Cooma, day off

Wow! I’ve forgot my alarm this morning and check the time: 7:40am. I though I had to pack my tent straight away before being seen by someone but after a quick look outside… I think it’s fine. Really misty this morning so I can wait a bit more waiting for the sun to come up.

“Sky hire”, the mountains is effectively not that far apparently. This is why it’s cold :-)

I’m walking back to the Macdo because I realized this morning that we are Sunday… Everything is closed. I expected to spend the day out or working at the library, only the first option is available.

After a nice hot chocolate I’m on my way back to my tent.

Cooma is not really exciting, especially this morning when every shop are close.

I camped in that pack other there. It was really quiet apart the noisy bird this morning.

Almost there.

That’s my spot! Earlier when I left, I was walking toward the road when the police pass front of me. I was lucky they did not see my tent certainly because inline with it and them. It’s a public pack and it’s forbidden to camp but one more time it did I work :-) I’m going to pack everything and come back to Macdo waiting the weather to be warmer. Then I’ll decide if I move on or not.

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Finally the sun came up and when I came outiside the MacDonald’s to get my bike and go somewhere a group of young guys were looking at my setup. One of them, Tim, asked me different questions and told me about his own trip he is going to make in about 2 weeks. He proposed me to show me around Cooma and here we are. He told me that at the top of a hill, there is a nice restaurant and he wants to offer me lunch if I can get there haha, Thanks Tim :-)

Tim proposed me the hard way through the bush or the highway. I chose the bush side and was not easy. This is only the end of the track which looks fine compare to what we’ve done before.

We have few kilometres to ride but we can’t go any further as there is a “car competition”. This is a big word because there is maybe a dozen of car driving uphill and that’s it.

I can’t see the top but I can take a picture at least :-) Tim Told me that there is a lot of apple trees along the road and anyone can eat them. So I wasn’t wrong or stolen apples, good!

The monsters! I thought there were old cars…

At least we did not cycle up for nothing.

The pilots are now ready to drive 1 or 2 kilometres up the hill. What a waist of fuel…

After about 30 minutes spent up to the top (almost) we cycled down to the highway where there is the sign of the famous top hill restaurant that we could not go to. Tim proposed to come back to the city center and find a restaurant or a cafe.

We are coming back to the city enjoying a long downhill :-)

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And this is his house. His parents invited me in there place and I’ve got a bed to sleep in tonigh. This is too luxurious for me though.

I could leave my bike in the backyard and chill out :-)

Tim left for an hour because he went to learn how to cook a backlava. A Lebanese neighbour taught him how to make it and he is just coming back with a huge cake.

This is delicious Tim :-) I need to find out why they put gold leathes on the top because… this is gold! yes real gold! And we eat it… what a waist of gold! Well, this is the recipe and he fully made it.

And for easter, His mom is cooking “Easter bun”. They is a lot because they are going to offer a plate to their neighbours. Good on them!

And the day is at its end now. We had a very nice dinner and a good talk. I told them about my adventure and they told me about Cooma, the history of the city. Cooma used to have 25000 people here after the war but now they are about 8000. Many people from different countries came here which makes Cooma cosmopolite. There is people from Thailand, liban, china, germany, spain, Italy… etc. And Cooma is about 1 hour from the ocean and another one to the snow. I did not have a good feeling when I came yesterday but after all of that, this town looks much better! Thanks Tim’s family :-)