HELL ON THE HAY PLAINS

I had a great sleep that night inside the Gunbar Town Hall and being inside certainly made it easy to get out of bed before sunrise and get the day started.There was something about not having to brace myself for the frigid wind first thing that motivated me to get up in the dark and make a coffee so I could watch the sun rise on a new day.My enthusiasm waned a little once I did open the doors at the back of the hall and let the morning chill in,holy cow it was cold!!I decided that I'd wait until the sun was just about up before stepping out again there was lots for me to do in preparation for the days ride to Hay to keep me busy for a while. Once it did start to lighten up I made the effort and was rewarded with the most beautiful of sunrise to welcome in a clear crisp morning.Too bloody crisp for my liking!
There was no delaying it though and just before 7am I rolled my rig out of the hall and rode up on to the highway for the 78k ride to Hay.I was hoping to get to Hay well before lunchtime and then ride out the other side for about an hour or so,first things first though I had to get there and the way my legs felt in that first hour I new that the plan might be a little harder to adhere to than I'd hoped.For some reason my legs were really sore and there was just no power to the pedals at all.I hoped that I would have a repeat of the previous couple of days and once I warmed up the pain would go away but that morning it didn't.I'm guessing the cold didn't help either.
About half an hour into the day the wind started.At first it wasn't really a problem but as it increased it took a lot more energy to maintain my speed and that only made my legs hurt even more.I put on another layer in the hope that if my core was warm then my legs might warm up a bit more but that didn't help so I just resigned myself to a slow old day and geared down to a very slow spin.The problem with riding so slowly with the load I have is that you start to lose control of the front end of the bike more easily and with a wind coming at me from the front left it meant I was constantly being pushed into the center of the road.That sucked.
As the kilometers rolled by the wind picked up and I started to get colder and colder.This was a sign to me that there was something else going on.I figured that I must be really run down to feel the cold like this or perhaps I hadn't eaten enough to deal with the cold and riding into the wind.I found the only bit of shelter that could(behind a fence over a cattleguard)and opened a can of beans.Even though I was behind a shelter the wind cut through my clothes and started to chill the sweat that was soaking the layers of clothing below.I pulled on my windproof gear and paced around for a while just hating the day to death.I must have looked a sight because a kombi van loaded up with a hippie family from South Australia pulled up and asked if I needed help.I told them I was fine but I gotta admit,if that van was empty and the driver had offered me a lift then I would have seriously thought about taking it.Instead I sucked it up and got back out there and crept along at a sad 12kph.Christ,I can run faster than that!!!!On top of all that I had a bloody aggressive magpie chase me down the highway for about 500meters swooping me and pecking at my helmet.I was too tired and cranky to do battle with a flaming bird after the shitty day I'd had but he would not let me go and thankfully there was no traffic around cause I was just weaving all over the place under the magpies attack.
The closer I got to town the worse I felt and I really started to lose it.I was yelling and screaming at everything around which,if you look at the photos is a whole lot of nothing.I perservered though, ten kilometers at a time and as midday rolled around I realised that this must be the slowest 78k that I have ever ridden.God would this town ever show up?One thing though,I knew my legs needed a rest because every time I lost the plot and yelled I felt the blood surge through both legs and they hurt like shit.I've never felt that before and it was really,really odd.I needed a day off.
I finally rolled into the little country town of Hay at about 1pm a full 6 hours after I started the 78k trip that morning.Sooooooo slow on a day which was dead flat!!I meandered through the towns main street until I found a motel that looked nice and pulled ino the driveway of the Bidgee Motor Inn where I found the owner hanging around in the driveway.We had a quick chat and a few minutes later I was under a hot shower hurting like hell until my extremeties warmed up.I was checked in for two nights which would give me one full day off and hopefully time for my legs to recover.

