Day one of a four day loop from Rathdowney, up the Lions road to Sheepstation creek in the Border Ranges national park then Old Grevillea, Woodenbong and back to Rathdowney. The idea is to get some fitness, and do a full test of our gear before we set off to Europe.

I’ve been up the Lion’s road before, so I know what’s ahead of us. A very pleasant undulating ride at the start, before the very steep uphill to the NSW border. The photo is Alli just reaching the top (note the sign with the gradient! – and yes Alli did cycle all the way to the top with a fully loaded tour bike). From the border it’s a very pleasant downhill through rainforest with bellbirds to keep us company.

Then it’s up again. This time on a gravel road. Extremely beautiful but tough on the legs!

We were hoping to give give our gear a really good test and the weather didn’t let us down. From the border to our campsite it bucketed down. We arrived at Sheepstation creek just on dusk after constant rain and drizzle. Sounds awful, but it was actually really atmospheric with mist swirling around the mountains as the sun set.

Our gore rain jackets kept us completely dry, although my new Dynamo light didn’t like the wet and started flashing randomly throughout the night. Our Hilleburg tarp may have been the best purchase we’ve ever made. It kept us and the tent dry and allowed us to cook without being out in the weather.

We were totally buggered at the end of the day, but it was absolutely worth it to be sitting in the rainforest with rain gently falling on the tarp, while we were warm and snug inside.