Wednesday 22nd October - Day off. Cycled up to Dorrigo. Another world!

Cycled 30km up the Gt Dividing Range, climbing up 9km thru the Gondwana rainforest (first preserved in 1901) to the top – 762m hith - to Dorrigo. If it weren’t for the red/brown soils, I would think I had arrived in England or lowland Scotland. It resembles a cross between Tenterden, England and Kitale Kenya.

Dorrigo has an as yet, unopened railway museum with more blacked steam engines stationed one behind each other than I have ever seen in my life – and ALL of them different in design. There must have been atleast 16 of them. Plus lots of old, rather dilapidated carriages and cargo trucks. Dorrigo railway which used to feed into Grafton, carrying livestock and timber, closed in 1972, but the tracks appear to still be there. An opportunity to convert to a cycle route and attract tourism to the area, and attract younger people to stay/come.

Standard town centre: Dorrigo hotel. statue to King and Empire in middle of crossroads in centre of town. Winner of most beautiful town New South Wales 2008. And it was stunning. Just nothing very Australian about it. Very few examples of indigenous Australia there, lots of English and European ornamental plants and trees, and lawns instead.

Cycled 3km to the Dorrigo Rainforest Centre, and walked out over the Glade walk over the forest canopy. As I bent down, in my cycle shorts, to take my camera out of my bag, a party of 70 something OAPs walked across the wooden bridge towards the lookout. Their leader – a 79 year old woman called Valery, pointed to me, and said “ very interesting shorts, and bottom. Hmm… Untouched World” (the name of our clothing sponsor), emblazoned on the rear side of our cycling shorts, she said as everybody looked out over the rainforest vista and then at me. “ I must touch that” she said. I explained that I was cycling around the world. She went on” I am looking for a wealthy husband.” I wanted to reply: “ so am I” but decided to respond “ contact me later, darling”.

Cycled down the scarp, and back to Bellingen via a smaller rougher road which passed via Glennifer and Never Never land. So beautiful, reminding me of other stunning places in the world I have been to, in Kenya, and on the Georgian/Chechen border.

Chris