over a week of hill training we managed it relatively easily no longer getting out of breath.

30 miles in we find the campsite we mistakenly thought we would be alone but it was busy full of what the Ozzies refer to as gray nomads. We were instantly greeted with great hospitality. Offers of food and drink. We excepted some soup and wine and then later spent the evening in Burt and Kerry’s 5th wheeler drinking tea and eating biscuits what a great night.

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