Stage 4 - Wodonga to Wangaratta 67km (15-Mar-2021)

Sometimes I wonder what to write in the blog especially when I have little expectation of the ride but hey, you know each ride tells its story and today’s was no different. Before I go into our experience of today’s ride, some unfinished business from yesterday. Last night, for dinner Ursi had a pumpkin ravioli and I had chicken, mushroom and dried tomato fettuccine at the pub which was full to the rafters. One word to sum the eating experience “delicious.

Coming back to today, again greeted by a clear sunny blue sky, typical autumn weather so we are told by the locals; for breakfast we both had rolled oats with Greek yoghurt and a little milk with a cut up apple and pear (which we bought from the local store the night before), washed down with coffee for Ursi and a chai latte for me. That is typical of our daily breakfast. For lunch, we buy slices of ham or chicken and bread rolls along the way which is also typical of our lunches in between snacks depending on our energy needs.

We were on the road by 9am, a tad fresh but warmly dressed and the layers of clothing came off along the ride as the sun got higher and we got warmer from the cycling. On today’s ride, we had the Hume Highway on our right and paddocks, mostly grazing land with cattle or sheep and the odd ponies on our left. It was a quiet road for us cyclists with hardly a car on the road.

We were now approaching Ned Kelly country, namely the little towns of Barnawartha and Chiltern. Not a lot to see or do in Barnawartha but it had its general store, which also doubles up as a post office and news agency, a pub and a church of course.

Chiltern is something else, it takes you back to the way life once was, well maintained and preserved architecture where we stopped at the highly recommended (by my mate, Ellwood) bakery for a Danish pastry, cappuccino for Ursi and a (one of the best) chai latte for me. Even called my mate Ellwood from the bakery so he could enjoy the moment with us all be it virtually with my description. Could have stayed there longer but it was time to move on, but before I do that, going to insert a lot of photos taken in Chiltern and I won’t apologies for it, hope they do the town justice.

Also took an opportunity to indulge in taking photos of ourselves on our way out of Chiltern.

So far, we had experienced smooth roads and 15km outside of Chiltern, we had a choice to take a short cut via a dirt road to Wangaratta or add another 10km to our ride on a sealed road. At the start of the dirt road, we collectively decided it was a better option to soldier on. I must admit, I love it when a stage consist of different kinds of riding surfaces, not sure about Ursi, I think she finds the gravel on the dirt road a tad bumpy for her comfort. It’s on these dirt roads, our steel touring bikes come to the fore. Here are the road surfaces we rode on today.

Approaching the outskirts of Wangaratta, we were blessed with a bike path that took us all the way to our motel and noticed the architecture was from a bygone era. After a shower and lunch, we went for a walk through the town, bought the necessary shopping for tonight’s dinner (decided not to go out tonight) and tomorrow’s breakfast. Tomorrow is the penultimate stage all along the rail trail to the historic town of Beechworth. Here are some photos of Wangaratta.