A Geriatric Pub Crawl Though The Mary Valley - Day 2

This morning I woke up about 6.00am which is late for me.  I had slept right through from 9.00pm without even a trip to the loo down the hall.

I had a continental breakfast provided by the hotel on the verandah.

My breakfast view

 

The layout of the hotel,s accommodation. 

This is today's route showing that there is a nice climb at the start with a great swoop down then a bumpy ride fore rest of day.

I decided to have a second breakfast in Kenilworth before starting off and had a ham and cheese croissant accompanied by a flat white coffee.

The start of the ride from Kenilworth.

Another rather gruesome scarecrow on the way out of Kenilworth.

 

 

The start of the day's ride

The climbs are about to start.

This picture was taken on straight part of a very windy climb. The road is quite wide here with a nice grassed area to stand safely.  Later it gets narrower,  steeper and the grass verge disappears.  This where I get off , cross the road and walk facing the on coming traffic.  As there is a double white centre line any body overtaking me while I was climbing slowly (less than 6KPH) on the left would either have to overtake on the wrong side of the road which is very likely, sit behind me and wait which seldom happens or run me of the road which has happened. By walking facing the oncoming traffic I can take evasive action.

 

At the top of the big climb is a lookout with a great view.  There was a four wheel drive parked there and the lady passenger got out to talk.  Apparently their phone line was down and this was the closest spot they could get from their house in the valley with mobile connection.  I didn't get any all day.

Another climb and back to walking on the right

More climbing but with pretty oleander bushes.

 

An interesting profile.  I wonder if this was caused by quarrying?

I did ride most of the way and turned off the Mary Valley Highway towards the little community of Brooloo along a very narrow and rough road with little of no traffic.

This was the reason.  The Bellbirds were in full voice, well little tinkles actually. 

I entered Imbil from a side road behind the showgrounds.

and headed out towards Lake Borumba.  My route shows me going all the way but I turned back after a couple of kilometres.

I wanted to get some pictures of the Little Yabba Creek. I explain way later.  This looking up the creek.

This is looking down the creek.

The Railway Hotel Imbil which Helen and I saw back in April on our Mary Valley Rattler Train ride.  Unfortunately the volunteer organisation running the Rattler has gone broke and the rides are stopped for the time being.

I couldn't resist this mural painted on the front of the public toilets.  Gentlemen to the left and Ladies to the right.

Imbil Town Hall

The Imbil to Kandanga Bridge over the Little Yabba Creek.  In February 1999 Margaret and I with our big Poodle, Pierre took our caravan to the Lake Borumba Deer Park camp grounds for a few days.  We had a lovely few days and nearly stayed on for another day but Margaret remembered a previous appointment.

We hitched up the van in pouring rain when the owner came up and told us to get a move on as the Little Yabba Creek was beginning to rise.  There are several low bridges between the Deer Farm and Imbil and a we drove home Margaret noted that the water was very high.  That evening the news was all about the Mary River floods.  Every bridge was damaged and this bridge was actually swept away.  The camp ground was cut off for seven days without power and the remaining campers lived of defrosted venison!

We went back to Imbil to camp on several other occasions and Margaret loved the little village.

The Little Yabba Creek from the bridge.

I rode on to Kandanga by the back road and had one other short stretch to walk.

At the hotel I was make welcome by Terry the owner and licensee and shown to another typical little pub room.  I was joined by Matt and Rhianna  who were part of an off road motor cycle group.  Both had had tumbles and had taken the afternoon off.   Rhianna's husband was leading the group through the local forests and we were waiting for the rest of the group to return.  I had a couple of drinks with them and this together with the lousy internet connection delayed this blog.  When the others returned I had dinner with five or them, Matt and Rhianna, her husband and two other mad motorcyclist.  I found them very entertaining company but was tired so went off to bed about 9.00pm.