DAY 64

The boys are a bit delayed out of Yandina Caravan Park, but the rain was showering down so it didn’t really matter. To wake up in a tent with rain and having to get up is hard enough by itself, but it is even worse when you have to get on the bike and cycle as well. But the boys gotta do what they gotta do as they choose this themselves. The shoes and the tricot is wet, and the helmet is cold. It has been raining for 3 days now and so far 2017 can be summarized as wet and slow cycling wise.

Smaller roads is often synonymous with hilly landscape, some dirt roads and surprises. The road Anders hoped to take turned out to be private. Three loose dogs chased them back to the main road. This meant they had to do a detour back to Emundi and start climbing. Lasse lagleder energy, has a wound from sitting and cycling with a wet tricot and a hand that prefers not to hold in the handlebars. It was constantly pouring down and it went slowly. They get to Cooroy and realizes that the lunch target of Gympie simply wasn’t possible. They decide to make Gympie the main target for the day which is 44 km from Cooroy.

They eat a sandwich for lunch together with a coffee they use to warm themselves on. When you are soaking wet and sit down outside in the wind it very quickly becomes freezing cold. The rain eases a bit and the cycle experience itself improves. It is still quite hilly and the landscape reminds them of New South Wales. Green hills, horses and beautiful houses on the tops. The fog and rain limits the excitements a bit.

With 16 km remaining Anders breaks a few spokes on his back wheel. The bicycle he has been so happy with the last few days disappoints him. Anders flips the bike up side down and tries to pull out one of the spokes with a leather man. Easier said than done and in the end he has to open the medicine bag and use tape to tape it together with the spoke next to it. With a closer look they see that it is not the spoke that is broken but the place you attach the spoke to the wheel. As it were about to happen with more spokes he needs a new wheel.

The bike shop in Gympie was if the sorry kind, or at least the guy who run it. Anders wanted to smack him in the face after a two minute chat that led to nothing. It is 200 km to Brisbane and 120 km to Hervey Bay, nothing in between has what Anders needs.

The Bike Butler in Brisbane might be worth a try the boys thinks, so they send him a message. He answers he can be there with a new tire tomorrow evening. They are saved, again. It will cost them
A resting day at a caravan park, but it is okay to dry some clothes considering how the weather have been the last few days. The wounds after sitting easily comes back when the tricot is wet 24 hours a day.

Awesomestralia – a normal life is boring