Cowra to Jamberoo
8 February 2019
Master Map
It was a pretty nice morning, although rain was forecast. For the sake of my in-laws, I hoped I'd get a good soaking, because gee they needed it, but it was not to be.
The GPS took me on a road through Cowra that led me over an old bridge and under the new one on the other side.
I was quickly in the country on a road I'd not ridden before, past a wee church …
… and plenty of rocky hills.
I spent a little time on a road I have ridden in the past before turning off into new country. Not a great road surface, but a great ride along a largely deserted road through the country on a lovely day. Aside from the fact that it was getting gradually hotter, what could be better.
Somewhere in the bush I swept around a corner and saw a very large lizard on the road. Before I could get a photograph, it was off up a tree and I got only this poor shot of its tail. I can assure you I wouldn't want one running up me!
On the main Boorowa-Crookwell Road I met a large herd of cattle grazing the long paddock and it took me longer than I expected to work my way quietly through it. At least I didn't cause a stampede this time.
Shortly afterwards I ran into one of the largest swarms of jumping insects I've ever come across. They were a sort of grasshopper and were thoroughtly unnerving when I first saw them as I thought they were small pebbles on the road.
If you click on the next photo and then magnify it, you can make out the spots I mean.
In this next picture, you can see what they look like close up.
Then, in this next one, I fluked a shot of one of them jumping. Again, follow the link to the photo, blow it up and you can see a yellow spot to the left of centre. That's a grasshopper. Probably moments before I hit it and it became an ex-grasshopper.
In the 60 or so kilometres from when I first encountered them until I got to Crookwell, I was constantly bombarded by them and must have dispatched several hundred thousand to bug heaven.
That's a fine collection of grasshopper internals on my boots
I picked this one off the bike at Crookwell
Blow this picture up and you can see the CB's wheel and engine covered with them. A bit overcooked, they weren't good eating.
For some reason I didn't bother too much with photographs for the remainder of the trip to Robertson. Riding towards it, I was chasing a large black cloud and the road was getting wet. I stopped for a pie (See Day 5) and, while I was eating it, the mist descended.
I found a place to stay at the bottom of the Jamberoo Mountain Road (a wonderful ride) because, although it was isolated, it offered a restaurant and was cheap.
Ha! When I got there, I found the restaurant was open only for functions and there wasn't one; nor was there a bar. A quick ride to Jamberoo remedied those deficiencies and I passed a pleasant evening—first with a swim, then watching a most excellent storm rage about me as I drank a beer or two and ate my dinner.
