Coleraine to Dunkeld

Thursday 14th March 2013

The day began with a long steep climb out of Coleraine, rewarded with a decent view from the top of the hill:

After about 20kms I reached the scenic Wannon Falls, currently dry but still impressive:

10kms further on I arrived at Hamilton, quite a large town. It had a decent motor museum where I spent an enjoyable hour looking at the exhibits and chatting to the owner.

After lunch I continued east towards the small town of Dunkeld, which lies at the southern entrance to the Grampian Mountains where I'm going to be following a route from the Lonely Planet cycling guide over the next 3 days. The town is overshadowed by 3 mountains, Mt Sturgeon, Mt Abrupt, and the charmingly named "Piccaninny".

After finding a hotel I set off to climb Mt Sturgeon, whose summit is 460 metres. The path is clearly marked, although quite steep. It took about an hour each way and was a great experience, with numerous encounters with pademelons and kangaroos on the way up, and awesome views from the summit:

Distance cycled today was 82kms, total so far is 665kms.

Here's a link to the updated map