After the rain of the last few days it was bright blue skies that greeted us. We had a slightly longer ride as we were camped in a different camping ground to the one we were supposed to be at. But things were getting back to normal.At the breakfast there were no chairs so I sat on a rock. I purchased some lube from epic cycles as my chain was now a bit rusty after all the rain.
I headed out a bit late. Passed the street sweeper. This was a bit odd. You would have though that they would have swept the streets before we arrived. Out on the road things were generally flat to begin with. Just a gentle climb. I was keeping up with most of the riders in this morning section. We stopped at Thangool for water and then onto the first rest stop at the end of the first big climb for the day. The climb was long and moderately steep. I went slowly. As I neared the top there was a semi-trailer right behind me. So I decided to stop and let them past. There was quite a convoy and I followed behind them at the same speed as they were going.
The rest stop was not as close to the top of the ride as I had expected or hoped. Becuase of the boggy soil, they had moved the toilet trucks two km further down the road. Some of the locals said that the creeks here were flowing for the first time in 10 years. I met up, first with Adrian and Jasmine and then later with Hugh and Tony. I rode for a while, first with Tony and later with Adrian and Jasmine. Jasmine took a very good photo of me as I rode along side.
The ride continued with it’s ups and downs. We stopped for lunch and then rode up to the second of the big hills. This time I went more slowly. The hill was very long and I stopped a few times to cool down. I think that on the trike I am (1) lying prone to the sun and (2) low to the road which means I get a lot more heat off the road. Also, I had drunk a whole bottle of gatorade in the first rest stop as an experiment in keeping hydrated. I stopped several times to head off into the bush for quick toilet breaks.
At the top of the last hill, and there were many false tops, there was a 4 km down hill run. I simply rolled down. On the first steep section (7% I think) I saw in my rear vision mirrors the toilet trucks. But they did not catch me doing about 60 km/h on this section. There was a flatter bit in the middle and the trucks passed me. On the section 7% seciton I was caught by some vans, including the 2U coffee van. They also followed along behind me and then I followed them down for about 1 km only a few hundred meters behind. Again I was not pedalling.
At the bottom of the hill I stopped at the rest break. I caught up with the butterfly peoples from last year, though this year they had become the sunflower peoples. The recommended the chocolate cake, which was very good. They were running late as they had had 4 flat tyres. We all left in a bit of a hurry to avoid being caught by the sag wagon. At first I found the riding very hard, it was like I had my brakes on. Well, it turns out I did have them on. The trike has a hand break function. Well I must have been very tired. I rode with a man on a bike chatting until we hit some hills again on the out skirts of town and got into the camp site only 30 minutes before the ride course closed.
At the camp, I set up in the middle of the camp ground. When I got in the tent I found a stone under my floor by lying on it. Luckily it was very small and I was able to remove it by just reaching under the tent. I had a shower and washed my clothes and some of the wet things. Had dinner. After dinner a local politician proudly announced that they had a bit of forest that was so old it had been there since the time of Adam and Eve. Had to laugh. I guess that would be about 6,500 years then. Alas, I never did go and see the forest. Went to sleep and slept like a log. I was very tired. I had sunburn from the day before the ride, but my skin was up in red welts. I hoped that it was heat rash rather than serious sun bun as I had used a lot of sunscreen.
- 100.24 km,
- 13.98 km/h ave,
- 7:10:11 ride time,
- 60 km/h max