Bruthen to Tostaree

BRUTHEN - TOSTAREE BUSH CAMP = 40km (via East Gippsland Rail Trail)
Cummulative total = 455km

Still no internet reception out this far and not too sure if we will get it in Orbost so I will type this as a document and post it on the blog when we get the internet reception.
Today we continued on with our journey through the East Gippsland Rail Trail. We started out with a gentle meandering climb to Colquhoun, since it is a rail trail the gradient for the climb is nice and easy. On our way up we encountered some cattle on the trail and they wouldn't budge so Neil was carefully shooing them off the path meanwhile Kouta was going absolutely bananas in his little trailer, he was desperately trying to get out and have a go at them! We climbed for around 12km and the a gentle decent to Stony Creek and on our way down we saw a wallaby and again a little further on. At Stony Creek we came across our first trestle bridge. Now these are really old and are not used as part of the trail, it is a pity as it would be fantastic to ride along them ... I suppose safety should come first! Since you don't go over the trestle bridges the trail has a very steep and gravelly descent and then on the other side there is a very steep ascent, of which it was safer to get of the loaded bikes and walk down and up these descents and ascents!

A little further on we saw (at least we think is was) a Lyre bird so Neil went a bit 'David Attenborough' and got excited and quickly got the camera out to take photos of it.

We got to Nowa Nowa at around lunch time and dipped our feet in the river there at the recreation ground. Now that was a welcomed relief as the day was beginning to heat up ... here we were a week a go freezing and now we have a hot 28 degree day! mind you I am loving the hot weather and believe it or not and I think this is the first time I have ever done this but I had to put sunblock on my arms!!! as I could feel the sun burning them.
From here the rail trail became very steep and extremely rough in places to Tostaree. Originally we were going to come back to Tostaree on our way to Lakes Entrance but since the trail is really rough we have decided to go via the road. I think the trail is okay for unloaded bikes but since we are carrying a bit of weight with each bike the rough gravelly parts are really hard to navigate.
But in saying that we are bush camping tonite and are camped not quite under one of the trestle bridges along the trail. It is a beautiful spot next to Hospital creek, we even had a quick wash in the creek as it is a very hot day and the salt and sweat quickly builds up so a refreshing cool dip in the creek was a must.

Tomorrow it is a very shot trip to Orbost where we will rest for a couple of days.