164.15km / 9:12:38 / 2112m / 24.0°C

A very big day, the proverbial “ton” of 100 miles, plus over 2000 metres of climbing, all while travelling down an unfamiliar route with a touring load – albeit a light one

I got away early enough, 7.30 out of Woomargama and off to the east towards Tumbarumba, stopping every 16km for a photo – I’d worked out that at 160km, every 10% would be a decent point to stop for a short break. All was going well until nearing Tumba I stumbled on the rail trail and decided to break from my RideWithGPS route and use the trail to get into town rather than climb the hill on the road. Of course the navigation got annoyed at me and kept telling me to do u-turns, so I kept on ignoring it

Then a lunch break in Tumbarumba, refill the bidons and northwards towards Batlow … except the routing still seemed to want to send me back the way I’d come, I was guessing to rejoin the route where I’d left it at the pulp mill, so I ignored it and headed out of town on the Batlow road

Traffic was annoying, a few too many large trucks, and some of them a bit too close, so when I got to a fork in the road I consulted the map … sadly, the Google map … and checked where they’d go. Of course Google said it was also a route to Batlow, perhaps 20min slower than the main road, so I took it. Well it started out as a quiet sealed road … then it turned into an even quieter unsealed road …

Then there was an unfortunate diversion into minor forestry roads, some of which did not exist at all, despite Google Maps showing them. I then seemed to spend an eternity riding, and walking, up and down steep rocky tracks, covered in blackberry canes – wincing, waiting for punctures – in 30+ degree temperatures, tracks ending where the map said they went through, until eventually I got onto slightly more of a “road” that took me through to where I could rejoin the main Batlow road. Time had been passing, and the inevitable maths were going over and over in my mind, hours until sundown, distance to Tumut, average speed once I ended up getting out of this pine forests … I’d have happily thrown the bike in the back of a ute to get a lift out, except there was nobody here and I was wondering about having to retrace my route almost all the way back to Tumba, which would definitely have put me well out past sundown

Anyway, eventually I got back out, then there was the last 20-30km to Batlow and on to Tumut, and a rehydrating beverage or two, a pizza for dinner, and a chance to relax … oh yeah, happy birthday to mee … and to look toward tomorrow. Tomorrow promises to be an almost equally long day, but with more climbing, is it doable?

Weirdly, the “Klimat” weather summary says it was single digit temperatures for the almost 12 hours out on the road – well it may have been at the start of the day, but it was up over 35°C at times on the hills where the pines had been cleared!

Broken clouds, 9°C, Feels like 8°C, Humidity 63%, Wind 2m/s from ESE - by Klimat