May 29, 2023
Day 19: Wangaratta to Swanpool.
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A good days ride on a variety of roads, the rain held off but we're starting to get back into the hills. We had been on mostly flat roads for a while and hills take a bit of adjusting to. We had a fairly quiet road from Wangaratta to Glenrowan but a bit of a climb to get into the town. Glenrowan is exactly what you expect, a tourist town dedicated to an outlaw. For anyone who didn't know, Ned Kelly made his last stand here. Just about every shop in town has something to do with Ned Kelly culminating in a giant statue. Australia loves its villains, so long as they're long since dead.
We called in at the bakery for a hot drink and a piece of cake. The town was quite busy. I suppose it's not far from Melbourne and, as well as the Ned Kelly connection, the surrounding countryside is very pretty.
We headed on from Glenrowan towards Benalla, I missed a turn and started to head down the ramp onto the freeway. When I noticed the mistake,we made our way back and took the side road. Not much later we passed another on ramp and I noticed a sign with a bicycle on it. Komoot had been trying to put us on the freeway but I thought it was a mistake. It turns out that bicycles can travel on the Hume Freeway (probably Australia's busiest road) so we did. I'm not sure why because there was a perfectly good road running right next to it. The rule is you just have to keep as far left as possible, as if anyone would do otherwise. It's busy and noisy but you are a fair way from the traffic on the left hand side of the hard shoulder, so it did not seem dangerous. Annette kept up her record of finding things at the side of the road, she even turned around and headed back to pick up an inflatable pillow she'd seen. We carried on for about 20km on the freeway, it was quick.
We left the freeway onto the old Hume Highway, ironically this was quite dangerous, bust without a shoulder. We didn't go all the way into Benalla but took a back road to avoid a major road that someone had warned us about. Again, Komoot came good here.
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The day after rain is usually hard, you tend to feel the effects the day after. We were struggling before we took the turn to Swanpool. The plan was to make it somewhere called the Midland Holiday Park. Swanpool was back on the highway and we stopped at the roadhouse, neither of us felt like going any further so whilst Annette ordered a cup of coffee I went off and looked for somewhere to camp. I didn't have to go far, there was a park just over the road, undercover BBQ area complete with electric BBQ, toilets, water, light and plenty of places to camp. Job done. We unpacked under the shelter and made a cup of tea. As a change for dinner I walked back over to the roadhouse and got some fish to make a hot wrap. A nice change. Some of these out of the way toilets are very well frequented, this was no exception. The light in the shelter we were in was motion activated, this would have made for an uncomfortable night. There was an old tennis shed next to the tennis courts with a verandah looking out over a paddock. This seemed like the best place for the tent. Annette again managed to demonstrate one of her previously hidden skills, finding a power outlet to charge the phone. She has found them in some very unexpected places. She went around the back of a hall/cinema and found a power outlet with something already plugged in, I hope she didn't defrost the cinema's fridge.
Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 1,097 km (681 miles)
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