Busy roads and a Bills Trough

Our journey is still going well as we cycle out of Avoca. We stop by the Avoca Railway Station, now an art gallery, but it is too early for us to do anything but roam around outside and peer into the windows. We get back on the bikes and ride out of Avoca to Lower Homebush, once a thriving gold mining settlement, but now quiet farmland.

There’s more traffic on the roads than we are used to: hay trucks, cars with caravans, other heavy vehicles. The riding isn’t as nice, but it is fast in almost still conditions, even on the undulating roads. We regroup a few times, and after one final climb and downhill (thanks to Mt Hooghly), we reach Dunolly where we lunch at the excellent Dunolly Bakery.

After lunch there’s a 15km ride to Tarnagulla, a place I reckon I have never been in all my life. We’re still on a sealed, fairly busy road till we reach Tarnagulla. Phill and I go off looking for a Bills Trough, which is a located at the Tarnagulla Sports and Recreation reserve, which itself appears to have been repurposed as a caravan/camping park. Phill’s been hunting these troughs down all the way along our trip.

From Tarnagulla we have the bliss of a quiet gravel road all the way through to Newbridge, where we load up the bikes, high five ourselves and enjoy an icecream before driving to our last night stop at the Marong Caravan Park.

Our route today ran a little north of Thomas and his story. For Thomas, there was happy news of a new baby in the family. Baby Jane was born where they were camped at Daisy Hill. I don’t believe Thomas mentioned anywhere in his diaries that Maria was pregnant when they left Burra. Given it took about ten weeks for their whole journey, she would have been heavily pregnant most of the way, bouncing around on the back of the dray, trying to look after three children and presumably having to feed her whole family.

You can imagine the modern day conversation. Thomas comes home and says, “Honey, we’re heading to Victoria.”

Maria looks up from peeling potatoes. “I want a divorce.”

1852 March 30 At night My Wife was confine in Jane. She never had a better time. Child born and all right in little time. Sister Mary Thomas present. We had a splendid tent on our dray of close tick. All our bedding in fact it was as comfortable as a bedroome. The following night Maria in her sleep being covered rather close put out her arms, turned back the clothes and gote cold about the arms, brest and neck. She awoke me about 3 o’clock and said she was cold. I gote her something hot at once. She improved but never gote right as before. She had an attack of disentery. We was now 10 miles from Busembank, 6 miles from the Pirenees and 25 miles from Mt Alexander. We stoped a week.

Jane Ninnes was born at Daisy Hill on 20 March 1852 on our way to the diggens

Tomorrow … we travel to Maiden Gully and our final stop on this ride!

Stats for today:

• Distance: 62.7km
• Climb: 348m
• Average speed: 19.3km/h
• Average temperature: 22C
• Moving time: 3:15:11
• See our ride on Strava

The beer picture

At the end of a day’s ride, our tradition is to enjoy a beer, and to photograph it for posterity. Today’s beer picture was taken at the Marong Big4 caravan park. Beer only today.

Along the way today: