DAY 17

The alarm the set to 6:30 was quickly postponed when Anders woke up to the sound of rain hitting the tent. The plan about being on the bike at 8:00 was shredded. The sleeping bags are clammy and it is wet and cold. Really bad tent weather. At around 08:30 the rain stops and the boys pack their stuff and cycle 500 meters to eat a pie at a gas station. Anders had the egg and bacon pie, while Lasse went for angus pie.

After yesterdays enormous climbing leg, the boys had hoped for better easier cycling today. When started going downhill from Lavers Hill it started to rain again. It was only a few cars on the road, which makes it more safe. After a while the rain stops again and the asphalt dries up. It is cold cycling down large hills when you are wet from rain.

After a few downhills it goes upwards again and this is something Anders and Lasse have learned to accept. After a period on flat ground, where the boys saw an eagle sitting in the gras, the came to another monster Hill. The bodies didn’t respond like yesterday, the muscles are sour and the boys struggle already a few meters into the hill. It was a brutal hangover, climbing vice.

Up and down, and up again. Slowly, very slowly, the boys get forward. Todays route was from Lavers Hill too Apollo Bay so Anders and Lasse knew that the Hill had to come sometime. With 15 k’s left it really starts going downhill. Lasse is hurtling down at high speed, filming with the GoPro, while Anders takes it a bit more slowly. It’s a beautiful landscape Anders and Lasse have climbed, but they get to see more of it it when they go downhill. The coast can be seen above the three tops and as they get closer to the city center a beautiful beach opens up with azure-blue color, blue sky and only a few white clouds above the ridges in the horizon.

They don’t get any longer today, their thighs says stop, so they decide to camp along a little river. After the morning rain the tent gets plenty of time to dry of, which was necessary when even the inner tent was wet. The quality of the showers at the Caravan Park can be discussed as it took 5 minutes to get warm water. It’s still off-season in Australia so they are more or less alone at the Caravan park. This will soon change, so the boys will have to book in advance.

Melbourne is a day or two away, their first big target. Little by little they have closed in one the huge city over the last two weeks and now they can almost smell the urban air from the city everybody describes as amazing.

The GPS-tracking you can see from the menu can be recommended. There you can see where the boys are at at any time, both in the smaller and bigger picture (zoom in, zoom out).

Awesomestralia – a normal life is boring