Today, 24th August, has been another one of those wonderful days on a bicycle. The wind has been at the backs of the riders for the whole day and personal bests have been achieved in terms of distance ridden verses time on the bike. The day could be said to be a little boring because we travelled along Australia’s longest straight road – 146.6km without a bend! The average speed for the whole day was 33km/hr. The Lord certainly answered the prayers of the cyclists! It has been a good day for the road team too with the bus in top gear for the whole 182km and no antagonistic motorists or truckies! The team has made itself comfortable in the motel units here at Caiguna, all showered and ready to do it all again tomorrow.We met up with a lone cyclist, on holiday in Australia from Germany. She has to be a very fit lady to be pedalling and mountain bike loaded with all her gear – heavy heavy heavy. Her name is Dorothee. She declined our invitation to have morning tea with us but did join us for lunch. Kevin took it on himself to ride the last 40km into Caiguna with her – just the two of us! It was suggested we should give Kevin a nickname from this point onwards in the ride – “Toto” – (Dorothy’s dog in The Wizard of Oz)!
There has been no rain today, not even a spot on the windscreen. I was told by a very reliable source that the weather for Perth is on the improve and that should mean it is on the improve for us too. We need fine weather with strong westerly winds!
At that point I was interrupted and asked if I could replace two broken spokes in the rear wheel of Dorothee’s bike. It was an easier job that I would have expected as it has a geared hub. When it was done, I told the assembled tribe that it was the first time I had replaced spokes and trued a wheel with a dial indicator for ten years. I guess it is nice to know I have not forgotten how to do such a thing!
No comments:
Post a Comment