OCT 10, 2004
| I think it dropped below freezing overnight - everything was covered in frost when we got up!! It was a very cold night. I had a flat just as we left the campsite, then we cycled along the "Alpine Way" into Thredbo at the beginning of the Kosciuszko National Park. |
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| Interesting town catering to snowboarders, and the snow season has just ended. The architecture is intriguing - all metal sided and rooved buildings in a very modern style. By the time we left it was nearly 11 am. |
| From there we cycled to Dead Horse Gap (well, OK, I pushed my bicycle up) which has an elevation of 1582 metres. We were told it would basically be downhill and flat from there. They were very wrong. It was about 80 kms from there to Khancoban. About 30 kms of it were downhill, and some steep, twisty hills, but most of the rest of it was climbing. It took us 9 hours to cover those kms. I figure I probably walked at least 15 kms, pushing my bicycle uphill. I was having an awful time. |
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On a descent I was bitten by something that flew down my jersey.
It burned like fire and left quite a lump for a while (but it seems OK now).
I was also so tired from all the cycling I've done lately (close to 900 kms in about 9 days!!) and just did not have the strength to make it up the hills. |
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Meanwhile I knew that time was ticking away and it would be after dark before I got off the
mountain. It was. I did the final descent in the dark by the light of my helmet light and a battery light - my dynamo isn't working right. I was so relieved to pull into Khancoban until we discovered that it is a deserted little town at 8pm on a Sunday night. |
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We did find a pub (imagine Crocodile Dundee's bar in the Outback) and managed to get a
room in a deserted Backpackers Lodge that didn't look like it had been occupied in the last
decade. Everything was deteriorating, and the most recent brochures I could find dated 1995. It was very strange and a bit creepy. Even the clock in the pub had stopped some time before. (94 kms) |
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