Month: March 2026 (Page 2 of 2)

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In the morning after a good rest and a hearty breakfast, we took a walk around Ian’s and Prue’s Wangaratta neighborhood. Saw a permanent kids’ bicycle training course, complete with a working railroad crossing. Quite a setup — would be great to have something like that in SC (along with an adult version! 😉 Ian then escorted us out of town on the bike path he suggested we take instead of heading straight north. I was happy because it was on 45 miles vs. the two 75+ days we just had.

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We had a good rest at the campground and got up early for another long day in the saddle. We made breakfast in the kitchen, packed up, and rode out of Mansfield on our way to our next stop, Wangaratta and our next Warmshowers hosts, Ian and Prue.

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Another good night’s sleep and we were up to see Will off to a job near Mansfield, where we were also headed thanks to his pointing out “The Great Victorian Rail Trail” (GVRT) to us. We also met his neighbors, Bryan and Jessica. Bryan was the orchestrater of the garden, and Jessica is a transplanted American originally hailing from Armonk, NY. Will and Bryan loaded us up with Italian yellow beans which were part of last night’s dinner and made great snacks on the road.

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We got some sleep despite the dance party and Dana bargained with reception for a late checkout, but settled for a comp breakfast (which was extra at this hotel). We filled up on eggs, potatoes, mini waffles, fruit, and bread. Probably one of the few multi-option breakfasts we have had, but also a good start to the day.

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After a good night’s rest, we had breakfast and left Maggie’s for a walk in the rain to the train station to get our tickets for that afternoon. A quite easy process and we were soon walking around town. One thing we’ve noticed in both NZ and Australia is that the downtown areas are still very vibrant. Lots of small shops and restaurants with awnings covering the sidewalks so you can window shop out of the rain. Even when there are big box stores, they are located in or close to downtown in a mall, but very few malls or big box stores as we know them — well outside the downtown surrounded by macadam parking lots. Sunday morning the cafes were full of people as were the streets.