I was taking my points where I could get them: KASHOOOM

August 2, 2015

At five in the morning we were awake to the sounds of vehicles on the football field that we had camped next to. Clearly they were making an early start to get the market set up. “Quick Dea,” I said, “we’ve got to get out of here.” We hurried out of our sleeping bags and packed things into panniers frantically. “We’ve got ten minutes” I said, only half jokingly.

The vehicles were a little away from us and quite likely hadn’t spotted us in the dark of night, but more trucks soon joined them. “Five minutes” I said, as our stuff was hauled out onto our bikes and we began to disassemble the tent. “Two minutes!” and then “One minute…” as we packed up the tent and bungeed the last of our things onto our bikes and the very next moment KASHOOOM and the floodlights lit up the field. We’d made it just in time and slipped quietly away.

We didn’t go far, returning to the picnic bench where we had sat the night before and making a grilled cheese sandwich breakfast on the free barbeque. More stalls were being set up around us as we did this, and of course we wanted to wait and check out what the market had to offer. Having spent the night in such proximity naturally we were first to wander amongst the stalls once everything was ready and whilst expensive jam and potted plants weren’t quite what we wanted there was one memorable highlight when I spotted two pet bunny rabbits in a cage next to one stall. I was taking my points wherever I could get them.

After leaving Candelo we had to ride on an uncomfortably busy little road and then take the Princes Highway the rest of the way to Bega. Although we’d been told we’d have to use this highway for most of our route this was in fact the first time we had been on it, and we only had to stay on it for ten kilometres. Fortunately this section mostly had a good shoulder. At Bega we spent quite a lot of time food shopping, or at least Dea did, whilst I stood in the shopping mall staring at a world map in a travel agent window. The map had Eurasia and Africa on the left and the Americas on the right, and consequently the whole of the Pacific Ocean was visible. It looked mighty big and intimidating, and was clearly going to be a major obstacle to be overcome on the mission to circumnavigate the planet without flying. Even so, I looked at it with great excitement as a new plan began to take shape in my head.

I sneaked this L plate on Dea's bike but she spotted it

After Bega we headed out of town and once again towards the forest, a gravel road, mountains, peace and tranquillity. At first we planned to cut through east and out to another paved road by the coast, but we enjoyed being away from civilization so much that we instead decided to continue north on yet more forest roads. These grew steadily worse in condition until they were almost impassable, but that was great because there was no traffic at all. It was fun, adventurous cycle touring. We’d been fortunate to find these routes thanks to the free Cartoscope maps that are available at tourist information centres (and for download on the Cartoscope website). I highly recommend using these free maps for New South Wales. For us they were a godsend in showing us these wonderful back roads.

This was much nicer than the highway! Climbing towards the forests

The day ended gloriously for me. At a high point I peered through the canopy and saw a line of water on the horizon. There it was. The Pacific. And as if an omen there was, absurd as it may seem, a boat resting there next to me. It was there, at the top of the mountain, like Noah’s ark run aground. But it was not time to turn our attentions to boats just yet, there was more cycling to do first, and Dea had already gone on ahead. I began rolling down the other side of the hill after her and counted eight kangaroos grazing next to the road. When I caught up to my companion I asked her how many she had spotted but somehow she had failed to see them. Eight points to me, it was certainly my lucky day, and camping in the forest under the stars with my girl confirmed it.

I even let her change it to a P for 'just passed' after she so competently tackled the tricky roads

Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 45,640 km (28,342 miles)

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