Back to New South Wales
Kyeamba Gap
The towns of Albury in NSW and Wodonga in Victoria, are just separated by the ‘mighty’ Murray River. It may be the lifeblood of this part of the country but it seemed anything but mighty to me. The size of the river basin it has to draw water from is mind blowing yet in Ireland there are rivers barely a fraction of its length that are far bigger. Gives some idea of the depth of the problem, the lack of water is out here.
Crossing the river back into NSW the road became a little more fun to ride. The foothills of the Great Dividing Range start here so there were plenty of little climbs to tackle and the bigger hills are in sight off in the distance. It’s been quite some time since I’ve seen any real hills. After being much cooler than usual the last two weeks the weather was warming up again, into the 30′s again.
The smaller, quiet roads eventually gave way to pure highway – the disadvantage of being in sparsely populated mountains, limited choice of roads. So alternative routes were few and far between – not having very detailed maps – I stuck to the highway. I stopped for the night at a place called Kyeamba Gap, a big parking area beside the highway. I pitched the tent behind some bushes, a nice grassy site which was rather comfortable. It’s just about the halfway point between Sydney and Melbourne so all night long there were lots of trucks stopping to change trailers. Rather than go the full distance the regular runs only go halfway and then they swap trailers and head back. I got all the details from some of the truckies. Its a properly time tabled scheduled, most trucks were not waiting longer than 30min before swapping with their colleagues. These guys meet here all the time, one guy had the grill, another had the sausages and bacon, someone else the salad and eggs and fifteen minutes after 4 random trucks pulled in we’re having a full on barbie!
Despite the constant stream of trucks all night long, as soon as I closed my eyes they disappeared. I’m a deep sleeper and after a long day with plenty of climbs I was in a comatose state about half a second after I closed my eyes.