DAY 32

From Cooma to Braidwood it is 140 k’s with nothing in between. A road sign warns “no food, no fuel, no accommodation next 140 km”. The boys have bought enough of cans, bananas, chocolate and water. The plan is to get as far into the park as possible and even maybe over the top and down on the other side of the Hill. 140 km over a national park they will not manage to do in one day but 70 + 70 will do.

From Cooma it goes up and down for many km. Anders and Lasse is still tired from the Kosciuszko national park, but have to move on. It’s a warm day and they slept in. They leg consist of much up and down, it’s hard. They are crossing Deua National Park which at the highest point is 1200 meters above sea level. Two national parks in one week is though.

Anders don’t cycle so far ahead as he used to and waits for Lasse. They are high up and it starts to get really cold. The fog surrounds them and it’s not nice.

They have cycled 55-60 km and Anders is only 3-4 minutes ahead of Lasse. It’s a dirt road with red dirt and it goes downhill, barely. The sun is again showing its presence and it gets nicer but that is about to change. Without any notice whatsoever Anders’ front rack falls down forwards. It locks the front wheel and Anders immediately understands that he is in big problems. He flies over his handlebars, take a half frontflip and lands on right side. His head smashed into the ground and the helmet is nice to have. He understands that it isn’t over. He lays knocked out and in a position that doesn’t protect the body at all. The bike did the same flip as Anders and the rear part of the bike that has three bags and one tent smashes into Anders upper body. The bike weighs 45 kg so imagine the power it hits with. He looses his breath for a couple of seconds before he starts screaming. He continues to gasp for air while screaming. He is in severe pain but realizes he is alive.

Lasse is not to be seen. Anders thinks “I do not think I have broken anything”. Anders sees Lasse coming, a bit slowly. Lasse on his hand uses some time to realize what has happened. At first Lasse thinks Anders is just relaxing and that his bike fell over, but when he sees the iPhone, gps and camera is spread around he quickly understands.

Anders hears a car is approaching and Lasse helps moving the bike. The car stop and asks if the boys need any help. The boys look at the bike and says that they think they will be okay. She informs the boys that it’s far to anything and the boys don’t wanna bother her. She drives away and probably thinks that boys have been a bit to tough.

Anders immediately realizes his thumb is no good although not broken. But the ribs are baaaaad! After getting the whole bike with all the luggage smashed into the his upper body, it feels like all of his ribs are broken. His hip is not doing to well either. He got one sour that Lasse urges him to clean, but for Anders it’s more important to move on. They are on the middle of the mountain with 80 km until something. The front rack is taken of and Anders is never seeing that again. They boys takes one of the front bags each and adds to the back of each bike. Lasse assist carrying Anders luggage and Anders is in severe pain. He screams a lot while cycling downhill on an awful dirt road. It feels like an elephant is stepping on him.

They cycle 15 km after the accident and gets down from the mountain. It’s getting dark so they set up a tent in the roadside. Without service on the phone Anders uses the gps to contact those home and inform about the injury. In return he gets tips about medicine, takes quite a few, falls asleep and stays in that position all night. It hurts and tomorrow 70 km awaits.

DAY 33

With yesterday’s accident the only thing that mattered today was getting to Braidwood. 70 km, mostly flat and downhill. They cycle at 9 and it goes quite well. Anders leads the tempo on heavy painkillers. It’s a beautiful and perfect day.

They stop for a small quick lunch with a banana and chocolate before they continue. They are so focused on getting to Braidwood that they don’t bother about the headwind. With 30 km left Lasse gets on Anders’ back wheel and in an hour they do 20 km. In a small uphill anders turns and asks Lasse if he is still breathing. “You sick sick man, we’ve cycled for 25-30 kph in some of the uphills” Lasse replies while breathing heavily and all red in his face. “We have to train a little not just cycle around” Anders says.

Lasse takes it slower for the last 10 km as his muscles get sour. He finished with saying “this is the 12th day in a row since Melbourne.

In Braidwood they are gonna eat pizza, drink Coca Cola and clean their bikes. They are relaxing and looks forward to a new day tomorrow. Summarizing the last week they have been both lucky and done well. Time to relax a bit but not before they reach Sydney.

Awesomestralia – a normal life is boring