Forest roads and kangaroos: And blah blah blah

August 7, 2015

Having of course found our way safely out of the forest, on the morning of the seventh we were initially forced to take the Princes Highway again due to a complete lack of alternatives. Although this mostly had a shoulder it was busy with fast moving traffic and had only one lane in each direction. At a few points the shoulder narrowed or disappeared completely on blind corners and was very dangerous. I hated it and I particularly hated to be putting Dea in danger. Fortunately before very long we had the opportunity to get off the highway again on another forest track. To my dismay when we reached this junction Dea seemed to want to just continue on the highway. She was obviously getting anxious about the slow progress that we were making and was keen to use the highway to get to Gold Coast faster. But for me it was out of the question to take the risk when we didn’t need to.

Happily Dea agreed to take the forest road again and it was another delight to cycle, at least for me. I found it a real pleasure cycling in the nature with just the sound of birdsong and I even enjoyed the bumpy gravel road which I felt somehow brought me into closer contact with the earth. It really felt like an adventure in nature. Unfortunately Dea wasn’t seeing it the same way for once and didn’t like the rough going. But as always she kept plugging away and the road did get better and by the end of the day we had passed through the town of Moruya and were back on the asphalt of an alternative road which was busy but had a good shoulder and was at times beautiful.

The most decomposed car I have ever seen

The next day we were right back at the seaside - eating breakfast and watching the surf crash over the rocks next to the beach at a pretty little place called Broulee. After my peanut butter and jam sandwiches I wandered out over the rocks to get a closer view of the waves and saw an Asian man who was collecting something from the rockpools. We spoke briefly and he told me that someone had been attacked by a shark here in January. I retreated to a safe distance as fast as I could.

From Broulee we took a not-very-nice road inland to a place called Mogo where we stopped in a second-hand shop. Ever since we’d stopped and had that incredible experience staring at the beautiful wombat back in Bombala reserve, Dea had been keen to expand our growing numbers, and it was a hole that not even the adorable Kevin the koala had been able to fill. But that was okay, because in this second -hand shop we found what Dea had been looking for! Introducing Wilma the wombat:

I think we should stop now Dea. Last one.

After that the… how many of us are there now… seven of us went off to the forest again on yet another gravel road which was once again lovely. It was so nice to be cycling with my girl in the forest with nothing but oh GOD this is getting so f*ing boring now isn’t it?! I’m sorry! Man, it’s just all forest and loveliness and birdsong and cuddly toys and kangaroos and lalalala.

Sorry.

Awww!!! - it's a little baby joey in its mother's pouch! Awww!!!

The forest road brought us to the town of Nelligen where we went to a public park down by a wide river and made our customary grilled cheese sandwiches on the free barbeque. Whilst we were there I fed the ducks and it was whilst I was busy trying to make sure the nice ones got enough and the big bullies that bit the others didn’t get any that I noticed a man had started talking to Dea. He was an old man, the kind of old man who likes to hang out in public parks and look sceptical about things. He was particularly sceptical about our plans to take a back road north and cross the river at a place called ‘Shallow Crossing.’ He screwed up his forehead and shook his head and told us that there was not a chance that we would be able to ford the river there on bicycles.

Making grilled cheese sandwiches. Dea also spotted a giant otter in the middle of the river, although nobody else saw it

Although we of course ignored the man and started cycling north toward Shallow Crossing anyway his words had us worried. “To be fair that does look like quite a wide river doesn’t it?” we said to one another, whilst nevertheless carrying straight on towards our fate. But we wouldn’t reach Shallow Crossing until the next day anyway and so the rest of our day of cycling was spent playing games as we rode along. The most prominent of these, the kangaroo spotting game, reached farcical circumstances, however. I crested a hill and saw a very great many of them in a field, almost too many to count really. I tried to count them anyway and, despite further controversies over who saw what, the end result of it all was a 97-79 lead for me and a rather resigned look on my partners face

That does actually look like quite a wide river to cycle across doesn't it?

07/08/15 -52km

08/08/15 – 54km

Today's ride: 106 km (66 miles)
Total: 45,836 km (28,464 miles)

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