Ups and downs

From 34 degrees celsius in the shade at Colac Colac (note the bike rider's stockings),

to an overnight low of 6 degrees at Paddys River Flats free camping ground, just shy of Tumbarumba,

it has been a short leg of ups and downs, but mainly ups.

We left Colac Colac refreshed and recharged ready for what we knew would be a few big days in the saddle, regardless of which route we took.

We wanted to go through the Snowy Mountains (Khancoban, Thredbo, Cooma etc), but we have Zero with us and (the long and the short of it is) dogs are only permited to pass through National Parks in climate changing cars. Say it like it is Zero!

So we headed north, crossing the Murray into New South Wales at Towong,

and climbed and climbed and strained and at times got off and pushed our heavy loads

right up into the clouds

so we could look out across to Tidbillaga, one of the many Indigenous names for the Snowy Mountains,

and like true ecological mammals, return some precious nutrients to the soil before tackling the afternoon's ascent.

It was an extrutiating 64 kms to Paddys River Flats where the weather turned cold and wet and Woody experienced rain on a tent for the first time. Things got a little wet overnight so we packed up and cooked breakfast in the camp ground amenities,

before we realised Patrick's bike had more issues, this time electrical. With the climb up such ascents as Clarkes Hill (742m above sea level) we've been relying on some electrical assistance. Now we're in NSW the stretches between towns is greater and the chance to recharge the bikes reduced.

Out of the half dozen or so campers at Paddys River Flats was Graeme, a fully licensed electrician. We couldn't believe our luck.

Graeme scrutinised the root cause of the problem while his partner Julie brought us all cups of tea. He ascertained that moisture had got into the controller, something not fixable in the bush, so he offered to take Patrick's panniers into Tumbarumba when he went in to do some shopping and we set off to climb another 18 km into town and find a camp spot here,

hidden behind the melaleucas in the town's park, nestled among the leaf litter

where we can fish for trout, use the municipal BBQs, toilets, power, playground, drinking water, wake with the birds, wait for a new controller to arrive, and

generally practice our particular form of creative frugality.

With every problem comes surprise and delight

We have spent five nights camped at the very beautiful Colac Colac Caravan Park awaiting parts to fix Patrick's wheel. We have practiced free-range parenting, the art of patience and some wild food gathering, bringing us more delicious loquats,

and...

This lovely mama went straight back in the Nariel Creek from where we clutched her. It is now 'closed season' for Murray spiny freshwater crayfish (Euastacus armatus).

Over our short stay we have got to know nearby Corryong by riding into town for supplies.

We've also got to know a little about the horse thief Jack Riley, romanticised with ample hyperbole as the good-boy-hero Man from Snowy River, buried in the town. Thanks for the history lesson Warwick!

We have been touched by people's generosity. Phil, our host at the caravan park, organised the wheel to be couriered to the Albury bikeshop, made numerous phone calls on the progress of the repair and kept us in good humour when it looked like a much longer wait than first thought. Thanks Phil!

Our friendly neighbours in the park loaned us their bike so we could all go on local expeditions. Thanks John and Jenny!

And these lovely women who we met in Corryong, gathered up their freshest garden produce including a dozen eggs and brought them out to us at Clack Clack. Thanks Nina, Eden and Jum!

Your food was a blessing. By living out of our own garden, food swaps, community gardens, food co-ops and by foraging and hunting we haven't had to shop in supermarkets for nearly seven years. On this trip, with much less access to local food, we are finding out first-hand just how impoverished the industrial-corporate food industry is. At home we would avoid any food grown in another state, on the road we're struggling to find bought food made in Australia. It was great to be able to cook up local garden frittatas for the neighbours on our last night.

There is just nothing like real food that has come from loved earth. Until science is freed from the economic imperatives of industry, people are going to be kept in the dark about how innutrituous, health-degrading and ecologically damaging our modern food supply really is. The annual increases in pharmaceutical medicine is proof enough that much modern food is woeful deception dressed up by PR firms.

For our children's sake, isn't it time we put our resources back in our own hands?

From Yack to Clack Clack

We have been on the road for two weeks now and so far we've had the juiciest of times.

