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Anne and David were long gone by the time we got up. We got the instructions for closing up and taking care of the dog from them last night. Dana tried to take the dog for a walk, but he was having none of it. We made our breakfast and tried to make friends, but he was very recalcitrant. I pumped all the tires up with David’s real pump and off we went toward our next destination, a hotel/campground in Koorawatha.

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Ahhhh. Very good sleep and much needed rest — for me, at least. Dana was raring to go, but we both forgot the name of where we were going and Janet suggested “Coota-bloody-mundra” as a memory jog. It worked (though we didn’t add the “bloody” part when we were actually in Cootamundra). After making our coffee and posing for some quick pics, Ian was off on an exercise outing with friends.

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Dana got up early to meet Carrie and Ian got up to make her coffee — his expresso machine requires a PhD in baristaology. I slept in, and later learned that Ian went back to bed, too! From all reports, the group ride was a good time and it got Dana at least part of her exercise fix for the morning.

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At the campground, coffee is usually the first task, then nature’s calls, then breakfast, then breaking camp. While not always in that order, though, it was pretty much the way it went today as we prepped to get to Wagga Wagga. Remember Janet and Ian who we met at the campground in Princetown? Well, we are taking them up on their offer to stay with them and that’s our goal for the day, just 100 km (60 miles) away, and with some moderate climbing compared to what we’ve been doing. I truly thought we’d be on a train to Sydney by now, but Dana had other plans.

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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.

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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.