Day 6

Forecast was for morning showers clearing. The forecast was wrong there was no clearing and showers became constant rain. Like Paul I was underdress and got cold and wet within the first two hours.
Wilf had the daily coffee ready at the first stop after two hours riding. I change into winter gear enjoyed the coffee and continued. We all seemed grumpy this morning due to the cold wet weather. It wasnt long before i was coldand wet again. So far I have found each day more challenging than the previous. Today was a battle with the traffic, the rain, the cold and trying to keep up on the climbs. I felt flat up till lunch.
I met up with my parents just after lunch and that really gave me motivation for the rest of the day .
The final 20km was relentless with climbs one after the other. They where not as big as others already but continuous.
Very happy to have put this day behind me.
I'm really hoping for better weather tomorrow. At least not constantly raining.

Aaron

Did you hear the one about the four cyclists......

Today was day 6 and going to bed last night we knew it was going to be a tough tough day. We have already covered 650kms and today was another 150+km day with a lot of climbing.
We woke up to a blustery and wet day...We headed off at 7.15am and were in the middle of heavy rain by 7.20..the rain would not stop for the rest of the day.
Apart from the distance the weather made it so much harder. By lunch Paul had changed his clothes twice and Aaron once. Luckily I had got the clothing department right and had kept the worst out for the whole day. The problem was when we stopped, it was so cold that we had to get going again to keep warm but needed the rest in the legs, catch 22.
We got onto the 'tourist drive' just after Maruya which added to the kms we need to complete and we were told it was flatter so after what we had been through it looked promising. After about 5-10kms of flat stuff the hills started...again. It wa a relentless, everytime we desended there was another climb waiting and this went on for about 15-20kms. At the end we were all getting a bit fed up as the day had been so long. We arrived nearly 2 hours later than other days so with all the kit to be sorted, get dinner and so on it has been a frantic evening.
Tomorrow is another big day and then the day after is our finsl run into Wollongong which is going to be good as it is just 70kms or so.
Bed time...... knackered.

Cheers
Carl

Day 6 - a day of two halves

Thiis is the second go at this post as blogger ate the first one so i'll be briefer this time...


Today was very very wet. I started out under dressed and by the first stop was wet and freezng and miserable. By lunch i had perked up and did a near complete clothes change to end up in dry warm stuff. The rest of the day was much better after that and i finished the day feeling really strong.


We're just $400 from hitting $10000 of our $20000 target.


Stats for the day: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/124173728

Paul

644kms and 27 hours of riding

Today was the hardest day so far, towards the end the climbs were hurting....I felt good all day but 2,000mts of vertical climbing is not going to be easy.
We are now in Tathra NSW and tomorrow we head towards Batemans Bay. Another 150km ride with about 1500mts of vertical elevation.
Everyone is in good spirits but tired. Also well done to Paul who took the lead for most of the day and was a champ in the hills, great for someone who doesnt like climbing.

Cheers
Carl

Day 5 - much better

I woke up determined to be cheerful today. We left Cann River just after 6am and it was tough to turn the legs over, I was struggling to do 20kmh on the flats and before long we were going up our first sharp incline. But we have a plan now, we do 2 hours first thing before our first break, so I know where the first rest will be and can look forward to that. Next was lunch at Eden, and dealing with a cloud of flying ants before and afterwards. I was glad of my sunnies, not for the sun protection (it was overcast all day) but to keep the bugs out of my eyes. Eden was at 110km so we split the remaining 50k in half, with the second half starting in Merimbula with the climb up 'Magic Mountain'. Not long after we arrived in Tathree the wind and rain came. We've been so lucky with the weather so far, there were two wet days early on but other than that it's been dry and the winds have been behind us and quite light.melts hope this continues for the last three days. Stats are here. 2k of climbing today. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/123947705 Paul

Day 4 not much fun

A late blog entry as I was too grumpy to post yesterday. I did not enjoy the 75km from Orbost to Cann River. Well that's not quite true - I enjoyed the bits I didn't have to pedal, e.g. downhill. Unfortunately there were way too many uphills for my liking. Just glad to be done with that one. Stats here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/123584165 Paul

Day 5 Cann river to Tathra

This was the toughest day on paper. It proved to be even tougher riding it. There where hills from 5 to 160km. Some climbs so steep that I had no choice but to get out of the saddle to make it. The good thing is climbs and height make for great scenery. The not so good was they hurt the legs. As the climbs where that tough today the now custom if your happy song only include a 'nod your head'.
The donations have been great and make it worthwhile putting in long hard days like this for.
Also passed the half way mark and back in NSW. Yet another milestone.
3 days of riding to go.