I am by nature a pretty lazy person and when I'm on a trip like this one that last thing I want to do when I reach a designated rest day destination is run around like a nut trying to see stuff.I see enough stuff on the road so generally I stay indoors and work on my blog or just mellow out on the the laptop or,as I did in Hay,watch movies.This motel had cable tv with three movie channels and to me that is heaven on a stick.I did a bit of shopping and did have a walk around town but apart fro excursions to the fish and chip shop and one trip to the laundromat my time was spent spread out on the big bed watching cool movies.Bliss!

The morning I was supposed to leave I made the decision that I really didn't want to get out on the road just yet.I had been really dissappointed that there had been no more interest in my trip from some tri-industry people I'd contacted and that kind of dulled my enthusiasm.I couldn't expect people to want to donate money to the Athletes in Kind cause so I became resigned to the fact that I'm not a good fundraiser at all and that made me wonder what I should do regarding the rest of my trip.I did enjoy being out there but I started feeling that I should just bail on the blog and I mentioned that on my Facebook page.Thankfully I did recieve some encouragement from the small group of people who have been following my trip and I decided to give it another few weeks to see if interest lifted.I not maybe I'll just go sit on a beach somewhere and find some fun people to hang out with.There was also the problem of funds.Was I going to allow myself to go broke promoting a cause that nobody outside Vancouver was interested in?Should I just bail and get a job? I didn't know what to do and I spent a good portion of my rest day feeling very sad.

Early the next morning I started to feel a bit off colour and my stomache turned on me.I had been feeling a bit feverish overnight but now I started feeling light headed and my stomache let go in a big way.I don't know what kind of bug I'd picked up or if it was just part of being run down but I lost my appetite completely and what I did eat went straight through me.I was going nowhere fast again.The up side was that I could stay and watch the Ironman World Triathlon Championships live on my laptop.I thought I was going to miss it but in the end it was great.I'd hoped that I could get away the next morning but there was no way and eve the staff at the motel became concerned about my welfare.I figured though tat whatever I had would run it's course and flush itself out in due course.The worry I had was that I was probrably spending way too much money stalled in a motel in Hay.I was supposed to be raising money and not spending it.I went into the office to pay for my fifth(and hopefully last) nigt in the motel but the owner Julie would have none of it.I guess she felt bad for me and told me that as a donation in kind for my cause she would give me that night free.I was amazed and touched by her generosity.She and her husband Mark are great people and it that little gesture did more to motivated me to continue than anything I'd experienced that week.It was just what I needed to pick me up and ge my head in the right place.I can't thank them enough.

So,next stop should be Ceduna in South Australia some 1400 kilometers away.It's going to take about 16 days to get there as I will be cutting down on my daily bike milage in order to be able to up the bike intensity and at the same time allow an increase in run and swim training.I have lots of time and I refuse to allow myself to feel the pressure to ride long distances or to get to a place just to update this blog.I have promised the friends who are following my blog tat I will keep it going as I'm value their interest and really,if I can share a little bit of what I'm up to with a few people who really are interested then it is my pleasure to keep doing so.Thanks' guys for being interested,I doubt very much that the S.E. Asia leg of my trip will be happening after Ironman in December as I will run out of funds but I live in hope that someone out there in the corporate world will decide to join me now ,while things are tough and uncertain, instead of jumping on the old bandwagon when it's all over.Either way I've got 3,000 kilometers to cover and an Ironman to train for and that 'aint going to get done by sitting here watching movies for the next month.Time to hit the road again.

