In Bathurst Julie had convinced me to weight my bags, I didn't really want to know first but changed my mind. Totally bags + cycle weighted around 65 kg (including food and 10 l of waters) and that's the same as my weight. I'm used to the weight of the bike so no problem, but it's really hard to parry if it's starts to fall over. And it's also a bit of work to access the rear bags because they are all so tied up, so usually I only take them off the bike at the end of the day.
Having no extra space for carrying more water I'm now really considering to switching to a trailer when I get to Melbourne. The alternative would be to get rid of some of my current gear and that's is not something that I'm yet prepared to do. A trailer would also mean that I can carry the gear in a more accessible way and bringing with me the extra water I need when getting to more remote areas.
The day was really hot and first I planned to stay at one of the free camp sites at the Abercrombie river. But decided instead to stop just before beginning the descent and stay at the camping place at the Abercrombie caves. Was a bit of a gamble because didn't knew anything about the camping spot and prices, only that it was in the National park.
Going down the steep 2 km to the camping spot would mean no return, it would be to late and hard to climb up again. But it turned out to be a very good idea, because it was a lovely camping area and I had it completely for myself, no other caravans or tents. Only shared it with lots of kangaroos. I've seen many already so no novelty any longer but the kangaroos here were not afraid, just lying 10 meters from the tent.
Stayed there to after lunch the next day, checking equipment and trying to replace the zipper in my wind jacket. Even if I got good grades from the needlework in school I was not even halfway through replacing the zipper after 3 hours...but my thumb was sore :)
Had a very sweaty climb up from the Caves, but it was quite Ok and not long to go before coming to Tuena which were my next destination.
The road from Tuena to Crookwell was mixed gravel and bitumen, and it's was very much up and down. Also unusually heavy traffic for being such a small road and all the vehicles created big dust clouds. Closer to Crookwell the road got all sealed.