Day 32 - Gloucester to Lithgow - 402kms

Our day began with breakfast at Roadies Cafe in Gloucester which caters to motorcyclists with their vintage bikes, helmets and racing photos all around the restaurant. They heard our sob story of missing gloves and my too tight helmet and gave us our muffins to go for free. Great people and a great place to eat at Roadies Cafe. We started on our way and I quickly found a dirt shortcut that would surely get us to our destination faster but a ways into it we found out the bridge had been washed out. Not willing to accept defeat we pressed on and found a detour through a farmers field and across his personal bridge which got us sort of back on track. (We did have the farmers permission by the way) We arrived in Raymond Terrace only 45min later than we would have on the paved route but had some tire skidding, head scratching good times on the way. We spent a few hours buying replacements for things we had broke or lost including a camera for mike, oil for my forks, brake fluid for my brakes, warm gloves for both our hands, and an XL helmet so my head could re-inflate to its original size.
With all our new gear comfortable fitted and the old helmet strapped to the back of the bike as a trophy of my pain we rode into Yengo National Park. This was a tight windy dirt road through some of the most beautiful terrain I've seen in Australia. There were tall lush forests, open green valleys, rivers, lakes, swamps, rock outcroppings and lots of kangaroos. We explored for well over 100kms until we realised it was getting dark and we were high in the Blue Mountains. The next 1 1/2 hrs was a dark and cold ride with minimal visibility just to make it somewhere to stay for the night. To top it off it was raining and the temperature was dropping rapidly. We made it to Lithgow with our hands cold and bikes wet and found the first hotel we could. It was a very cool old building and we had a room at the top above the pub. After we had locked up the bikes in their beer garden and carried our bags up we noticed that we could see our breath in the room. I spoke with the bar tender/hotel manager and was informed that this building was built when men were tough and didn't require heat. I did my best puppy dog eyes and she agreed to find us an electric heater we could plug in to keep our room warm. Our next mission was to find food as the pub didn't serve meals on days that end in Y. We walked down the street and found a place called the Workman's Club. They asked if we were members and then had us fill in guest passes. As we rounded the corner and saw the slot machines Mike leaned over to me and said "Oh good, I thought this was some sort of strip club." Mike asked for fries and said he didn't want chips so his sandwich came with nothing. (Chips = Fries in Australia) We finished our meal and our day in the warm casino with the sound of slots machines filling our ears.