DAY 42

Lunch today was pasta fettucine and dinner was indian cuisine, they eat well but today it was necessary.

The morning starts as usual at the caravan park, with elderly people wondering who these boys are and some courage themselves to go and talks with the boys in the morning. One man recommends a memorial place from the war that the boys should go and see. He asks if the boys have been to the army and adds that he is a veteran, That explain his eagerness to get the boys to visit the memorial place. Anders thanks him for his recommendation, but the boys has a huge challenge ahead of themselves today, so it will not be any extra trips.

Then old man nr 2 shows up. They are everywhere. He can really relate to the trip the guys are doing and comes with some good advice. He mentions that in Darwin they love beer, and if don’t like it when you arrive you will like it when you leave. Nobody in Australia drinks more beer than people in Darwin. He also says that up north the guys can just sleep at the beach, “just ask the locals if it is crocodiles there first”. Just a little “but” there. Before the man disappears he says he would have liked to join them and that it is some adventure the boys are doing. True.

From The Entrance to Nelson Bay it is 115 km plus a 7 minute long ferry trip. The first 65 km is to Newcastle, it is heavy, some uphills and headwind. This is the day the summer-temperature really shows itself to the fullest and the thermometer shows more than 35 degrees. Almost unbearable and headwind is warm and burns on the arms. The road shoulder they cycle on is wide and nice, but the asphalt is old and bumpy. The wheels don’t roll as good as they do on better asphalt. The headwind in addition sucks the energy out of the boys.

In Newcastle they are hungry, very hungry. They both order pasta and two cans of soda. When you have cycled 65 km in very hot weather and drink water that at least is 40 degrees celsius the whole day, then a cold soda taste like heaven. From Newcastle they take a ferry to Stockton. A ferry trip so short that you really shouldn’t be able to sleep but that did Anders and woke up 3 seconds later. The ferry was decorated for Christmas, or “decorated” to be precise.

Then new 50 km awaited and it is in the middle of the day, which means that the temperature is at its warmest. After a few km Anders sees a sprinkler that is running, and he finds it necessary to put his head there to cool down the head and neck. The last 40 km goes slower and slower, but they understand that they will reach Nelson Bay before 18:00. The check-in, drops the bags and bikes and heads straight to the beach to bath for the first time on the trip. It is 29 degrees in the air and 17 in the water. An evening bath before the sun goes down.

Anders and Lasse changes and cycles back to the city center, finds an Indian restaurant that is empty but trusts their gut. Chicken, lamb, rice and nan, very delicious. The girl who works there laughs when they order so much food, but she couldn’t know that Anders and Lasse just had cycle a record long distance in 35 degrees. Today they spent 8 hours cycling, approximately a workday.

Awesomestralia – a normal life is boring