This was supposed to be a hard day but we managed to wake up relatively late to recover from the previous days’ ride. We had dinner at the hotel bar with Clifton and by the end of the night we could barely keep our eyes open.
The hotel at Dubbo was OK, a bit pricey and the room stank a bit, bit overall in a good location.
Back to the ride…after being hinted by some riders, we opted to take the “Old Dubbo Road” instead of what was plotted and head all the way to Guerie. Old Dubbo Road was very “european” – smooth riding with very few cars, nice steady riding until we made it to Guerie…a very tiny residential area with a petrol station, a café (closed) and a pub.
We bought some cold drinks from the petrol station and then proceeded to have lunch at the nearby park, next to the skateboarding area. We engaged in conversation with a family who was travelling with their 3 kids. Dad was Swiss and had relocated to Oz about 5 years god. The oldest of the kid was about 10 years old and they each had their bikes and Dad carried a trailer with all their stuff. Incredibly pleasant family – Peter and I were discussing along the way on how lucky these kids were to have parents like this!
After finishing lunch (We bought picnic stuff at Dubbo’s Woolies) we napped for a bit at the park and then again on the road. For the most part it was a nice small unpaved road but then it was a gravel road which wasn’t unpleasant to ride.
The day got hotter and made riding harder…we definitely did not measure water properly (yet again despite filling up at Guerie). The gravel road turned to paved road and the biggest uphill of the trip was to be faced. We met the cyclist family again and we all made it thru the incline, which was 8%.
After the toughest bit, we were greeted by the nicest downhill you could ever hope for. Smooth sailing all the way to Wellington…I was swooped by a maggie (that’d be the second for the day…they are simply racist!!) but I made it out unscathed.
This was one of the days I enjoyed the most, despite the uphill and the gravelled road, the stop at Guerie just made it perfect. Wellington was a very nice town, and Peter will describe the hotel, our dinner and everything in-between in the next post!
