Betten On Bike: DAY 123 - 10TH AUGUST 2013

Day 123 – 10 August 2013 – Kyogle to Rathdowney

Cycling Stats: 85

Cycling Average: no idea – its all about fun today !!

Another beautiful day and we had plenty of time as another cyclist was arriving this morning. Mark had decided to take the train from Brisbane to Kyogle and was set to arrive at 9.28am. As the ride is not a long one the guys would wait for Mark’s train and set off together from the train station.

We all packed up and there was lots of checking of bikes, air to tyres, water bottles to be filled and energy bars to hand out to the guys – Walter has a huge stash of these with him. I could see that there was excitement in the air as today’s ride is a special one which will include the famous very scenic Lions Road – built by local Lions Clubs. It is a very narrow, very winding road with a large number of the most picturesque old one lane rattley timber bridges over beautiful flowing creeks and rivers and flanked all round by the most beautiful mountains. This road is not suitable for caravans but the trusty campervan was right in its element and seemed to love zipping up and around the corners and dancing albeit a bit noisily over the timber bridges. The timbers moved and rumbled, sometimes a little scarily, as I drove over them.

I could tell the guys were really enjoying the day. The first part of the Lions Road had quite a rough surface as I think it was being prepared for a new surface. Luckily this wasn’t more than a few kilometers. We were all keeping our eyes peeled for a B & B sign as Kurt had, a few years back popped in to this B & B and the friendly owners had provided coffee and home made baked treats and he was keen for us to experience their hospitality and friendly banter.

At last we spotted the sign – everyone was well and truly hanging out for coffee and Hugh makes a great coffee – each one made individually to your liking and we all sure did like !!! The brownies, ginger cake and small cakes were great too.

Walter looked worried and this was because I had noticed quite a squealing noise in one of the wheels as I drove up the driveway. I couldn’t believe it - I asked Greg (the others had all gone up the stairs to the B & B) if he could have a look and you wouldn’t believe it - Greg is a mechanic – what amazing luck and what a coincidence that he was the one I had called out to. Hugh does all his own maintenance work on his cars so they took off together to investigate. Luck again – a stone had become wedged in one of the wheels and was hitting metal as the wheel rotated as the car was being driven. With the removal of the stone the noise was gone. Thank goodness it wasn’t anything serious. Walter looked relieved as there had been some talk about worn brake pads and we were far away from a place where brake pads could be bought !!!

We all met up at The Lions Road sign and then also drove to The Border Ranges Lookout for a photo. It is here that you can see the train line which to pass over the ranges is constructed as a climbing loop on the New South Wales side of the border. The road is a challenging ride with many long steep climbs and very steep descents and motor cyclists love it and there were quite a few out there on this fine Saturday. We arrived at Rathdowney and met back up with Gill – she had driven the Mt Lindsey Highway as she is towing a caravan so was unable to take the Lions Road route.

Gill and I and of course Sooty her delightful little dog who is a bit of a character set off for a walk up to the look-out and around a few back streets and the main street – this part is a very short walk as Rathdowney only has its hotel, a butcher shop up the road and an Information Centre which sells some local arts & crafts. I commented to the elderly lady at the centre that the crocheted items were beautiful and she told me that the lady who does them is going blind and so she won’t be getting many more items in the future. That was really sad I thought as you could see they had been made with great care and love (that may sound a bit strange but that’s how they looked to me.)

Dinner that evening at the Rathdowney Pub was good. This was our last night of sleeping in our van – we couldn’t believe that tomorrow would be our last day on the road. Exciting and sad at the same time. The freedom of our nomadic four month adventure ends tomorrow !!!