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We had a great rest at Kirsten’s and really appreciated her letting us stay there. Our plan was to head north and hopefully make Culcairn late in the afternoon. We packed up, cleaned up, and headed across the street to Chris’s & Lauren’s to repeat our thanks and say good-bye. We hadn’t actually met Chris, so that was another reason to stop. We shared quick synopses of our tours — Chris had ridden from St. Louis to NYC and had his bike stolen on his last day in the states. Ouch.
We headed out on a different trail out of town. We were about 4 km (2.4 miles) on our way when I got a WhatsApp call from Dana that something was wrong with her bike. (Remember that yesterday I said “mechanical” without spelling it out!) I rode back and indeed there was a problem. A big problem. Her quick release skewer had snapped at the end. Could have been much, much worse if the wheel had come off — bent wheel, broken spokes, potentially broken bones. None of that happened, but we were still stuck. I discovered that the hub was loose and had spread the fork to where the skewer was supporting the wheel, not the hub axle. I tightened the hub as best I could without the special tools, but we would need a new skewer — not something we carry as a spare part.
I messaged Chris and told him of our predicament. He told us the only bike shop in town had closed down, but that there were a lot of local cyclists who did their own maintenance and builds and they’d probably be able to fix it and get us on the road. I sent a pic of the broken piece and he came back that we could have one off of his bike, as he was headed to Wodonga to the bike shop there that day anyway. I rode back to his house, retrieved the QR, and went back to Dana and put it on. In my haste to get going, I didn’t double-check my work and she went about 5 feet before it broke again. Crap! Double Crap! I messaged Chris about our new predicament and he offered to take us to Wodonga to his fav local shop.
Fortunately, Dana was able to push her bike, gingerly. We walked back to Chris’s and Lauren’s. They made us lunch — a tasty sandwich of hummus and fresh vegetables from their business — a CSA that distributes organically grown veggies that Chris grows in their backyard and at another plot nearby. We also learned that they had run a local coffee shop for 5 years, fortunately taking that shingle down just before COVID hit.
After lunch, we loaded the bikes and Dana in the back of the mini-mini van, and headed off for Wodonga. It was a much quicker trip than we would’ve made, tho it was risky with Dana unbelted in the back. At the Washo’s Bike Shop (Washington’s — the Aussies shorten everything!), the mechanic Kay knew Chris by name and quickly tightened the hub and dug out a couple of used skewers for Dana’s bike and Chris’. No charge! “We like to help out touring cyclists!”
It was now 3:30 PM and we still had 40+ miles to go to get to Culcairn (BTW, the Aussies say “Cul-kaine,” inexplicably ignoring the “r”). We said our good-byes and thanks and hit the trail right behind the bike shop and headed north to Albury and Culcairn. Two climbs at 5 and 18 miles assured that Dana was way out in front with her restored bike. I closed some of the gap in the last 25 miles, but not before my own mechanical. One of my rear rack bolts broke. I tried a quick fix using a tie wrap, but that lasted about as long as my earlier fix of Dana’s bike. I stopped again and pulled out the tool kit and managed to back the broken bolt out of the frame and replace it with a spare one. 10 minutes or so and I was back on the road. Dana got to Culcairn a 1/2 hour before me and scoped out our refreshment place at the Culcairn Hotel, and the local campground.
The beers hit the spot after the long, trying m-e-c-h-a-n-i-c-a-l-s day. The locals on the hotel veranda were having a party of their own waiting for the Friday raffle results, and we got a lot of “Goodonya”s when they asked what we were doing. One offered to take our pic, so after all this time we finally have a different toasting pose vs. our regular selfies.
Dark set in by 8 and we headed to the campground for a new drama. The short story is we were accused of trespassing by the boyfriend of the caretaker, but after some cajoling, got him to send out the caretaker who berated us for not knowing they closed at 7 and that she had to have a life too and the local council didn’t support her, etc., etc. Nothing on the website or posted at the campground said that they closed at 7 or any other time. Quite the opposite, actually. She finally tired of berating us, took our cash (and we assume pocketed it), and gave us the key to the bath/showers. Now legal, we found a relatively dark spot in the overly lit campground in-between the train tracks and the highway. Not a garden spot, but we did get a place to sleep. After a hearty dinner of rice & tuna, we went to bed.
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