Day 8 - Bega - Narooma

Sunday 14th February 2010

The weather hasn’t improved. It was already wet by the time I got up (8am, rather late) and the dark clouds made it obvious that rain was going to last all day. Although Bega is a pleasant enough small town with some nice period architecture, there was no point in staying any longer; I simply had to face another day’s riding in the rain. Once I got started it actually wasn’t too unpleasant, it was quite warm and humid so there was no chance of me catching pneumonia even though I was soaked through in the first 10kms or so.

Princes Highway - Bega main street

From Bega the route goes east towards the coast, crossing over another mountain - Dr George Mountain - which was quite long and steep, the road over the top of it being unsealed and hence very muddy for most of the way:

This mountain is shrouded in forest and it would have been a scenic ride if it hadn't been wet and misty. Once over the mountain and heading north along a minor road which appeared on the map to run close to the coastline, I expected to see the ocean - but in fact this road is still some 3kms or so inland and the visibility wasn’t good enough to see anything much. After I’d gone about 25kms I came to the Mimosa Winery and obviously had to stop and see what tastings they were offering, which turned out to include a very agreeable chambourcin which I would happily recommend but it’s not sold anywhere outside the winery itself. There was a lovely restaurant there high up overlooking the forest-covered mountain and I was tempted to stop for lunch but felt I’d better get a few more kms further on before resting.

Mimosa winery

Eventually after another 10kms or so I got my first sighting of the Pacific Ocean on this ride:

I continued on to the next town, Bermagui - a pretty town famous for its fishing. It was still raining hard. I stopped for a decent marlin and chips at an oceanfront café there:

The route continued to traverse over tree-covered mountains:

Below is Dromedary mountain - visibility was so poor that it was not possible to get a decent photo, sadly:

Shortly after this the route rejoined the main Princes Highway (Route 1) - in this section it’s a fairly narrow road with a not particularly wide hard shoulder, so not particularly safe for cycling on; however traffic was pretty quiet. Below is the entrance to Corunna Lake:

It actually dried up for about the last half hour of the ride, before I arrived in Narooma at about 6.30. Narooma’s a nice small town in an attractive setting on the Wagonga inlet. There was no shortage of accommodation available and I checked into the excellent Holiday Lodge Motor Inn where the kind owner immediately offered to dry all my wet clothes for me. I had a very good steak and chips in Lynch’s hotel, with a couple of glasses of a fine cabernet sauvignon from the Margaret River.

Total distance covered today 91kms.