Day 6 - Orford to Richmond 72 kms for the whole trip. I did 50 kms

Today we awoke to a windy and cold day at Orford. The good news was there was no rain... thanks heaven for small mercies!

The first part of the ride was quite pleasant with a lovely ride beside the Prosser River... then we hit a short sharp climb of gradients reaching up to 16 pc.... this combined with a head wind made for slow steady riding through gritted teeth with hope that the coffee at Buckland!!!

We arriving in Buckland for coffee was a big disappointment to say the least...it was terrible and most of us did not finish the coffee. In some way we were perhaps a bit anxious for the ride ahead through to Nugent which promised to be a big climb of over 5 kms on a gravel road. The ride ahead did not disappoint!

The climb started with some heavy climbing averaging over 8 pc in many parts so combined with a head wind the progress was very slow. To take our mind off the grind the views were quite spectacular which I hope might be seen in the photos on this blog.

At the top of the climb it was my turn to drive the Ute for the next 20 kms through to lunch at Sorell. The drive was eventful with Phil having a “ Flat” and I stayed both he and Abdy to direct them through to lunch

The weather continued to be quite overcast and the head winds continued with some real force on the more exposed country 

Lunch at Banjos bakery was well deserved with a chance to recover following some hard riding

After lunch I joined the riders for the short ride into Richmond. Shortly after we had another big climb of over 1.5 kms with an average gradient of 5 pc

The downhill after this was most enjoyable in to Richmond 

The accommodation at the Richmond Arms Hotel is “old school “ accomodation 

The meal tonight was real pub food and I had bangers and mash

I think the mood around the table was one of being glad the ride was over but respecting the fact that we had passed the challenge and seen some great country 

Now for the photos 

At the loo in Buckland after some terrible coffee!

The gravel road on here climb to Nugent

A good sign for the downhill

A view of the country we passed through

Phil and Abdy repairing a puncture

Home for the night at the Richmond Arms...

The famous Richmond Bridge

Our reservation marked on the table