CHILLY DAYS AND FREEZING NIGHTS

It was really great to wake up the next morning to a dry tent and dry ground.The cold morning air I could have done without but I knew that it wouldn't take too long to warm up once I was underway again.Well, that was the theory anyway.Once packed up and on the road it was bloody freezing and I didn't need any encouragement to pull into the first big truckstop that I saw after only 15k of riding.I wanted real food ,hot coffee and a warm place to sit in for a while and hat truckstop was just the ticket.I wanted to stall for a while anyway as I needed to get to a grocery store to buysome supplies for the isolated stretch that I would soon be facing on the ride to Hay some 260k away. Once inside the truckstop I soon got to chatting to a nice family from Queensland who were also really feeling the cold as they drove through to South Australia to visit relatives.They were pretty interested in my trip and it was while I was chatting to them that I realised just what was different about this part of my trip and what was bugging me so much.I had mentioned to these people that I had found riding through Queensland much more friendly and fun than the last few days(if you take the weather out of the equation) and the main reason I came up with was that in Queensland the rest areas allow overnight camping and caravan stays while in New South Wales that was not an option.That meant that the sort of chance meetings with fellow travellers I'd had during the first month of my trip were not likely to happen again until the Nullabor Plain about three weeks ride away.So unless I really made the effort to talk to random people or hooked up with a fellow cyclist then I was to be really doing it solo for the next little while.As I am quite a social creature I didn't like the thought of that.I spent way too much time hanging out in that truckstop but I really enjoyed it but when I looked at a clock on the wall and realised that the state had changed to daylight saving time it dawned on my that I was actually two hours behind my schedule for the day.I said my goodbyes to the staff at the truckstop and rode on into West Wyalong to a grocery store and bought some supplies for the next three days.The road broke up a little on that stretch of highway and it made for a rough ride but it was still great compared to Nth Queensland so I wasn't going to complain too much.I was too busy complaining to the cows on the side of the road about the damn cold wind.I had to ride the whole damn day in three layers of clothing just to keep warm.It sucked but I made pretty good time on a pretty uneventful day.At around 78k into the day I rode into the little town of Weethalle which pretty much consisted of a pub,a cop station,an info hut and few houses and a little old gas station.I needed to fill up all my water bottles for the night so I pulled into the gas station and a minute or so later was sitting in front of a nice hot coffee chatting to the four travellers sitting in the restaurant as the owners fussed about telling all kinds of stories about the other cyclist who had ridden through tow over the years.They even had a table with a bunch of framed photographs of a few of the riders who had sent pictures back to them after their trip had finished.One guy caught my attention as he had apparently ridden a recumbent solo and unsupported 4,000k from Perth to Bondi Beach in Sydney in a little over 11 days.WTF!!!!!That is some seriously super speedy cycling and sure made me feel like a slowpoke.I sat around chatting for a while enjoying the two free slices of chocolate cake that the owners gave me.It was awesome and just what I needed to fuel me up for the last 28k of the day that I needed to cover to make up my 100k daily total.

The last hour and a half of riding was done into a ever-increasing headwind which reduced me to crawling speed.Thankfully it was warming up a little bit and the sky looked clear so I was looking foward to another dry night ahead as I turned off the higway at the 100k mark and looked for a suitable camping spot.I had just passed a huge grain silo and figured that there might be some shelter out of the wind close to the collection of buildings surround it.I turned off and rode around to the back of the silo complex and into the scrub behind.I was right in that there was lots of shelter but once I took off my shoes and started to walk around setting up camp I realised that I'd made a huge mistake.My socks soon became encrusted with small thorns and my feet were experiencing some kind of natural acupuncture session.I didn't mind the pain of the thorns in my feet so much,it was the thought of just how many thorns had stuck into my tyres just waiting to puncutre my tubes.I was so pissed off at myself as I quickly packed up my gear again and rode another kilometer or so down the highway looking for a more suitable camping spot.

I found a nice sheltered spot down a dirt track off the highway.It was a nice,thorn free flat spot sheltered behind a stand of small pine trees and I quickly set about making camp for the night.Once the tent was up and the water heating on the stove I tended to the countless thorns that were still stuck in the soles of my feet.I was too impatient to pick them out one by one with tweezers so I just opened the blade of my pocket-knife and scraped the crap out of my feet until all the offening needles were removed.The tyres on my bike and trailer semmed to have survived intact and so I as able to breathe easy and enjoy my dinner without the worry of flat tyres to ruin what was a pretty good day on the road.That evening I was treated to a clear sky and a beautiful sunset which turned the ground and sky all around me into a bright purple haze,something I would see a lot of while I was riding over the rich,rust coloured dirt that this part of Australia is famous for.The cold night wasn't such a treat but it could have been worse,the ants nest I had camped near could have housed some really nasty little critters but instead the scary looking,inch long ants left me alone and were not the slightest bit interested in my tent.Thank god for small mercies.The next morning was just plain bloody freezing and the nine kilometer ride into Rankine Springs was not a great way to start the day.I passed the only truck stop in town just wishing like hell for a hot coffee but after the memories of dicking around for too long in Wyalong came back to me I forced myself to ride on without a break(like I needed one after 9k-lazy bastard).My legs did feel like absolute shit though and turning into the wind after riding through town just made things worse as I crawled out of town.

