Who'd have thought our day would end up this way? Relaxing on the porch of our house, playing backgammon, drinking a few cold ones and watching the sky perform its nightly lightshow. The day certainly had a different beginning. First, it had been decided, Niels and Tomas were not going to accompany us for the rest of our voyage acting a scouts and carrying our bags for the rest of the year as we had expected. They had more of Australia to see than our measly 100 kilometers-a-day. Disappointing as it was, we had expected this day to come. We'd both become accustomed to riding our bikes without baggage to burden us.
So much so we began to comb through our gear this morning for things to lose. We managed to find nearly seven kilograms between us to ditch at the post office for a slow return trip to the good ol' U.S. Whatever weight we managed to shed the bikes still felt far heavier than the days leading up to this one. It was easy to forget the effort required to pedal as we marveled at the lush green beauty of the rolling hills around Wingham. As lovely as it was nothing could make us forget what was in store for us.
It came as no great surprise: we'd been warned that this would be the most difficult day of our trip in Australia. What I found was somehow ruder than I expected. At km 15 the road unceremoniously dissolved into a rock and gravel path that climbed unrelentingly for kilometers and kilometers. We topped out at 765 meters, having started below a hundred and ascending over 1000 meters total for the day. The bulk of work was on a soft and crunchy track, though our guidebook had told us it was to be on a dirt road \"as good as bitumen.\" When we finally made the top we didn't even get the full pleasure of descending for the first part of the trip, having to negotiate the same winding dirt road down as up.
Finally we reached pavement and our rattled bones jumped for joy as our eyes were treated to the most beautiful pastureland I've ever seen. We stopped for what we thought would be a late lunch at the Udder Cow Café, a cute Holstein-influenced watering hole. There we met Sean and Kris, an extraordinary couple who worked in a coal mine near Newcastle before moving to Comboyne and creating a tourist infrastructure in this beautiful place. As well as operating the restaurant, they offer several options for accommodation, organize adventure outings in the surrounding wilderness and provide venues for corporate events. *(For more information on what Sean's story, and on what wonderful Comboyne has to offer, click [here](../../mnt/user-data/uploads/comboyne.htm), or visit his website at: wwwxxxyyyzzz.)* Sean \--an inveterate entrepreneur\-- made us an offer we couldn't refuse: a free night in a nearby house he owned if we'd write a little pitch for him on our page.
\"Yes!\" was all we could manage when we thought about it for two seconds. The idea of washing off the salty crust that enveloped our bodies sounded great. The place turned out to be wonderful and charming. At the back of our house a hardwood deck looked out on the pastures. There we whiled away the hours before sunset before treating Andrew to his first RSL Club experience. After that perhaps he'll understand what real rural Australia is all about.