Hills and forest and red earth and dead frogs

It’s always easier at the END of the day to say that it wasn’t actually all that bad. Very true in the case of today. Last night, by the way, it poured and howled all night long, and I still can’t explain how grateful I was to be inside in a bed in a room at the Yandaran Pub.

I was hoping to wake up to sun and blue skies today and be fully motivated for a 90 km ride, but it was grey and cloudy and drizzling. Yuck. I knew I had to get moving though and finally got on the road at 8am. There was rain all morning on a VERY hilly road with NOTHING around. The first (and only) town was 26 km from Yandaran. The next town, Marian Vale, was 64 km away. I pulled off to buy a cold drink and took a break under a tree while it continued to rain. Decision time – stay there and call it a day at 10:30am by checking into the motel, or continue on another 64 km. I knew if I decided to keep going that I was committed to go the whole 90 km, despite the weather and the hills and the fact that I was still tired from yesterday.

Somehow I found myself cycling on. Hills and hills and hills and hills and hills. More than 4 hours of hills in total.

The rain finally stopped about 2 hours into the cycling, but then the sun came out and it was so hot and humid that I couldn’t decide which was worse.

Lots of splattered frogs on the road today. Yesterday in the rain the frogs were jumping and hopping all over the road, having a ball, but obviously a lot of them got run over during the night. Too bad guys.

Hills and hills and more hills and nothing on the road except forest and hills and red earth and dead frogs.

I finally hit a turnoff where I had 26 km left and 5 of that was supposed to be gravel road which I was a bit nervous about, but it turns out a ‘gravel’ road in Oz is much better than a ‘paved’ road in Cambodia, so relatively speaking, I found it to be quite easy. For the last hour I got a second wind, and even considered doing another 13 km to the next town when I got here. But it was 3pm, and I generally like to finish by then since it gives me 2 hours of daylight to set up my tent, shower, wash up my clothes, and relax. I decided to stay, and of course once I showered and put on clean clothes, I suddenly forgot the rain and the pain and the hills and the brutal sun, and all I can think is Wow, what a great day!

Tomorrow, onward, north.

Distance: 86.45 km
Time: 4 hr 48 minutes
Avg Speed: 17.9 km/hr

The great open road

and the unforgettable Australian sky

Add comment April 27th, 2003