DAY 11 - CANOWINDRA NSW

CANOWINDRA NSW

DAY 11

FORBES - CANOWINDRA

85 km (approx.)

Total Time – 07.30 – 13.00 (5h 30m)

Time on Bike – 4h 38m 29s

Max. speed – 60 km/h (approx.)

Av. Speed 18 km/h (approx.)


A change of plans today.

Well, 2 changes actually.

The original, original plan was from Forbes to a place called Woodstock.

I had some very attractive accommodation lined up near Woodstock, around which it may have been possible to spend at least a few days.

In the last few days, perhaps a change of heart – mainly the threat of backtracking – and Cowra firmed as a much more practical option.

Riding over 50km along Lachlan Valley Way this morning, I arrived in a town called Gooloogong by 11am.

LVW is an entirely flat, yet quite monotonous stretch of highway along the banks of the Lachlan River and worse still, working into a strong headwind, Gooloogong was a welcome respite.

Even better is that the town is junction between several other locations, Canowindra being but one.

Sitting in the shade with my Mango Weis bar, I immediately entertained the direct route to Canowindra as the ideal gateway to my getaway in Woodstock.

Only 30 km to Canowindra (as against 40 to Cowra) and the same again to Woodstock – it hardly felt like backtracking.

It was now or never, so I downed the remainder of my Weis bar and turned left.
And a better route it was – a little hillier, but infinitely more interesting and the wind dissipated almost immediately.

Canowindra (that’s Ca-nown-dra, NOT Cano-windra) is a small but beautiful town.

Small, but still big enough for 4 pubs.

In fact, I drank at the Royal Hotel this evening. Not a lot, but I still had a drink – and some food – pizza, to elaborate.

And as the evening wore on, I learned that the bushranger Ben Hall had robbed the Royal Hotel, not once, but 3 times.

Impressive.

This is of course, the same Ben Hall that was killed by the police in Forbes and still lies there.

I aired my theory over the bar as to whether bushrangers were in fact 19th century freedom fighters.

No, was the emphatic response – common thieves at best and generally bad eggs.

Ben Hall was a possible exception. He was at least a landowner who got pissed off when the police locked him up for a month for something or other and by the time he got out, the local bob had taken off with his wife.

From then on, it was Ben versus the rest.

Sadly, the rest won and Ben was only 27.