Australia, Blayney to Young

My day started as usual, packing the tent, breakfast and checking emails. I was surprised and delighted to have received one from my mum. She was making comments on my last blog, Sydney and Manly, she’s been to Sydney herself and was commenting on places we’d now both visited. Her post script though was not her usual “take care”, it was unfortunately a message to let me know that a good family friend had sadly died.
This led me to thinking that life is so fragile and fleeting, your life is not guaranteed to be any particular length, it can be taken away by accident, disease, illness or by some else. Our hope is that our life will be long and that perhaps we’ll die eventually of old age. Sadly, for so many people this is not the case, so I ask you not to waste a second, live your life, enjoy it now because tomorrow isn’t guaranteed !!
If you’ve read all my blogs, especially the most recent ones you’ll know that I suffer from depression, I don’t think your ever cured of this disease but instead you learn to live with it and recognise the symptoms. I therefore wasn’t always the most positive person, I wasted a lot of my life, watched to much TV instead of visiting friends or going for walks in our beautiful country. There’s so much I could have done, I’m making up for it now though. I still have bad days and occasionally feel a little negative but at least I’m out here trying.
And so with my sermon delivered I best tell you about our day. Our destination was 70km away in Cowra, and from the route profile it was practically all down hill. Complete rubbish, not sure where they get the profile from but I think this one was drawn by a three year old. There were hills, I recognise them now, I’ve had a lot of practice, there the bits where my heart rate soars and my speed decreases !!
Ok, so it wasn’t all that bad, a few hills, sunshine, good views, lovely agricultural land, the usual cattle and horses, oh and one kangaroo !! The scenery wasn’t stunning or spectacular, it was pleasant and we rarely had cause to actually stop and take photos. I’ve become adept at using my camera while cycling and so long as you don’t wander across the road it’s ok !
We were going to stop for a coffee, but we didn’t see anywhere so we just kept on going until we reached Cowra. It’s a fairly large town and we seemed to enter it about 5km before we actually saw anything other than a Tourist Caravan Park. We were going to stop but thankfully decided to ride on into town and get some lunch before heading back. So pleased we did because we found another place to camp just of the high street. Great spot with one of the best camp kitchens we’ve seen in Australia, even had saucepans. It just means that our dinner will be a little more interesting than normal.
We got ourselves squared away, showered and headed out for lunch, a hotel with bistro and lunch specials did the trick. Washed it all down with a nice pint of ale before heading off to do some shopping,we found a Coles supermarket only a block away, so it didn’t take to long to get everything we needed for dinner. Back to camp to relax and sort out photos, FB and emails before dinner !!
It never ends 😉
Not to many photos but here’s a little taste….

Lovely countryside, just not spectacular !!
As we left camp this morning we did so with the sun already on our backs, feels so good to be warm and dry. We soon crossed the bridge over the Lachlan river and turned left onto the Olympic Highway, we’re heading south now towards Melbourne. We’ll pass through all the places named on the signpost, Young, Cootamundra, Junee, Wagga Wagga and Albury. Tonight we’ll be in Young though, only 70km away and according to the guy on reception at camp, a mainly flat road. That’s not what my route elevation app says, it shows lots of hills, one or two quite big ones !
Well it was certainly flat to start with, flat and straight ! The road lined with trees for about the first 20km or so, and still no hills. We were pleased that the road is fairly quiet, or at least compared to the Mid Western Highway it is. It seems that the Hume Highway from Sydney is where most heavy traffic heading south ends up, fine with me !!
At about 25km we entered a small village, Koorawatha, we wanted two things, firstly a toilet and secondly a cup of coffee. The first was simple due to some very clean public toilets, the second was not so easy. In fact we failed, despite there being two cafés and a hotel, none were open for business !! Damn shame, we like to spread a little cash around, and some of these small villages really need the help !
We cycled on, revelling in the beautiful countryside, sunny weather and lack of traffic….oh, and still no hills !
At about 45km we entered another small village , Bendick Murrell , a signpost at the junction pointed towards a tavern about 1.5km away. We decided to go and see if we could get coffee and perhaps a light snack. We cycled into the carpark and noticed a sign saying they’d gone to the hospital. Not knowing whether this was an old sign or one just put out today, we decided to wait a while and see if it opened at 11.00am. It didn’t and the ringing phone confirmed our suspicions that we were out of luck. My luck tumbled further still, I’d got my first flat tyre in Australia. I fixed my tyre while Naomi chatted to a guy that was also trying to get into the pub. It didn’t take me long to fix the tyre and we were soon saying goodbye to the stranger and were on our way again. 25km to go, and it’s still pretty flat, we were loving it, it’s just one of those days when you feel great !!
With about 10km to go we finally hit the hills, just a couple of long drags, nothing steep or hard but it wasn’t flat anymore. Some good views from the top were appreciated before the descent into Young. We headed for food and I’m ashamed to say it but we had McDonald’s !!
We don’t do it often, we just knew they’d have toilets and there cheap, I promise it won’t happen again for at least two months !!
The camp was good, easy to find, friendly and with good amenities, I was even lucky enough to find an electrician who had a soldering iron so I could fix my front light…bonus.
And so after dinner and all the usual stuff, it’s time for bed, looking forward to whatever tomorrow brings 😉
But first, the photos…