DAY 16

Before Lasse wakes up this morning his bike is fixed. Anders got up early and followed the instructions he had gotten from cold Norway. And miraculously the problem wasn’t bigger than that Anders could fix it. Talk about service! 3 spokes are broken, but the boys will have to wait until Melbourne to fix that. The bike works and that’s the most important thing, ahead of today’s short but hard distance.

After 12 k’s Anders and Lasse gets to the 12 Aposteles on the Great Ocean Road. A big parking area for cars and buses showed that this a big attraction. “Let’s go and check what the helicopter costs Anders” Lasse says hopefully. Okay, it is okay to check Anders thought but at the same time knew he was not getting up there. Lasse decided to take a 15 minute trip alone, a bit disappointed that Anders wouldn’t join him. “It would be good if at least one of us makes it home alive” Anders says before Lasse gets in the front seat and the helicopter takes off.

Anders goes to the scenic lookout to watch the same landscape from the ground. Anders and 300 Chinese people walks the same walkway out towards the cliffs. Selfie sticks everywhere and camera lenses bigger than their bodies, Anders is surrounded. Imagine being Chinese and never getting an away from home feeling, when whichever tourist attraction you go to is surrounded by your own folks.

Lasse was very happy with the helicopter trip and stated it was probably for the better that Anders didn’t join him, since it was quite heavy traffic. Lasse sat in front together with the pilot but didn’t touch anything.

The leg continues with 40 k’s remaining. The boys are getting closer and it is getting heavier and heavier. After a massive downhill where it goes really fast, so fast that the brakes becomes warm, it starts to go uphill. It is 17 k’s up to Lavers Hill. Anders says goodbye to Lasse in the beginning of the hill and pedals upwards on the lowest derailleur gear. “Go steady” is the thought that is running through his head as it goes slow but evenly upwards. The Hill is steep and long. Anders meet a bunch of cars, Lasse meets them a bit later. They are cheering for the boys and giving them thumbs up. The cars the boys meet, that drives downhill, knows exactly what the boys are up for. Anders and Lasse don’t know.

The sweat pours down from their head and they are soon out of water. Every hill ends with a fake impression that this was it. Every western backpacker van keeps cheering, with the busses with the Chinese don’t seems to bother or care at all about the boys struggles. Cultural difference observed in the middle of the craziness. Because it is crazy to push bike up these hills with all that luggage for two untrained souls.

Lasse goes mentally down in the basement, far far into the basement, he goes mentally down all the way to where old people keeps or kept their potatoes. That’s where Lasse had to go to find powers today. Superpowers. Luckily for Anders it went a bit easier, but it was very heavy for him as well. Anders arrives at Lavers Hill and asks on the local inn if he can set up a tent in the backyard. That is okay and Anders wants to have the tent ready before Lasse arrives. The tent is set up, but no sights of Lasse so Anders starts to get worried. He takes of the bike bags and starts cycling back to look for Lasse and if he had passed out in a ditch. After a while Anders gets the feeling that Lasse couldn’t that far behind, after all he wasn’t dead, just very very tired. Anders gets a message that Lasse have cycled to far and is 600-700 meter ahead of the inn. How that was possible Anders couldn’t understand and started cycling upwards again. Cycling uphill can be quite fun and easy when you don’t have all that extra luggage Anders found out.

The roadhouse serves the boys local lamb and pork. A tasty meal, actually one of the betters on the whole trip. Today’s distance is being described as the toughest one yet by Anders and Lasse. Tomorrow new kilometers on the bike awaits, that by no means can be as tough as today.

Awesomestralia – a normal life is boring