We are gathering so much material on frugal living and travelling that we are expanding the scope of our research to include all things obtainable outside the monetary economy.

It is remarkable how much of life is still not monetised, but it is even more remarkable how these things are not commonly valued.

After Beechworth we stayed a few nights in Yackandandah and met Leanne, one of the facilitators of the forthcoming community garden there.

She gave us half a dozen of her delicious hen's eggs, which were pure permaculture gold.

Yack is a joy-filled little town and Woody started to practice his own form of social warming.

Just as the sweet green hills of spring were beginning to dry out we headed towards the high country,

noting more walnuts, apples, cherry plums, figs, peaches and blackberries forming on the roadside verges.

But before we really started to climb we joined another rail trail at Huon, which took us over Lake Hume.

Before colonisation and before it was dammed, this lake was known as Bungoona (Sandy Creek) by the traditional owners. In 1887 a rail line went in to the area which opened it up for further development which saw the displacement of Indigenous peoples.

Today the rail trail offers a peaceful, ecological traverse through this once traumatised country. Can country heal itself after such interrupting violence?

We rode into Tallangatta with a dust storm, found the town's park and rehydrated,

found a municiple powerpoint to recharge, headed across to the local opshop,

and munched out on free, locally-grown grapefruit.

We have started compiling a list of all the free things we are finding and we are realising that these things aren't just good options for frugal travelling, they are generally the least polluting too.

1. free drinking water – water bubblers in public parks and streets
2. free food – foraged, fished, hunted, gleaned and gifted
3. free camping sites – creeks and rivers
4. free electricity – council parks and sports grounds
5. free swimming/ bathing – creeks and rivers
6. free laundry – any public sink (take a universal plug with you)
7. free wifi - neighbourhood centres and libraries
8. free shelters – council parks and sports grounds
9. free knowledges – local knowledge is priceless and most people are willing to offer it
10. free BBQ facilities – council parks, sports grounds, community gardens, etc

Tired and somewhat on the nose we rode around Tallangatta looking for a place to camp. We pulled over to check the map when a local man, putting up his Christmas lights, asked if we needed help. A few minutes later George and his partner Laura had invited us to camp in their backyard, take a shower and join them for dinner.

We happily accepted, bought some accompaniments and helped out where we could.

George gave us a heads-up that we had a big day of riding ahead of us, so we rose early, farewelled our hosts and set off along the rail trail again.

We climbed from Tallangatta (205m above sea level) into Snowy River country,

until we reached the Koetong Pub, where we stopped to recuperate and where we met this bunch of volunteers who have been working on the rail trail since 2002.

They had been working on a new section of the trail that leads all the way to the former Shelley Station, the highest railway station ever built in Victoria (779m above sea level).

At Shelley we found evidence of corporate greenwashing. The same global chemical company responsible for the Bhopal disaster (Dow is Union Carbide as this wonderful piece of satire attests) also aims to become a major controller of the world's food supply. Here Dow is advancing the poisoning of innocuous free food for the sake of peddling its dubious herbicides to Landcare groups. There's no such thing as a good corporate citizen, just clever public relation strategies. 

We got a little lost in the pine plantations trying to leave Shelley, but eventually found our way back out onto the Murray Valley Highway for a several kilometre rollercoaster ride down into Berringama where an old hall signalled it was time for a feed,

and a tune or two.

It had already been a huge day and we knew we were pushing it but we had heard of a sweet caravan park at Colac Colac (pronounced Clack Clack), and it seemed to be in reach. About 5km out Patrick's rear wheel axel broke, the first disaster of our trip. Meg and Woody went on to the park and brought back the extremely generous park owner, Phil, who helped us put the bike onto the tray of his ute and brought us all to this incredibly beautiful park.

We now have a handful of days to wait while the wheel is fixed, sent by courier to Albury.

Time to re-stock, rest up after our massive 74km day yesterday, wash clothes, fish, look for wild plants, write up journals and map the next leg of our trail. Do we push north into apple country or do we head southeast into alpine trout country?

We hope you are having a restorative weekend too.