I had been told that the hills were behind me once I left Cowra but the stupidly steep hill I hit about 5k out of Rankine Springs just really got me pissed of at all those well meaning motorists who keep teeling me that there are no more hills to ride.Just goes to show,what is flat in a car is not so flat on a flamin bike.Anyway,enough ranting because as soon as I climbed the 2-3k pitch to the top of the pass there was a huge downhill that saw me coasting happily(although frigidly)into the next valley.The long descent gave me the chance to eat and drink and shortly afterward my legs started to come good and I was making great time riding up and over the countless rolling hills that seemed forever to have me facing skyward.As the morning progressed the road straightened and the wind picked up leaving me in a struggle to stay on the grey strip of asphalt that stretched on in front of me as far as the eye could see. The road had narrowed and it was a mental battle against the cold,the wind and the trucks who were trying their best to give me a wide berth.I even had a friendly local cop stop and ask if everything was going okay for me as he was concerned about the danger of riding on such a windy day on that narrow road.I was fine and told him I'd be stopping for lunch at Goolgowi another 20k further up the road and then gave him an estimate of where I'd be stopping for the night.He said he'd keep an eye out for me to make sure I was okay later in the day(now that's what policing should be all about).

I made it to my lunch stop and as soon as I pulled over at the truck stop I started to get really cold.The wind was just tearing at my sweat soaked clothes and I made a bee-line for the shelter of the cafe area to the side of the building.After stripping off two layers of clothing and draping everything over my bike in the sun to dry I went in and got myself some real food for an early lunch.I then sat myself down against a low brick wall out of the wind but in the sun so i could warm up and dry off.The chicken burger,curry pie and half liter of chocolate milk seemed like a good idea at the time but soon after continuing my ride after an hours rest my stomache started protesting about having to deal with digesting all that food while I was pushing hard into the wind.I lasted about 5k before having to pull over and lie dow until some of my lunch was properly digested.After a nice little nap on the side of the road I was off again thinking that I would be able to get to within 60k of Hay that evening but the wind and my legs had other ideas.I pushed hard into the wind for another 20k when suddenly all the trees vanished and there was nothing but a whole lot of nothing surrounding me.I had hit the Hay Plain.I had been warned about the plains on either side of Hay and one guy even told me that the winds here could be worse than those on the Nullabor Plain.I didn't believe him until that moment when what I though was already a strong wind turned ferocious and pretty much stopped me in my tracks.It just so happened that as I rounded the curve in the road that is the start of the Hay Plain I came across a large silver building that looked like a barn.There was a four-way intersection and what looked like a church way off in the distance.I had found the dead town of Dunbar,78k out of Hay.I rolled off the road and decided to hide behind the big barn for a while and summon the coage to fight the wind for another hour or so.That plan was immediately thrown out when I found that the barn was in fact the restored Dunbar Town Hall and it was open.

