The riot of bird song was again our waking ‘alarm’…wonderful! We didn’t have far to ride today but again it was going to be hot so we got on the bikes pretty early – Just out of the park we stopped at a working dairy to refill our bottles for the day and chatted with the dairy farmer for quite a while – They had just finished milking and he showed us around the refrigerating vats and quite proudly (when asked) let us know his daily tally of ~3500 litres of milk! It was a pretty freewheeling conversation discussing all manner of challenges in the dairy game, local footy, the conditions of the road ahead and of course the weather. The farmers 16-year-old son without breaking stride headed over to the ute and drove it along the road back to the farmhouse! Isn’t it great that things are just that little bit different in the bush we reflected…
The cows that produced ~3500 litres of milk The view across to the NP from the farm
We were heading to Cudgewa hoping there may be a shop open that might serve us a decent cup of coffee. Alas the Speckled Hen was closed and the pub not yet open, which didn’t stop the publican giving us at least 5 minutes of local advise on the best route through to Colac Colac , (pronounced Clack Clack!) and he offered up heaps more information on the local area…good old fashioned country hospitality with aplomb.
The Cudgewa Hotel
We set up camp at the Clack Clack Caravan Park and rode the 8k’s or so into Corryong on a brand new shared footpath between Clack Clack and town. It was really hot but that didn’t stop us having hot pies and pasties for lunch at the famed Corryong Bakery! We had a look at a few of the old opp shops and spent a good while upstairs in the Emporium – all manner of old stuff there from pure junk to absolute treasures…
We dropped into the top pub for a cool drink and that’s where Johnno found out (when he checked in at home) that his daughter Amy was about to be proposed to by her long time partner and soul mate Tearlach. Lets just say the he got a little emotional at this news! Well more that a little he was a blubbering mess! Thankfully two great mates got it and it was quite a moment…quite a moment indeed!
We met up with a fella on the main drag of Corryong who recognised us from earlier that day just out of “Cudg IE WAR!” (Now that’s how you pronounce Cudgewa). Earlier that day he was herding a big mob of cattle along the long paddock/roadside just out of town. We recalled gingerly making our way through the hundred or so animals (and the three sheepdogs trying to keep the mob in check)…We weren’t really sure how this would go…turns out the drover also wasn’t completely sure how the heard might react to 3 weird looking 2 wheeled ‘animals’ in their midst.
We had a great meal at the pub and headed Clack Clack bound…all the time Jeff was casting his eye to the ranges where a ripper of a storm was brewing over the Snowys. It was dusk and we decided to stop for a while and take in the light show on the horizon to the east…and what a show this was…as things got darker the almost continuous lightning was literally lighting up the horizon – we thought perhaps 50 k’s away – Turns out it was closer to 200k’s away… it would have been an awesome thing to experience that storm cell at close hand!
Back at the Caravan Park and more glamping was on show this time with generators humming and what sounded to be predominantly Guns ‘n Roses playing way too loud through speakers that were clearly not handling the volume – We cut a lap of the caravan park and took in vibe of its all…none of us said it at the time but their was clear evidence of ‘serenity’ in the air at the Clack Clack Caravan Park that evening!
'Clack Clack' Classic 