March 28th, 2011
Batlow to Jingellic
Distance: 88km
Total distance: 776km
Today is a Monday and this means most of the campers leave for work on the apple farms. I waited for the campers to drive out their cars before leaving. Going out of the city was a sluggish ride, the first 4km was all uphill with some section pretty steep. The road was full of logging trucks, I find myself constantly looking at the side mirrors because of this. After the first 4km, it was all ups and downs until Tumbarumba. It wasn’t as bad as Penny mentioned. But here’s the really good news. I was at an elevation of 780m in Batlow, my campsite for tonight in Jingellic is next to a river, and we all know that rivers are usually located at low elevations. It’s good to know that today’s ride will generally be a downhill, on average.
I reached Tumbarumba just in time for lunch. The town is quite similar to Batlow in terms of size, but no apples here. Had a hamburger with crispy bacon and an Up and Go banana flavoured. Both tasted yummy! A hungry cyclist often find food more tasty than usual. After about 40 mins of lunch break, I continued riding. Along the way, I met some of the most brutal uphill gradient. It wasn’t such a big deal if it weren’t hot that day and there was almost no wind at all. Halfway climbing, I did the unimaginable. I took out my umbrella and use it as a sun shade, while riding! Believe it or not, turns out that this is quite effective and ideal for my situation. My hands don’t get tired of holding it since its base was rested on my torso, and there were no wind to knock off my umbrella. But of course whenever there’s a bit of downhill, I had to close the umbrella.
About 20km to Jingellic, the road gradually becomes mostly downhill and there were very few cars, half of which were caravans. I think that 20km took me less than an hour. When I reached Jingellic, first thing I notice was a general store! Without any hesitation, I went in to get a Bundaberg ginger beer to cool my body down. It was absolutely refreshing! Today was a really hot day! The weather was great for picnic or just relaxing outdoors but not so much for long-distance cycling.
The campsite was super awesome! Located right next to Murray River (the river that divides NSW and Victoria) and it’s completely free! Hot showers cost $3 but I just took a cold shower to cool my body even more, probably a bit too much but this makes my stay tonight a free camping, first for the tour! Tonight, there are about 5 caravans in this campsite, a couple of them are using generators for electricity, kind of reminds me of pasar malam (night market) in my home country. Spoke to the lady at the general store and found out that my ride tomorrow is going to be hilly, but the total elevation would be close to zero since I’ll be riding next to the river all the way until I reach Hume Lake. Good news is, it will be a scenic ride. By the way, since my campsite is just next to Murray River, Victoria is literally a stone’s throw away! I will be riding into a different state tomorrow onwards, yay!
The night sky tonight was the best so far! Gazing at the whole sky filled with so many stars almost gave me a spiritual moment.
WHoa.. the stars are really beautiful..
What was in your mind when you admiring it?
If you think the photo looks good, it’s 100x better in reality! I was thinking about sleeping outside so that I can see the stars until I doze off but put off by mosquitoes and cold.