DAY 118 - 5 AUGUST 2013 - INVERELL TO GLEN INNES

Day 118 – 5 August 2013 – Inverell to Glen Innes

Cycling Stats:  66 kms

Cycling Average:  27 km per hour

A bit of a funny day today – Before we took off to walk to the town centre with the bike and the wheel with broken spoke I asked the caravan park operator if it would be OK if we stayed an extra night as we needed to have Walter’s wheel repaired and we presumed it wouldn’t be able to be collected until the afternoon.  Chris was most accommodating and said yes that would be fine.

We also decided to take our very heavily weighted collection bucket with all its coins into town as well, to see if we could get a bank to run all the coins through a counting machine as it is pretty heavy to carry around. When we arrived in town all the banks were closed – the first Monday of August is Bank Holiday so that was a bit sad. – for us, not of course for the bank staff. We arrived at Bikes in Byron and Michael, the owner wasn’t quite sure if he would be able to replace the spoke. There was also a bit of noise in the de-railer that Walter asked him to have a look at. So we decided to go & have a coffee. Walter was a bit worried as he really wanted to get that wheel fixed. So after coffee we went back to see Michael as Walter wanted to ask him about any other bike shops in subsequent towns that we are passing through and if then, maybe a spoke could be ordered beforehand. We arrived and thank goodness - there was a matching spoke and an adjustment had been made to the de-railer  - Michael said he had been able to get onto it straight away so Walter was very happy. Thank you Michael – he didn’t want any payment for the work and we enjoyed a big chat about the roads / local cycling group / races in the area with him.

So - as we are walking back Walter suggested we go to the Information Centre to find out a little more about the options of the routes from Inverell. Talia who assisted us was very friendly & helpful and investigated whether a tiny place called Jackadgery which we may be passing through, had a caravan park for us.  She also handed us a donation and she told us that a family member had suffered from dementia. Walter wanted to push on today after all and head to Glen Innes so we packed up and headed off. It was again a very hilly ride with a really long climb over Waterloo Range.  I stopped at 35 kms to prepare lunch & Walter didn’t take long to arrive. There was also a pretty gusty westerly wind blowing. Arrived in Glen Innes and I located a caravan park and waited for Walter’s call as to where we would be staying that night which is our routine when he arrives at our destination for the day.

We are still not sure which route to take tomorrow. Glen Innes to Casino via Grafton is around 50kms longer but a better wider and safer road (according to Michael from Bikes in Byron) than the other option of going to Casino via Tenterfield which is narrow and very winding. So let’s see – we will have to decide soon !!

Inverell has some rather lovely historical buildings - this is Inverell Art Gallery

Wheel & bike repaired - now to get back on the road (next to Inverell Art Gallery is another beautiful old building The Inverell Town Hall

A view through the windscreen - I take a lot of photos like this as I am driving

Angus beef, pastureland and mountains - what we saw today

Another view on the way to Glen Innes

I enjoy stopping by the roadside to take in the peaceful country views & layers of colours