Long day, slow going on the rail trail, and two flats. Thank goodness it was mostly downhill from where we left the rail trail into Lakes Entrance. Made for a long day.

Got a bit sick of these – not tandem friendly at all – although he did very skillfully negotiate a few of them. Later on in the section past Nowa Nowa they didn’t have them, and trail bike riders got in and chopped up the surface.

First flat – slow leak on the back tyre. No wonder it was hard yakka – pressure was down to 40.

We also wasted time thinking we could skip a bit of rail trail on a loop road that looked like it would cross the rail trail further down. Unfortunately a couple of ks down the road we encountered a ‘No Through Road’ sign… and a closer zoom on the map actually showed that there was a gap. Oops.

First trestle bridge where we had to go down onto the road that crossed underneath it, then back up the other side.

Second trestle bridge that we had to detour around. Down and up again.

Welcome stop at Nowa Nowa. The cafe at the caravan park was under new ownership, and it was their first day of operation. They hadn’t quite figured out the coffee – so it was on the house (at that point I honestly didn’t care how it came, as long as it was caffeine.)

For me it was a classic case of ‘eyes bigger than…’ The chips were the absolute BEST though. 10/10. Best on this trip – and let me tell you, when pub and club meals in regional towns are your only option, we’ve eaten a lot of chips. So yeah – if you want great hot chips – Nowa Nowa is the place!

He polished his off. Some American themed burger – he can’t remember the name, but it was good.

No, we don’t know either.

But maybe it’s this sort.

We got on the bike after lunch here, rode about 2 metres and OH CRAP… front tyre was flat as a pancake.

So we lost a bit of time today, particularly as he spent a lot of time, without success, trying to find the cause of each leak. (Having dunked each tube in the sink here at the motel, he’s concluded that the back one must be a dicky valve. Anyway… despite it being annoying, rather today than in the middle of the thunderstorm on Saturday.

One very very big trestle bridge.

After reading the sign, Marc walked around looking at it muttering ‘1988….1988… can you believe a train went across that only back in 1988?!’

Anyway… we made it to Lakes Entrance, albeit pretty late in the day. (But we didn’t set out till around 9am, probably not ideal.)

Haven’t decided tomorrow whether to go just to Bairnsdale (which will include 20k of rail trail once we rejoin it at Swan Reach) or to continue onto Paynesville. To be honest, while the rail trails are great for no traffic, so far the surface has made for harder riding than I was imagining.

Cunninghame Arm Footbridge by night. Better fit in a stroll across it in the morning to check out the ocean. (Or more correctly, Bass Strait? Or Tasman Sea?)