5-7 Jan 2024. Bombala to Jindabyne via Nimmitabel.

Cycling Days: 3 Rest Days: 0 Distance: 160kms
Ascent: 2,630m Time: 14.75hrs

We stretched the final 2 days into 3 by adding in another Monaro plains country town and more gravel roads. We weren’t ready to get off the bikes yet. The high plains are a mix of grazing country, granite rocks, forestry and very interesting locals!

“Tooth” entertained us at the Nimmitabel pub reciting Banjo Patterson poetry from his barman seat. He was the real deal with a well worn akubra hat, long grey beard and many stories. “Bossman” who was also the chef loved to chat about the history of the area when he wasn’t serving up 70’s style meals. The highlight was watching the food orders being sent by Tooth to Bossman via a 1990’s Nokia phone!

A stop for coffee at the Royal Arms B&B cafe turned into a 2hr visit as we shared the perils of heritage guesthouse owners with Diane and Grant who have also been there 9 years. What a lovely cheery couple – hope they accept our invitation to visit us at Glenella one day (we even have space for their 8 children!)

This area of the Monaro plains offered scenic gravel roads through farming area with small rolling hills that kept the legs honest. The big climb was left to the final day when we had a 3km brutal ascent into Jindabyne along the Snowy River Way. Even with the chalk writings across the road motivating us (it’s obviously a Strava climb) it still took us an hr to slog up. Then a half-hour tea break to recover! One item added to our gear list this trip was a plastic “table” cloth for placing on the ground to prepare our teas. We cut it up from an emergency rain poncho left behind by one of our Argentinian workers, thank you Manu!

It was with mixed feelings that we arrived at our friends house to collect our car. We didn’t want the experience to end but we were also happy to swap our tent for our caravan. Our faces felt a little weathered from the sun, wind and rain but bodies felt reasonably good ….. maybe we’ll take on the Hunt 1000 next !!

We’re truly grateful to have the physical ability and time off to do such a cycle tour :))