March 22nd - to Canberra

Today we awoke to a very cold day as well.  It was a brisk fall day here.  Yes, it is fall here in Australia.  It was 8C or 45F when we set out upon the day.  A crisp morning in the sheep shearers quarters to be sure. 

    The sheep shearers quarters.

We were treated to a kangaroo exhibition though.  There were kangaroos in front of us, kangaroos to the right of us, kangaroos along the fence line and kangaroos over the ridge.  We had to have seen a mob of kangaroos.  See I'm getting this Australian speak down... Mob, mate.  😉

We set out for the day but first did a detour to explore a cave near the sheep farm.  We were given a tour of the cave by a quintessential Aussie.  He spoke in an Australian accent that he played up.  You had to really focus at first to pick up what he said.  He gave us a great tour of the cave and explanation of the history and structure of it.  Quite fascinating.

    Here is the guide broadening our spelunking knowledge.

 

    The morning sun shining on the hillside

As the sun shine down upon us we got on the road after 10:00, since we did the cave adventure.  Quickly upon pedaling we began the climbing.  This was day four of climbing and the legs were feeling all the previous hills they were demanded to ascend.  The complaining from them was non stop and relentless.  But then again, cyclists rule #5 is called into play.  (rule #5 is HTFU or as a good friend said, take the skirt off!)   So with this rule in mind I began the mental speak...  shut up and keep pedaling!  As the hills begrudgingly began to melt under the leg power, the scenery opened itself up to the great beauty that I have come to expect from Australia.  It truly is a unique and awesome place.

    The rolling hills of grazing land.

    The picturesque back roads that we travel.

    The unique animals we encounter.  

If you don't know why llamas are in Australia you will need to refer to one of my previous blogs for the details.  That way you have to read them...  😉

We encountered some pretty challenging and potentially spirit crushing hills today.  There were a series of hills going into lunch that were once again Ruta Mayaish in quality.  The grades were steep and the road was rough with loose gravel.  That made climbing them a challenge and a half.  That and they dropped some fresh gravel on them to make it easier for the logging trucks.  Which in turn made it even worse for the cyclists who had chosen to ride up these monsters.  

It was to be a 70 kilometer day with 1,300 meters of climbing.  It turned out to be over 90 kilometers into Canberra.

Canberra is the capital of Australia.  We rode into Canberra along a scenic route of bike trails stopping periodically to check maps and ask for directions.  Canberra is a beautiful town which is very well laid out with a waterway cutting through the center of it.

We all ate at a pub right up the street from our apartment abodes.  It was a great pub where you pick out your steak and cook it yourself.  I had a ginormous T-bone steak.  I was so hungry that I couldn't wait til it was cooked to medium and tore into prior to being finished.  That and a basket of chips (French fries to us Americans) that could have fed a family of four...  It was so good.

The evening at the pub took on one of those evening at the pub that everyone hopes that no one takes pictures of kind of nights life to it (rather long run on sentence that truly captured the essence of the evening kind of things...)!

But a couple of pictures were taken none the less. 

    And finally the evening event where Joe the Baaaastard (affectionately known as) plied his ways at the pub.

Tomorrow I need to find a bike shop to give my chariot a bit of tending to.  I tried to jump a cattle grate but the rear wheel seemed to take a bit of a hit and is now out of true.  So much so that the brakes were rubbing through most of the day.  It added just that much moe fun to the climbing...  😳