Wine country to the Mountains

Wheatfields of the Wimmera.

A hop skip and a jump from Echuca to Bright. Well, all of that hopping and skipping was made easier by a slight change to our route. We removed a few kilometres and long, flat rides through farmland, and replaced it with a trip straight to Rutherglen where we spent two lovely evenings and a day riding at a VERY leisurely pace to Wahgunyah via Chambers Winery. From there we hopped over to Cofield’s for a delicious lunch then onto Pfeiffers and home again. A lovely day topped off with a swim in the Soldiers Memorial swimming pool – just Brenda, Dale, Des and myself along with a local kid demonstrating bombs and double bombs and twister bombs.

We had a bit of trouble with the van in Echuca, which was partly why we changed the route. It was towed away on a tow truck and came back in the late afternoon, but by then we have activated Plan B, which was for Garis, Michael and Al to drive to Rutherglen and the rest of us make our way there on the bus. Talk about a milk run! We saw all sorts of Victoria including Kyabram, Mooroopna, Shepparton and Numurkah. My heart beat a little when we almost went to Katamatite, scene of a dusty attempt to hitchhike in 1975.

From Rutherglen we rode to Beechworth. We began in solitary joy along county roads and into Chiltern, an easy 20kms or so. Then another 15kms of similar joy, but as we know in the bike riding world, all things can change rapidly. Soon we were climbing, slowly and steadily, but climbing nevertheless. By the time the main road into Beechworth appeared, it was getting warmer and my resilience for hills was waning. I never thought I’d make it, but I did, as did everyone else, but the last 19kms on a busy road with a narrow rough shoulder going uphill was not pleasant.

All thoughts of hardship disappeared however with a beautiful day on bike paths all the way from Beechworth to Bright. Rushing downhill to the Everton turn-off was quick, followed by kangaroo sightings in paddocks as we dipped along and up Taylor’s Gap into Myrtleford where we enjoyed lunch at Café Chakra. Smoked trout kedgeree for me. Yum!

Bruce, Des’s brother, has joined us for a week or so and it’s great to see him. We have two days in Bright to ride around and swim at the Jumping Off Rock in the Buckland and a few plunges in the Ovens. Bright is beautiful as always, trees galore, birds screeching in the morning and the campground full of kids on bikes.

Statistics

Thursday 27 February: Rutherglen to Beechworth. 66kms with an average speed of 15.5kmh. Lucky those 7.5kmh hill climbs didn’t skew the average too much!

Friday 28 February: Beechworth to Bright. 75kms on bike paths all the way. Beautiful surrounds and a as Michael would say, a perfect day.

The Barham Hotel.

Sunset on the Murray.

Michael loves a coffee.

Des blowing up our mattresses yet again...