Day 104 Sunday 21/8/2016, Rappville – Ebor, warm to freezing

True to the publican’s word, at 2:00am the XPT did whoosh past quicker than a flash but there were eleven goods trains too. Including one that stopped beside us while the XPT went past! Surprisingly we woke refreshed and had slept much better than we did on the Gold Coast. It must be the clean air.
It’s a crisp bright morning, breakfast in Grafton is good and the Clarence River looks so wide. The road to South Grafton crosses the river on a very long concrete and iron opening bridge. What is most unusual is the fact that the bridge has two right angle turns in it. It must be close to the end of its useful life but certainly should be preserved.

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We have two choices to get to the New England Highway and we know that we must cross the Great Dividing Range and choose the one that looks the straightest on our map. Wrong! We twist and turn and climb for what seems to be hours. We pass the scene of a recent accident where a car is still hanging partway down the mountain. We cross the Nymboida River and pass the whitewater rafting centre. 

When the road levels out at Ebor we stop at the Recreation Reserve and camp beside solo traveller and poultry fancier Cheryl and her Toyota Hi Ace. The landscape is typical high altitude dry bush thickly covered in lichen, a sure sign that it gets cold up here. There are stunning falls just across the road where the insignificant little creek drops over the mountainside but we’ve done that before. We have a cuppa with Cheryl in the weak sunshine before the chill comes down, we’re on top of the Great Dividing Range at an altitude of 1350metres.

We sleep to the sound of cows, roosters and turkeys, which should keep our neighbour quite happy.

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Towing Kms: 208Kms