DAY 35 - NUMURKAH to ECHUCA

The wind was still blowing quite strongly as we headed out this morning. And it was quite cold. After battling through the 35kmh headwinds for well over an hour, we were looking for any excuse to stop and rest for a bit. That's when we spotted the cows. 

Don't those cows look cute - let's stop and photograph them
So we took a few photos of cows, while resting our muscles for another go at the wind. 
Taking photos of cows gave us an excuse to rest from the wind
Eventually, we had procrastinated enough, and resumed our (very slow) progress. The wind was not relenting. 
The grass bending in the wind. We were riding the other way. 
We were heading due west. The wind was a westerly. 
The road to Picola - heading due west. The wind was coming straight at us.
Eventually, we made it to Picola. We admired the village's impressive silo art, before heading to the café for some refreshment. 
Picola's silo art
More photos of silo art. We figured as long as we were taking photos we weren't riding into that headwind.

A refreshing morning coffee at Picola, out of the wind 
We left Picola for Barmah, some 16km away. Again to the west, into the wind. It was slow going, but eventually the road became a bit sheltered, and the riding became a bit easier. 
View of the river on the way to Barmah 
In Barmah we stopped for lunch, which we ate at a scenic park overlooking a bend in the Murray. 
Scenic lunch spot in Barmah 
We saw a few birds at this bend in the river, where the park also has a descendant of the Lone Pine from Gallipoli, and a signboard explaining the significance of the brumbies in the local forest. 
A few birds at Barmah
Barmah's Lone Pine 

War memorial at Barmah. You can guess which way we were riding from the direction the flags are flying.
Surprisingly, the rest of the day's ride was relatively unaffected by the wind. Firstly, it seemed to drop in intensity. And then, as we entered the Old Barmah Road (the route Google Maps advised us to take - again, we should have known better) the forest on both sides of the road offered protection from the wind. In fact, as we rode along the first few kilometres of the road, we were enjoying the serenity and the forest scenery. And then the road turned to a mixture of mud and water. 
Looking back on a tricky section of road where one of us lost traction and fell into the water
The road was certainly scenic, and we had plenty of time to admire it - after the wheels picked up too much glug from the road surface we spent a lot of time either walking the bikes by the side of the road, or riding cross-country. 
Old Barmah Road - scenic but gluggy
Travelling cross-country
Moving on from that interesting interlude, we navigated through Moama on the bike paths and on to our b&b in Echuca. After an extensive cleaning operation - bikes, panniers and clothes - we indulged in a delicious dinner at a local Greek restaurant. 
A delicious dinner
Day:  35
Distance: 69.33 km
Cycling time:  4 hrs 30 mins
Elevation gain: 674 metres
Cumulative Distance: 1709.5 km
Day 35 - Elevation profile 

Day 35 - Route 

Comments

  1. Anonymous4 June 2022 at 07:50

    I'm wondering if the mooie sitting down is a 'Belted Galway'? Would be a co-incidence if so, as Melanie was telling me about them on Wednesday, pretty rare in Sussex, but apparently very good eating, brown, with a white stripe round their middles... Who knew? We were looking for suitcases, but apparently here you just look at computer images, and they send them to you from a warehouse, or you can pick them up at a later date. Anyway we didn't, but we DID manage a couple of French 75s, overlooking Eastbourne Beach. Very nice!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kath and Russell4 June 2022 at 22:01

    We believe they are all Jersey cows, but have seen a few Belted Galloways on our ride. Hope you are enjoying your holiday.

    ReplyDelete

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