New Day Rising – Day 24

New Day Rising – Day 24

E Sharp

Wentworth River to Livingstone Creek

Gunaikurnai and Jaimathang Country

18 March 2025

My nose and cheeks are cold. I’m curled up in the sleeping bag. Only my face pokes out. Sometime in the night I even had to zip the sleeping bag up to my shoulders. It is delightful after such a long and hot summer.

Poor Verne tumbled out of the sleeping bag at some point in the night, and when I rolled over and reached to move him and Kermit, he was not there. Poor little ectotherm was very cold to the touch when my hand finally found him there on the tent floor in the dark. 

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New Day Rising – Days 21-22

New Day Rising – Days 21-22

E Sharp

Castleburn Creek CG to Jimmy Iversons CG

Gunaikurnai Country

15-16 March 2025

There’s no reason to be up early. I’m not going too far and the weather should be fine. But once I’m awake, I’m awake, so why not get up? The dew is not going to dry on the tent before I’m ready to leave. 

So it’s another early morning ride in the moisture-laden air. The sun is up, the fog is lifting and the wind has not yet woken. We cruise right on down the valley with its steep walls. 

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New Day Rising – Day 20

New Day Rising – Day 20

E Sharp

Echo Bend Camping Area to Castleburn Creek Campground

Gunaikurnai Country

14 March 2025

The cadence is different. The sound of the tyres is different. The difficulty eases. Give me the same grade on chipseal versus gravel or dirt and I virtually fly right along. 

And so we’re flying up the hill today, relatively speaking. After a chugging, rhythmic climb up a medium gravel grade to get out of the campground, we’re slogging along at a decent clip on a long climb on the main road to Dargo. 

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New Day Rising – Day 19

New Day Rising – Day 19

E Sharp

Bairnsdale to Mitchell River National Park

Gunaikurnai Country

13 March 2025

There is a certain thrill riding through traffic in an unknown town at peak hour. You’ve got to read the traffic and the road and navigate all at once. It is even more fun without a GPS, because you’ve got to be looking for street signs or businesses as you go, or glancing down at a map, or referring to the mental map in your head (this is what I’m doing after looking at google maps before setting out). 

Sometimes you’ve got to jump up a kerb, ride the edge of a roundabout and dart across exiting traffic, or figure out your own exit strategy when a bike path suddenly ends. I enjoy thinking quickly and riding at the same time.

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New Day Rising – Days 17-18

E Sharp

Bairnsdale

Gunaikurnai Country

11-12 March 2025

There’s a gravel road on the map named Iguana Creek Road. I like the look of it on the map. It’s got some stacked topo lines in a few spots, but I’m still game. This would get us where we want to go on a hilly backroad rather than the main highway. The only problem is that I’m not quite sure if it is a through road or not.

Google streetview at the beginning of the road down in the floodplain doesn’t seem to have any signs saying NO THROUGH ROAD, but since I’m in town, I will go see if I can get some local advice.

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New Day Rising – Day 16

New Day Rising – Day 16

E Sharp

Tabberabbera Road to Bairnsdale

Gunaikurnai Country

9 March 2025

The panniers are packed up. The fork bags are rolled and clipped closed. I’m sitting in the tent ready to go. I’m just waiting for the rain to ease up just a tiny bit before I chuck the bags outside of the tent and pack the tent as quickly as possible.

I lean back against the bags watching the droplets of rain on the tent get heavier and heavier until gravity grabs them and pulls them down the side of the tent. They streak down like meteors grabbing smaller droplets in their path along the way. I listen to the pitter patter of drops, trying to detect any sign of a lessening in frequency.

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New Day Rising – Days 14-15

New Day Rising – Days 14-15

E Sharp

Tabberabbera Road

Gunaikurnai Country

7-8 March 2025

We’re down deep in the drainage. Slanted, crumbly cliffs of sedimentary shales stand above a bend in the creek downstream. Bushy undergrowth surrounds the campsite, twelve-foot tall scrubby vegetation hiding the floodplain and the impacts of logging. There is little perspective down here in the details, you need to get up above and look down to get any sense of how the landscape is structured and to get a bigger picture of how it all fits together.  Yes, we’re sitting down here in the “i’s” and “t’s” that the Type A’s always have to dot and cross. 

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New Day Rising – Day 13

New Day Rising – Day 13

E Sharp

Marthavale to Tabberabbera Rd

Gunaikurnai Country 

7 March 2025

We wind up the road, my legs pumping in a slow rhythmic churn. Low cloud rims the valley, clustered about the ridge where Baldhead Road runs. We’ve got a 4.5 km climb with about 275 metres of elevation to gain to get to that foggy ridge.

The bike tyres part the thicker gravel like a boat making bow waves. The tyres flick up sandy bits of quartz and ping them against my shins. I ride outside edge to outside edge up the many curves to avoid the corrugated inner parts. 

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