Saturday, March 19, 2016

March 19th - to Jingellic

What a stupendously awesome day!  

Last night it got cold.  It got down into the 40's last night.  I know, I know, the people up north who still are in winter would love the upper 40's.  But I must say, not if you are sleeping in a tent!
It was so cold that come morning I almost could not get out of my sleeping bag.  It was so tough to rise and shine when everything in my body wanted to just pull the sleeping bag over my head and snuggle in.  But up we rose to greet another glorious day.

We set out on the bikes and it was only 10 degrees Celsius or 50 Fahrenheit. Sounds warm to those up north but trust me it was cold!  
The route for the day was again a fantastic rail trail to start and then a quaint rural road.  The scenery and landscape was so beautiful that it makes words pale when used to describe it.
The rolling hills and flowing grassland were soothing as we made our way through the day.  It was so peaceful and serene that at times you felt like you were the only one who was on the planet.  Amazing...
We came across an abandoned farm house sitting in stark contrast to the scenery.
It begged the thought of...  what stories it could tell about its life and the people who had inhabited it.  Intriguing isn't it?!

    We had to cross a ferry at one point.  The reservoir as you can see is very low.  The ferry operator said it is only 28% of capacity.  

    The roads we were on were sometimes paved (or as the locals say, bitumen) and sometimes gravel.  Or as you can see in this picture, the road wasn't quite sure which it wanted to be.  

We came upon a sign as we rode down one that said:  Part Road Closed.  The sign of course brought up the question:  which part was closed?  The left side? The right side?  The first part?  The last part?  The part I care about?  The part I don't care about?  So many questions and no answers... πŸ™„
Rather than deliberate the questions, I forged on.  I figured the answers would reveal themselves.  And I only needed enough road that would fit my bike tire.  (Yes, you are correct, I have spent way too much time on a bike seat!)
So luckily the Part Road Closed wasn't the part that I needed.  πŸ˜Š

    A bit further down the road I came to another interesting sign.  As you can see, we were riding in an area where bikes are trained.  I have not come across anything like this in all my travels.  Only in Australia do they train bicycles.  πŸ˜‰   

    The road took us up and down through fields and grazing land.  We rode over another metric century (102 kilometers) and climbed over 1,200 meters.
    The skies were dotted with puffy white clouds to highlight the landscape.
    The beauty was breathtaking but at times the roughness of the road took it out of you.  The corrugation of its surface jarred the hands, wrists and elbows delivering a new sensation of pain.  πŸ˜©
But that did not take away in any sense from making it a fantastic day!


2 comments:

  1. Mike, Again....sounds like an awesomely fantastic day!!! It's cloudy and cool here so your pictures of blue skies and golden rolling hills warmed me up a little. Thanks!

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  2. Pam, please warm it up for my return... It is turning autumn here and getting colder. Although we will shortly be heading up and over the mountains to the coast where it will be warmer. 😊

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