Yesterday we cycled the remaining 41km from Nowa Nowa to Orbost on the rail trail.  The trail was almost entirely through forest and was a great ride.  The day started with great weather but rain threatened by late morning so we put the foot down and cycled fast to Orbost before it rained.

We checked into the Orbost Caravan Park then went about the normal routine of unpacking, showering, walking into town to do grocery shopping, then having a schooner at the local watering hole.

Today we are having a day off for logistical reasons.  We feel we don’t need a rest, but the next section will be tough.  We have to carry food for 4 days and will only get a rest at Delegate in NSW.  So having a rest today means we are setup for the next section.  That decision works well with the weather as today it’s forecast to rain and tomorrow less likely to rain.

Here’s the plan.  We will cycle from Orbost to Delegate in NSW on the Bonang Highway.  It’s remote but not as remote as our original plan of cycling the Barry Way to Jindabyne.  Chatting to the friendly caravan park manager, we gained lots of information about the Bonang Highway.  It’s sealed for most of the way, has no shops, the road will be quiet, and it’s not too steep.  Steepness depends on the mode of transport as most cyclists on the internet say it’s steep.  Google maps app says there is a total rise of 2971m!!

It’s interesting the difference between drivers and cyclists point of view.  When we arrive at a town we are smiling and happy to be there.  People wave and smile at us as we work our way to the local caravan park or café.  Pulling up outside a café we must be interesting as locals comment or chat to us.  We see out-of-town drivers getting out of their hermetically sealed cars looking dazed and tired and they don’t have the same point-of-view of a town as us.  Often the drivers are just passing through doing 100s of km and a town is just a place to refuel.  For us it’s been the destination all morning or all day and we are happy to be there and we interact with the locals.

This will be last post for a few days as there is no mobile coverage until near Delegate.  We will try to write posts each day then upload them when coverage returns so you’ll get a flurry of posts.

Highlight of yesterday:  Cycling on the Rail Trail and beating the rain.

Rail Trail all day!!

Jen looking happy on the Rail Trail

The ‘once’ mighty Snowy River at Orbost.

The planned route up the Bonang Highway.