First it was IPWR, then it was Basil, then TCR for a while, and now it’s back to being IPWR!
I woke up to see that day 19 had dawned bright and mostly clear. There was still a little bit of cloud around, but the sky was mostly blue and things were looking promising for a perfect day.
I got up and packed my gear, and was on my way pretty quickly.
Continue reading “Day 19 – Bring it home”It was going to be a great day. I knew that as soon as I woke up. It was going to be the second-last day of my IndyPac, and it was going to go through my hometown of Canberra. Of course, I wasn’t actually in Canberra yet, I still had nearly 70km to go before I got there, but most of it was to be on good roads.
After a pretty late night the night before I was a bit slow getting up, and it was a quarter past seven before I actually got on the bike, but then things went nicely. It was, overall, downhill to Canberra so I made good progress, and as promised the bridge was once again open. The only complication was that I didn’t want to go to Canberra.
Continue reading “Day 18 – Friendly Faces”
It was a crisp, clear, beautiful morning when I woke up for day 15, and I lay there and appreciated it for a while before I dragged myself out of bed. When I finally did I surprised to realise that it wasn’t even particularly cold – I concluded that the night before I had basically just been scared, and looking for any half-way reasonable excuse to pull over. Today, though, I figured that everyone who had survived the night would be busy sleeping off their hangovers for at least half the day, making it a good time to get on my bike and enjoy the quiet roads!
Continue reading “Day 15 – Giving Cowboys a Bad Name”After my very late arrival the night before, this was a late start. I stopped to have a very nice breakfast with my generous hosts first, before finally heading off just after 9am. I rode for about half an hour before becoming very conscious of the sun on my ears again. It was still quite cool (I was wearing a jacket) so just pulling my buff up to cover my ears as well as my neck seemed like an easy solution.
The road undulated with a general upwards trend for the first hour and a bit out of Yarra Junction, before settling into a nice steady climb for 4km and then zipping back down the hill to Noojee.
Continue reading “Day 14: Mostly Good Friday”
The day started well, with a quick breakfast at Bernadette’s, and a briefing on the upcoming roads, before getting on the bike in time to enjoy an absolutely glorious sunrise. Bernadette had mentioned that I stood a fair chance of running into the local hard-core rider, who went up the road most mornings, and sure enough it wasn’t long until I ran into her and her husband. It made for a very pleasant spin up the road to Lorn, with fantastic weather, hardly any traffic, and good conversation. Just a brilliant start to the day.
By the time I reached Lorn I’d ridden 45km and it was definitely time for second breakfast, so a bit of a stop to refuel and restock was in order.
Continue reading “Day 13 – The People Make the Race”
I know it’s been a while since one of these went up, and there’s been a whole lot of reasons that maybe I’ll get to later, but finally, here’s the next chapter:
My alarm was beeping, and I was lying in a nice comfy bed. I was all alone, in a huge room. It took me a moment to remember where exactly I was, but as I got out of bed I remembered Tom and his generosity in putting me up in his pub, The Crown. What had been looking like a cold night beside a road somewhere had ended up nice and comfy!
All was quiet in The Crown at that time of the morning, and I didn’t see a soul as I gathered my stuff then slipped out the side door. It was quiet and cold and there was a light mist – basically a beautiful morning for a ride. I’d stocked up with food in the servo the night before, so I was able to roll along without stopping for the first hour and a half, before it warmed up enough that I wanted to take off a layer. Stopping to stash my clothing I also glanced at my phone, and suddenly I had a worry – was the bridge out?
Continue reading “Day Eleven – South Coast Cruising”
A good night’s sleep would have done me good. I was exhausted, and when I had climbed into my bivvy I had pretty much just closed my eyes and been instantly asleep, but now my eyes snapped open and although it was pitch dark I was wide awake, and I was worried.
Continue reading “Day Five – Time for Some Pictures”
It’s been a while since I posted a chapter. My life just got a bit busy and a bit high stress for a while, and I’ve been feeling a bit lost and listless. The stress levels are starting to get under control though and I’m making a few changes and reprioritising a bit. That should mean that the next chapters come a bit faster, especially after I read something the other day that gave me a due date for the complete story. With that due date in mind, I’m now going back to 21st March ’21, which was a pretty good day…
Continue reading “Day Two – A bit longer”
I’ve been having some blog problems of late. They came at an unfortunate time, right as I was getting ready for the Indian Pacific Wheel Ride, so I didn’t really have any time to work out what was going on. That means updates for that race were – well… non-existent. The good news is that if you’re reading this, the blog must be working again.
Continue reading “Hello, hello, is this thing on?”I did promise more on why I’m in Fremantle, and I really meant to write something good. Time has got away from me though, so instead it’s something quick. If you haven’t guessed yet, I’m doing IPWR again. It’s a small affair this year, with only nine riders making it to the start, but really that’s quite a lot, given the circumstances.
I’m still having trouble posting to my blog, the quick way doesn’t work and the slow way is slow! That means, obviously, I won’t be posting all that much, sorry.
Of course, the tracking page is up, so if you want to follow the dots you can do so at https://indianpacificwheelride2021.maprogress.com
I’m mostly ready, a few quick things to finish up then off to bed, ready to start in the morning!
Ok, I’m going to try one quick thing… if this works, it’ll be great. If it doesn’t, you may never hear from me again!