It was a much warmer night and I didn't even need my sleeping bag till the early morning hours. Best of all there was no dew either, and I got moving just after 6am. The pack up went a lot faster as a result and I was on the move an hour later having returned my key for the campground at the general store and had a chat with a curious grey nomad who came over to investigate the weirdo with the world's smallest tent [especially when compared with the sprawling motor home + gazebo set ups, not that I'm jealous].
I had 2 options today, dictated by the train timetable from Bairnsdale back to Melbourne: Option 1 was to go hell for leather and try cover the 100km by lunchtime. The benefit of this is a 5pm arrival in Melbourne and getting home for a proper meal without having to ride the last bit in the dark. Option 2 was a more leisurely paced ride to make a 4pm train and get to Melbourne at night. I think you can probably guess which option I took...
The road was really quiet and my legs ok on the flat bits but still a bit pumped with lactic acid from all the climbing yesterday, so I was in Donkey mode again for any climbs. Although there was lots of downhill from here there was still 900m up so I was only 50/50 confident of making option 1.
After the hamlet of Ensay the road drops into a tight gorge next to the river, and is totally spectacular riding. I only took 1 photo here which I will probably regret later, but did film sections with my little handlebar mounted gopro.
 |
| The Tambo river |
Mostly I focused on keeping moving, there were no supplies the whole way till Bruthen, but one could probably stealth camp on this section if you were stocked up with provisions.
 |
| Lower quality still from GoPro - not much space in the Tambo gorge |
At Bruthen I had my only short break, necking 3 drinks from the servo, and another musli bar. From here you can either get a rail trail which is, 32 km to Bairnsdale on unsealed paths, or stay on the b500 which was 25km. I had actually ridden this section of the bike path before on my Melbourne to Sydney ride many years ago.
I took the slightly faster B500, and it was not a good option I might add. It's hairy, very not ok for cyclists even with a small shoulder. There are 2 reasonable hill climbs as well. But at least 25km is not far at all and soon I hit outer Bairnsdale, in time for the train even with a quick cafe stop included which turned out to be lucky as there is no food on the train.
Back in Melbourne I ended up riding home fromt he station , adding another 30km to the total.
So that wraps up Bagels Alpine Crossing, 2 days riding in the end, but 3 days elapsed with the train trips. Mt Hotham fully lived up to all expectations, beautiful, tough, rewarding..even as a day rider. Carrying a heavy load it's a notch harder, but the scenary coming down the valley on the southern side is well worth doing a whole crossing and nice camping.
Another option might be to travel light and sleep inside but you would have to book ahead for this most of the year round I suspect.
Thank you Mt Hotham for seriously testing my limits and letting me pass through safely!
Day 3 Stats:
- Distance: 95.03 + 32.07 = 127.01
- Elevation gain: 923m
- Calories: 5308
No comments:
Post a Comment