Barraba lions park to Bingara

 Barraba Lions Park to Bingara = 67km
Cummulative totals = 1373km and 21,374km
Bingara caravan park = $19 unpowered

It was our coldest night last night ... in fact more the morning.  I did begin to feel the cold about mid morning and realised that all the feathers in my sleeping bag are either to the left of my body or under Kouta at the moment ... so I must ruffle up the bag tonight to recenter them!
Neil pipes up that it is 9 degrees by his thermometer in the annex so I tell him to place it outside to get a true reading ... it was 4 degrees!  So over breakfast we moaned and complained about our cold fingers and we moaned and complained even more when we had to pack up the wet tent!  Since it was cold we also had a fog ... only a light one ...

 it soon lifted and once the sun popped over the treeline we thought we might warm up more but alas only Kouta could sleep and enjoy the warm sun ...

we were on the road at 7.15am keen to get the first 15km out of the way before any traffic came.
5km out of Barraba we came across the perfect bridge, the road leading to the bridge and also merging with the bridge were seamless ...

 the 2 lines going across the photo are where the road joins the bridge ... now all bridges in Australia do not have a seamless join like this ... this one you didn't feel it at all ... others usually have a massive bump, drop, gap or pot hole where the road joins the bridge ... so we had to take a photo of this unique bridge!

 So just out of Barraba you also get a warning that there is an overtaking lane in 5km which can only mean 1 thing - a steep hill by car standards that requires an overtaking lane ... so we braced ourselves and sure enough as soon as we saw it we remembered it!  It was about a 7-8%er and about 1km long.  It was so good to be doing it this early in the morning with no traffic.  About half way through I wanted to stop and get off the bike but I soldiered on!  I was gasping for air and sweating like a waterfall by the time I got to the top ... my glasses were all fogged up (not sure if that was from all the heavy breathing!) Just down the road we came across this sign so we must be somewhere near the top ...

 actually we are not near the top as it goes along a tableland and then up and down for the next 20km only to have an almighty 10km down hill about 30km out from Bingara ... sensational!

I had my breaks on for this part as it was exceptionally steep, about the same as this morning 7-8% and on our way down there was this peanut bus that was going up this incline about as slow as what we were this morning!

So you go down for 10km before it tapers off and despite you still going down slightly you still had to pedal to assist so that you are going about 19km per hour so Bingara was soon upon us!  There wasn't alot of traffic today - plenty of caravans spread over about 2 hours, a few trucks and local traffic.  Not like the traffic we are hearing about along the coast roads ... you would think most people would learn and stay away from those holiday places and come inland a bit, but no part of their holiday is spending hours stuck in traffic!

Bingara is a popular place especially for Easter as there is free camping along the river and up towards the dam but the road is not suitable for us ride up there.  The river in the town is very low so we won't be going swimming tomorrow.

We are at the caravan park and it is very nice, we got here around 12.15pm and there is no place for unpowered camping so the woman has put us on the border between the local park and the caravan park (the unpowered section is now devoted to cabins!).  So we are in a fab spot that will have shade all day and it we want to warm up in the sun we only have to move our chairs out a bit!

We have our shopping for 2 days and Neil bought me a romantic treat for easter ... no not a big easter egg ... can you guess? ... yes you are on the right track if you just thought that it is a markdown .... no it is not near its' use by date .... it is 2 months PAST its' use by date! ... ha ha ha it is a 6 pack of christmas mince pies!  We just had one with our cuppa and they are lovely!  So we are here for tomorrow and will go to Warialda on Saturday.