March 30, 2016
Cycling with Stephen: Road closed
The next morning I set off with Stephen. The plan was to cycle together to his house, about seventy kilometres south, on a back road that Stephen was sure had just reopened. It had been closed for a long time, and he was excited to be able to cycle on it again. I was struggling to share his excitement as we struggled up the so-called 'hospital hill' out of Bellingen. The exact reason why it was called 'hospital hill' was not explained to me. I guessed it most likely would have been because it went past a hospital, but to me it felt like I really needed to go to a hospital by the time I got up it. My legs were unusually tired, as was the rest of my body after what had been a restless night.
I wish I could say I had a nice cycle ride together with Stephen, but the truth is we didn't cycle together very much. He tended to go on ahead as we left the traffic behind and travelled deeper into the forested hills. This was okay, but I was slightly worried about all the 'road closed' signs and 'no access to Bowraville' signs, but Stephen remained positively certain that the road was passable. I took plenty of photos to use as evidence against him, just in case.
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As it turned out, thankfully, Stephen was right. We breezed past the final defiant 'road closed' sign and kept going on a grassy track that, though not in great condition, was definitely cycleable. I kept waiting to fall off the edge of a cliff but it never happened, and before long we emerged safely out the other side.
Sadly that wasn't the end of our ride, and there were still a great many more hills to come. It felt to me like we had cycled uphill constantly all day, my legs were absolutely shattered. Stephen, a man twice my age who must have looked half it on this day, continued to go on ahead. And when I did finally catch him up as he stood waiting for me, I generally wanted to collapse and take a twenty minute break, but Stephen was already setting off again almost as soon as I arrived.
Eventually this day of torture came to an end as we rolled up to our destination. Thanks to Stephen's enthusiasm he had managed to drag me to the finish line by three in the afternoon and this was perhaps for the best as it gave me a good amount of time to rest before I'd have to get back on the bike in the morning. It was a nice evening too. I once again greatly enjoyed the company of Stephen and his wife Jacky, a thoroughly interesting and likeable couple. A nice dinner, a warm shower, friendly conversation. It was just the tonic I needed. Then, when I climbed into bed thinking maybe everything was going to be alright, I had a look through my notes and calculated how long it had taken Dea and myself to cycle from Sydney to here. It had taken us fifteen days. I now had just one week to do it the other way. Nuts.
Today's ride: 67 km (42 miles)
Total: 48,000 km (29,808 miles)
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