After riding my mountain bike from Adelaide to Darwin in 2005, I was keen for another such adventure, but one that returned to the kind of back roads I travelled when riding from Sydney to Melbourne in 2004. I hatched the idea of riding from the southernmost tip to the northernmost tip of mainland Australia, and rather than riding along the main (coastal) highway, try and ride a straight-line route that would necessarily take me on back roads and through a variety of terrains and climates.

Wilsons Promontory to Cape York by bike - Mount Hope to Cobar

Day: 010
Date: Sunday, 6 August 2006
Summary: Riding from Mount Hope to Cobar.
Start: Mount Hope
Finish: Cobar
Daily Kilometres: 161
Total Kilometres: 1140
Weather: Very cold early but mild and mostly sunny for the rest of the day with a light, mostly following, wind.
Accommodation: Motel in Cobar, NSW.
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Cereal and toast
  Lunch:  A few light snacks during the day
  Dinner:  Thai curry.
Encounters: Saw a couple of families of feral goats.
Highlights: An enjoyable day cycling through outback lightly timbered grazing land in beautiful weather on a road with little or no traffic.
Lowlights: The “mild” Thai curry I ordered for dinner at the Cobar Bowling Club turned out to be very hot and seared the last bits of skin off my wind-chapped lower lips as I set sweating profusely in the restaurant, dunking my lip and tongue in a glass of Diet Coke every so often.

Journal:
I decided not to start too early in view of the cold temperatures experienced yesterday, so took my time getting a breakfast of cereal and toast in the truckies dining room taking care not to make too much noise.  I then left about 7:45am after saying my good-byes to Suzanne (the publican) and another resident who was up.  It was again very cold and there was frost on the ground.  However, by 9:00am it had warmed up sufficiently to strip down to just my T-shirt again.

There was almost no traffic and I felt like I had the world to myself as I pedalled through the mildly undulating lightly-timbered arid grazing country.  Occasionally the road passed small hills/mountains and it was tempting to take a break and hike up one to see the view, although I’m sure it would have taken quite some time.

As usual, I stopped every 20-25km for a short break and had a slightly longer break around noon.  There were no towns along the whole route today.  My pace was good and, in the afternoon, I found a barely audible radio station broadcasting the Geelong football game to listen to.  I reached Cobar around 4:00pm, although it took another 20 minutes and multiple attempts before I found somewhere reasonably-priced to stay.

On the recommendation of the motel manager I ate at the local bowling club and regretted ordering the Thai curry, which was very hot.
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