30th Nov - Buchan Caves to Suggan Buggan - The Barry Way

Try again to get to Jinderbyne.....

Peter and Mirran very kindly offer to give me a lift to where I left off yesterday so that I could still get to Jindabyne by Wednesday night (2 days). Peter warned me that with all of the unsealed roads it would be a really hard ride but really beautiful.

They dropped me off at Buchan Caves (about 5km on from were I left yesterday) and we went for a coffee at the lovely cafe in the small town. I left them at 10am to do the tour of the caves ($16). It was really cool. There was only me and a family of 4 on the tour so it was great as we were able to stop and take loads of photos. Heather, the tour guide, very kindly said that I could stay with her 23km up the road on her co-operative farm but I decided that if I am to get to Jindabyne in 2 days time I needed to get further tonight.

Left the caves about 11.30 and headed up out of Buchan on the Barry Way for about 25km. It was a good climb up but my legs were feeling really strong today and I enjoyed the ride. I popped into the WWOOFing center (www.wwoof.com.au) to say hello and eat my lunch. WWOOF stands for Willing Workers On Organic Farms. The idea is that you work on an organic farm and in return you get food and accommodation. It is a great world wide organisation. I have done some WWOOFing in the past in America.

The Australian office is based in the middle of no where in beautiful countryside. There is a house and an office attached. It is the base for the whole of Australia. They do not get many people just popping in but were really welcoming and gave me tea and biscuits :-) Lovely people.

I then headed off for the long ride to Suggan Baggan. It was hard going as it rained non stop from when I left the WWOOFing center to Suggan Baggan. After about 30km from the WWOOFing center the road turns from a sealed road to unsealed.

They have had a large amount of rain over the last few days and the unsealed road had turned to mush! It was hard peddling. I did not see another car going in my direction from when I hit the unsealed road to Suggan Baggan. The unsealed road down into Suggan Baggan goes down for about 20km through beautiful forested mountains. I managed to wear through my break pads with all of the gravel on the tyres and holding on to my breaks. My hands also went numb. It was well worth it though!

It as 7ish by the time I got to Sudden Baggan. I had hoped to get to Willis (another 20km) today but I thought it better to stop and set up camp before it got too dark etc. Sudden Baggan has a free camping area with a bush toilet and a river running close to it. There was no one else there and I had not seen anyone else for hours. The houses in the tiny village are all well set back from the road, down dirt road tracks and so the area felt very isolated.

I put up my tent and ate my canned soup and instant noodle - becoming a habit! It did not stop raining though and I got too wet and cold. Once you get wet and cold it can be difficult in a tent to warm up again - particularly when your dry clothes get damp when changing from wet clothes to dry clothes in the middle of a small one person tent. Spent most of the night shivering. Woke up in the middle of the night and put on every item of clothing that was not wet - much better after that :-) Still not a great nights sleep but a great day biking through the mountains and wilderness.