DOWN TO COFFS

I sucked it up and rode on south toward Grafton where I had planned my first break of the day.The roads had improved a lot and there were no real hills to speak of so it wasn't too long before I covered the 35ish kilometers and rode into the outskirts of Grafton and straight up to the huge MacDonalds which shared a carpark with the local information center on the highway.I parked my rig and climbed the stairs up to the restaurant where I ordered some breakfast and dealt with the disgusted stares from the other customers.To be fair,I was filthy and even though I was dressed head to toe there was a lot of dirt and dried mud on my shoes,hands and face.I looked a sight and when the Maccas girls asked me if I was dining in of taking out I told her that I really didn't think that they would want me sitting on their chairs.She laughed and agreed.

The morning sun was starting to heat the place up and I made my way over to the stairs of the info center to take full advantage.I sat in the sun and while I ate my breakfast I slowly stripped off my leg warmers,arm warmers,vest,socks and shoes and lay them out in the sun to dry.I'm sure the staff at the info center were not impressed but they never said anything and after getting another coffee from Maccas I hung out for about 45mins before I finally felt human enough to gather up all my gear and head back out onto the highway.

One thing I did not expect was the amount of hills that I was faced with as soon as I rolled out of Grafton.One after another they rolled out before me and as nice as the road surface was I could not help but think that I ws doing an inordinate amount of climbing for a stretch of Australias' coast that was supposed to be flat.The uphills went on for about 2k a piece but the downs did not seem to match but they just kept coming.They sure made for a tough ride but I must have been feeling okay as I was an hour ahead(in milage terms) of where I had been the previous day.I figured that I would be through Coffs Harbour my mid afternoon and hopefully would make that day the longest so far.It would be a struggle though as it was a very humid afternoon and as the day rolled on I got the feeling that there was a storm brewing somewhere in the area and the slow buildup of grey clouds seemed to confirm my worries.I tried to speed on in an effort to get south of the growing weather system but the same strong wind that now was firmly at my back was gathering the louds behind and driving them toward Coffs Harbour fast on my heels.The long downhill that had me flying past the township of Halfway Creek proved that I had indeed been climbing for a couple of hours and it would seem that I had crested a small range and the road had tilted toward the coast and the town of Woolgoolga.

As the early afternoon sun hid behind the increasing grey veil I actually felt very strong and for the second time really believed that my fitness was reaching another plateau.I fairly powered up the short hills which rolled from headland to headland, sheltering each of the beaches north of Coffs Harbour.The last and definately worst of the hills found me standing on the pedals,crawling upward past Coffs famous "Big Banana",which made me realise just how close I was to ticking off another landmark on my southward journey.I also got a taste of what it meant to be closing in on Sydney,traffic!!It was hellish and a total surprise.I struggled down the highway with the local traffic screaming past at a manic pace and as I dodged yet another close call I heard the first crack of thunder booming behind me to the north.Damn!

I pulled into a gas station for a coffee and a rest from the traffic but it soon became obvious that my rest might indeed be a tad longer than anticipated.The humidity was increasing rapidly and the extra effort that I had put in over the two hours leading into Coffs had left me totally soaking wet.I thought of the prospect of a wet night outside trying to sleep in my damp sleeping bag and filthy clothes and I could not face it.I went inside and asked the lady behind the counter if she knew where the Coffs Harbour hostels were.I needed a hot shower and a bed,but really I was just being soft.Then again, who cared? It took me another half hour to make my way down to the beaches and ride a couple of laps of the neighbourhood before I found the Coffs Harbour YHA and finished my 124k day.I walked in as the rain started to fall and checked in for two nights.As I dragged all my stuff upstairs to my room I started to feel very tired and very,very lonely.

Perhaps it was just some decent food and a bottle of cheap wine that I needed as after cleaning myself up and a quick trip to the shopping mall I enjoyed the first home cooked meal I had eaten in weeks.My mood improved dramatically as I set about chatting with some of the other hostellers,my physical state though had gone downhill.My legs hurt,my back hurt but mostly I was just fatigued.It was beyond explanation but there was no doubt that something was not quite right.I hoped that the wine would fix it and like the good boy that I am took all my medicine without complaint.I did have a nice time quizzing the tour leader of of an adventure company that had joined me in the hostel dining room.I found out that the young girl who was driving the 12 adventures tourists around had left a really nice job in Canberra to guide camping trips around Australia.This group were on their first night but soon they would be camping under the stars all over Australia for the next 30 days.In many ways I envied them the company but then I though of the fact that they had no control over their trip and were the slaves to a schedule planned by someone else.I thought about my ride and decied that I would stop worrying about how far I rode each day and how often I posted my blogs.Those few people who have shown an interest would just have to wait for each update and when I reached my parents home in the Blue Mountains I would have to do some serious thinking about how I would ride the second leg of my trip.

After an early night and a great sleep-in I spent most of the next day either,writing in my blog,uploading photos to Facebook or trying to get my camera to work.The first two tasks were accomplised to some degree but my camera would produce nothing but out of focus pictures.It was very frustrating and I hoped that it would soon dry out and the problem would fix itself.I also took the time to wash all of my clothes and dry out my tent,tarps and my panniers,chores which kept me busy and hostel-bound for most of the day.I didn't mind as I was in no mood to be a tourist and ventured only as far as the small shopping mall across the street.I really didn't do Coffs Harbour any justice but for me it was a service stop and nothing more.