Day 581 | Bumberrah Railway Station (extinct): almost total civilisation
81 km | zzOz total: 19,293 km
I met another cyclist in Bruthen, who was heading up to Jindabyne on the path I’ve just travelled.
He wasn’t happy.
Australia’s got too many fences, hard to camp, apparently, and it’s too expensive, well I can agree with that except I’ve been earning in those large Australian dollars.
He had just bought four 2 litre bottles of Coke for $20, I asked him why he didn’t just drink the water, after all the 8 litres of water I just filled up from the tap is chlorinated, and free, but his English suddenly disappeared and he quickly followed.
He had spent 10 months, or it might have been three, it was hard to make out, biking from Cairns to somewhere, Melbourne from the direction he was coming, perhaps, and had gone through Brisbane on his severely overloaded recumbent. Seems he overindulged in Australia’s most difficult roads for a cyclist, the Bruce and Pacific Highways, just a constant stream of trucks and caravans all bidding for the label of Australia’s Worst Driver.
I leapt onto the East Gippsland Rail Trail and have coincidentally ended up where I encountered my first long distance bike tourer, Wilbert was his name I later found out from Mirjam, a minimalist when it came to accompanying baggage, who had biked from Holland to Australia, via India, then cycled Perth to Alice Springs via the Great Central Road, first time I heard of it, and then via the Plenty Highway to Noosa and was wrapping up his excursion in Melbourne just a few days after I met him.
I was so green back then I can’t believe it but after meeting my French cyclist today I think I’ve made some progress in cycle touring nouse in the last four years.