134.70km / 7:03:11 / 1214m / 31.0°C

Surprisingly warm in parts, I did stop for a photo once it topped 40°C climbing over a hill out of Jugiong. Very different parts of the ride; country roads to Bookham (danno), the Hume (and Old Hume) to Jugiong, then the near desolatte dirt road down the river to Brungle and on to Tumut

First half of the morning, Bowning to Bookham up north on quiet side roads – mostly. Got to some roadworks with one side of the road closed and after some chatter on the radio the traffic management told me “the other end will wait for you” … except I got 3/4 of the way through & the other end had got tired of waiting, so the pilot ute was leading a column of traffic down the hill straight at me in my lane! With a very skinny shoulder and drop off into a gully I squeezed over as far as possible and they all made it past, even my nemesis, one of the gravel trucks & dog trailers

Coffee & muffin at Bookham & chat for 20 minutes, girding my loins for the inescapable section of Hume Highway to Jugiong, although it turned out not too bad – noisy and a bit of a wind as trucks passed, but the shoulder is 2-3m wide and there’s plenty of room. Yet more roadworks, as warned by Josh last night, with one carriageway closed and southbound traffic being directed up into half the northbound lanes. I avoided most of it by following along on the “Old Hume” which is parallel, only about 100m away, empty of traffic and a crumbling single lane of old tar. Eventually got to a spot where the Old Hume petered out, but still inside the work zone and this time got a personal escort through the roadworks side by a traffic management ute – if he’d gone just that little bit slower I’d have been motorpaced a kilometre or two to Jugiong!

Then lunch at the Long Track cafe before the turrn to the south and the very empty dirt road down along the Murrumbidgee and Tumut rivers all the way to Tumut. Despite the three bidons I ran low on water, unable to find anywhere in Brungle to fill up. Stiflingly hot where the road rose up over the hills, blissfully cooler as it got nearer the river. A constant series of cattle grids as it crossed from one farm to the next. Exhausting again, the last 20km into Tumut a real slow slog

Broken clouds, 16°C, Feels like 15°C, Humidity 73%, Wind 3m/s from N - by Klimat