2 Apr 2023
It rained throughout the morning as we packed up our wet gear. We had a look at the route for today and we decided to try to find a better route for our bikes. We asked the caravan park owner what path she would recommend and she told us to take River Road out of Wiseman’s Ferry and cross the river at Sackville, then continue on Sackville road to Windsor because that way would have the least cars. Google maps showed us something similar but with a little shortcut on the river road section. So we headed on out way, and spent the first few kms marvelling at how good a sealed surface was compared to the previous day.
We got to the fork where River Road continued one way and the shortcut took us the other way. Zooming in on the map I saw the shortcut led us to ‘Dargle Trail’ which I did not like the look of because it sounded like the surface would be the same as what we had yesterday. But Fed argued that it would be less kms so it would be faster. I didn’t think so because River Road had been a really nice surface so far so would be easier to ride. But I eventually conceded.
I think the hills were steeper on this shortcut to be honest, and the trail was indeed as bad terrain as I thought. I realised that actually this way probably was faster for Fed, but unfortunately I was not as fast on the incline and on the rocks as she was so I think I personally would have been faster on river road. By the end of the trail, my knees started to really hurt and I had to take a break to recover and massage them. I had forgotten that the fact that my body was falling apart would hold me up on this sort of trail. I learnt that next time we have a similar situation we should really just split up temporarily and save ourselves the trouble of someone going on a route they aren’t keen on!
The rest of the way was very nice and easy compared to what we had done on the trip so far! After crossing the river at Sackville on the ferry, I got a burger at the Ebenezer cafe, and Fed headed off before me so she could catch the train she wanted to catch to get back to her home in Sydney. The rain started clearing up and it got pretty sunny, giving me a nice ending to the trip.
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