We left Melbourne and its suburbs with four new bike tires and a replacement for the drowned battery charger.

Thanks to the good network of cycling paths, the way out of the city was relatively relaxed and only became strenuous when we reached the steep hills to Sugarloaf Reservoir, no slouch! Tired legs had plenty of time to recover the next morning as we waited out a rain front in Yarra Glenn and phoned our families for Christmas.

After the sky had cleared, we set off on the panoramic road “The Black Spur”, climbing through the beautiful forests of the Yarra Ranges National Park. What looked great and traffic-free in pictures turned out to be an unexpected thrill in reality. As much as we love the laid-back, relaxed Australians, when they get behind the wheel, some of them change their faces. Suddenly they can’t go fast enough, they don’t slow down or wait for oncoming traffic before overtaking. Even in blind bends, the speed is not reduced, and last time nobody was coming the other way too. There is plenty of space for cyclists on(!) the side line, otherwise they just simply have to get off the road. As a result, we were afraid in every bend of overtaking maneuvers that were too close with unforeseen oncoming traffic and the risk of collision. Instead of enjoying the great route and giving it a place on our top 10 list, we were just relieved to reach the next village in one piece.

A small heatwave was forecast over the Christmas period. This was a good reason to rest at the Cathedral Range State Park campsite and take a short hike to the viewpoint in the evening. The next day, we took advantage of the cool morning hours to cover the few kilometers to Marysville. Our eyes weren’t even fully awake when we were startled on the rapid descent. David was casually trying to avoid a branch on the road when it suddenly moved. It moved so quickly that braking was no longer possible… so he put his legs up and over it. I followed behind and came to a halt a few meters in front of the snake that had gotten under David’s wheels. We looked at each other, puzzled, and I could tell from her raised head and thick neck that she was not at all happy with our encounter.

After this episode, we find a brief note about our encounters with Australia’s dangerous animals appropriate. Australia is known to be home to the most venomous snakes and spiders on the planet, which puts some people off visiting the country ( aye Alex😉). However, the animals have an incredible amount of space to hide in and only attack humans if they feel threatened. During the last six months in Australia and over 150 nights camping in the bush, we saw two living snakes up close: a non-venomous python in Darwin and precisely the venomous tiger viper near Marysville. We also encountered two nasty hairy (non-poisonous) spiders. More annoying for us were the horseflies, mosquitoes, ants and flies. To back up our impressions with facts, we gathered facts for the following table from the internet and TheGuardian😊:

Back to our journey. With a touch of extra adrenaline in our system, we reached the town of Marysville in time for our snack stop. To our delight, the supermarket, bakery, swimming pool and information center were still open on December 26 and manned by very friendly staff. The ladies at the information center not only answered our questions about the intended route, but also offered us their desks and WiFi so that we could write the last blog post in the air-conditioned room. Plus there was coffee😊. And even better: we weren’t supposed to go to the campsite in the forest four kilometers away to spend the night. We could pitch our tent next to the sports field in the middle of the village without any problems and nobody would bother us there. The pool was also free and open until 6 pm. Wonderful, what more could we want?

However, the fact that the ladies were so worried and didn’t want to send us to the campsite in the forest had a tragic background. Marysville was completely destroyed by a bush fire in 2009, killing 39 of the 520 inhabitants. The fire broke out in a sawmill and reached Marysville, 40 kilometers away, in less than four hours!
A hot wind was also blowing on the day of our stay too, there was a total fire ban and extreme fire danger. It was only now that we really realized that it wasn’t just a matter of not lighting our stove, but that fires can start anywhere very quickly and you have to take shelter from them immediately. There was no question that after a free shower in the swimming pool, we went to the sports field, where we cooked on the installed electric barbecue and were entertained by a group of men of Indian origin.

The wind died overnight and it cooled down by 20°C, which meant that the fire risk was averted and we were able to continue our journey through endless, fragrant eucalyptus forests to the former gold mining area at Woods Point more relaxed. Apart from a few very dusty and busy kilometers before the village of Jamieson, the route with the detour through the King Valley and the Alpine National Park was very rewarding and enjoyable. It was a great surprise that the ultracyclist Heath Ryan approached us and spontaneously invited us to a beer tasting at the King River Brewery😋.

To celebrate the turn of the year, we had arranged to stay with Kate and Graham in Wangaratta. We had already enjoyed their hospitality at the campsite in Lucky Bay and voted them as the best roadhouse in the Nullarbor😊. The joy of seeing them again was correspondingly great! We spent some cozy hours on the beautiful veranda, had plenty of space and helpful utensils to service our bikes, attended the New Year’s Eve fireworks on the sports field and took a trip to Glenrowan, where Australia’s most famous outlaw Ned Kelly fought his last battle. What a great start to the new year, thank you Kate & Graham!

From January 2, we were heading back to the mountains. First to the Mount Buffalo National Park with its impressive granite rocks, which is well worth seeing. From here, our travel rhythm was determined by mountain passes, hot and rainy days and stomach aches. Between Bright and Angler’s Rest it was hot, in Benambra it rained and on the Sassafras Gap David was curled up with a stomach ache. Before the heat, before the rain and before the stomach ache, we tackled a major climb every day and had a lot of fun on the mountain passes.

On the way to Australia’s highest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko, we were just settling in at the Geehi National Park campsite when two young men brought us some tins of tuna and a carton of eggs. They were the colleagues of a hiker who had got lost 14 days earlier and emerged alive from the bush that afternoon. At the search party’s base camp at the campsite, everyone was extremely relieved and overjoyed. The story had been in the news for many days, with news broadcasts reporting live from the area. It was only here, in the center of the action, that we learned about it and rejoiced with the rescuers at the moment of happiness.

On the ascent to Thredbo the next morning, we were overtaken (exemplary!) and cheered on by people in their rescue vehicles. In this way, even the much too steep sections passed quickly and we reached our destination for the day in the mountain village of Thredbo at lunchtime. While looking for WiFi, David found our Warmshower host Michael, who immediately took us into his apartment. Here we laughed about our far too spicy dinner, received valuable information about the surrounding area, had interesting conversations and fell asleep wonderfully in the guest room with a wonderful mountain view.

This morning, we said goodbye to Michael. He had to go to Canberra, but very generously and trustingly left us his home for another night. This gave us plenty of time to climb Mount Kosciuszko on an easy hike in the morning. The fact that we still had time to write this report in the afternoon is thanks to the illicit chairlift ride down into the valley and, of course, Michael’s practical apartment, which we are allowed to occupy until tomorrow. Thank you very much!