Well the day has come for me to take to the bike once again. I have been sitting in that car far too long. The main reason I haven't ventured out is mainly due to the amount of hills the cyclists have had to conquer over the last 6 days. Today is supposed to be fairly flat and even downhill for most of the day (according to Peters's profile) and Collis has promised another tail wind today so I wanted to be in it. I have decided to ride to morning tea at 50 kms.
Half of the group had already left by the time I had got myself organized so I could only be passed by half of the group (yeah). I took off with gusto and sat on 25- 26 kms/hour for the first 20 kms (Pat caught me at 12 kms out and we rode together for about 5 kms, then Jan caught me around 18 kms and we rode for about 10 kms when I suggested she go ahead as I was starting to slow down and was riding around 21- 22 kms/hour and my R) knee was starting to pain. Collis came past around the 37 km mark and by this time all but Jacquei & Melanie had passed me. I was determined to finish even if I walked the rest of the way but I was alternating walking and riding. When the girls got to me I had only about 7 kms to go and I was walking. They wanted to stay with me but I felt terrible that my knee was going to slow us all down so I sent them ahead. As they took off Jacquei made a mention of the wild pig they had seen and that there maybe alot of unsavory men driving by. She came back once to check on me but I was brave and soldiered on.
After about 5 minutes I come across a dead, half eaten road kill wild boar in the middle of the road and I could hear rustling in the bushes near by (could this be the pigs' mate coming to take his revenge?). At the time I was walking the bike, giving my knee a stretch, but quickly got back on the bike (in a low gear) and took off thinking I would have more of a chance of survival if I could out run the raging boar. Next I saw a large brahman bull who was standing in an unfenced area, munching on his cud, staring at my red coloured cap and slowly walking towards me. I have had a number of bulls chase me as a child and had visions of another attack so once again I took off as fast as I could (which isn't a very fast pace). Just when I thought I couldn't ride any further, I spot a large item in the distance that looked like a cow or could it be the truck? I kept going and I was actually able to let go of the handle bars as I approached the truck so they all thought I had done the ride easily. I was naturally the last to arrive at the morning tea break and it appears no-one had kept an eye out for the last rider and her nourishment needs (I was left with just the crumbs of the fruit cake I had organized). I was hungry and actually ate all of those crumbs.
I changed out of my cycling clothes and got back into my support crew attire and settled gratefully behind the windscreen watching the world go by in the comfort of the VW. My knee was throbbing, unfortunately which detracted from the wonderful scenery a little bit. By lunchtime I had placed a couple of mentholated chinese patches on the side of my knee, hoping to reduce some of the swelling. One rider asked me what the instructions were for the patches but I couldn't tell them as it was all written in Chinese. It worked anyway and I was able to hobble around feeling quite important as I had a cycling injury.
By the end of lunch break I was ready to hop back on the bike and do the last 50 kms but I was quickly talked out of it by my loving husband and of course I obliged. Maybe this ended up being a great idea as the temperature really started to climb after lunch and everyone was starting to frazzle. As we drove past (or whenever we stopped to give them water) I would give them a spray down with cooler water and this was very much appreciated.
The final group of riders were all in to camp by 3.30 pm. I had made the brave declaration to Annie (who had challenged me yesterday to do 12 laps of the pool) that if there was a pool at this caravan park I would do 14 laps tonight. Guess what, there was a pool and it was twice the size of the pool at Croyden. For my efforts last night I got a cherry ripe; which I ate after lunch as a treat. Tonight she tempted me with an ice-cream if I did 14 laps of this larger pool. Annie & I ended up swimming 15 laps tonight. Well done to both of us!!.
Most of us went down to the purple pub for dinner as they had a Sunday special of roast beef of silverside for $15/head. The roast beef was very tender and the vegies were pretty good as well. Annie shouted me a dessert for completing my 50 km ride. A few of us sat up for a while studying the stars but couldn't find any satellites.
The police have been driving around the caravan park fairly regularly tonight so we could expect some trouble.
I have decided to donate $1.00 for every km I ride until we make it to Melbourne. Our charity is TADVIC and as I don't ride as much as the real riders then I won't be able to raise as much as them. Every little bit helps.
The wild life seen today includes 2 dingoes, a wild boar, 2 goannas and a crocodile.
The final group of riders were all in to camp by 3.30 pm. I had made the brave declaration to Annie (who had challenged me yesterday to do 12 laps of the pool) that if there was a pool at this caravan park I would do 14 laps tonight. Guess what, there was a pool and it was twice the size of the pool at Croyden. For my efforts last night I got a cherry ripe; which I ate after lunch as a treat. Tonight she tempted me with an ice-cream if I did 14 laps of this larger pool. Annie & I ended up swimming 15 laps tonight. Well done to both of us!!.
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