I slid back the latch and opened the large double dorrs to find a big old hall with an elevated stage at the far end and another long room to the left.The place was dirty,dusty,full of cobwebs but most importantly it was warm!That was enough for me,I was going to camp inside for the night.The thought of a night out of the wind and cold and secure to boot was just too much to pass up so I just rolled my whole rig inside and set up camp right there on the floor of thr main room.My first night out of the wind in five days,awesome!!!I took my small tarp and laid it out on the floor on top of which I set up my tent.No need for a fly or the other tarp for protection tonight and best of all no chance of being rained on.After putting the water on to boil I stripped of and hung all my clothes out to dry and did a little investigating.I had seen how much of a footprint I was leaving in the dusty floor and so I checked out the rest of the building to see if there was any sign of recent life and there was none.No human footprints and at all but better yet no animal tracks meaning there was little chance I would have any visitors that evening,human or otherwise.I had only ridden 95k that day but I didn't care I was a happy boy and once the coffee was hot I got dressed and went for a stroll around the "town".

That walk took all of about ten minutes as all ther was too look at was the building I had claimed for the night and the ruins of the old Dunbar pub.The church in the distance was too far away for me to walk to but it was nice to be walking around in the middle of nowhere wondering what life must have been like back in the day when this place meant something to the small population who used to call it home.According to the tourist signs outside the hall they still have a traditional Christmas gathering there for people in the district each year. I wonder where the hell they woud all come from? The rest of the evening was spent taking some pictures and watching the sun set through the dirty windows of the hall while listening to the wind howl through the various cracks in the doors and walls of the building.I hoped that the place wasn't haunted I mean, I really had been wishing for some company over the previous few days,not that kind of company though.

BACK IN THE GROOVE,SORT OF.

The next morning I was up before sunrise to check on the weather and it was still windy,still really cold but at least the damn rain had gone away.I figured that I'd go back to sleep for a hour or so and let my stuff dry out a bit in the win.At 6:30am I took down my tarp and let the wind blow through my tent to dry up the moisture inside the tent created by my breath during the night.While that was going on I brewed coffee and prepared to head out into the raging tailwind that had turned in my favour.

At about 7:30am I was on the road and heading toward Cowra riding through more rolling hills that seemed to me to be tilting slightly ever downward.I wasn't quite sure what was going on as there seemed to be lots of uphills to be conquered but each downhill just got longer and steeper until I found myself coasting for long sections at a time.Before too long I saw,stretched out in front of me a green valley whch I hoped was a sign that I had finally reached the end of the constant hills I had fought for the previous couple of days.It wasn't long after I reached the bottom of a very long descent that I started to see the teltale signs that I was close to town.The good old roadside advertising bilboards.One of then told me that Maccas wasn't far away and as was just about moring coffee time I was dead keen to get there. Twenty minutes later I rolled straight through the center of Cowra and over the bridge on the other side of town to the large carpark under the big yellow M.

As I was taking my helmet off a group of people were leaving Maccas and they came over to look at my bike.They turned out to be avid cycle tourists who rode most of the big organised charity tours around Australia.They were really interested in my trip and my gear so I chatted with them for a little while before heading inside for a coffee and a sit down.It was nice to meet some people who were genuinely interested in my trip and knew what it was all about to be out on the road for days.The weather had made me more that a little sad and downhearted about what was doing and they had cheered me up a bit. I stayed in Cowra for about an hour before mounting the bike for the afternoon session.The morning ride had seen me cover 58k and as the next town of Grenfell was another 50k away I figured that I'd ride until just before town and chalk up an even 100k for the day.

The road flattened out for most of the afternoon with one small range to ride over but the change of wind direction made sure I wasn't going to have an easy time of it.About two and a half hours later my legs were fried and after logging exactly 100k I pulled off to the side of the road and found a really nice place to camp on a grassy patch by a farmers fenceline about 200meters from the highway.I set up my tent and while the water was heating over the stove I got stuck into my dry-land swim training as well as some resistance training with my swim bands.They work pretty well and are definately better than nothing.We will see in December I guess. Just before sunset the rain came again and I was foced indoors for another cold damp night.I will say that I had yet to get wet from the rain itself inside my tent but the humidity was a pain in the ass and the cold was really statring to piss me off.Still I quite liked the time I spent each night in my sleeping bag.I'm pretty lazy really and sleeping is something I love to do.

The next morning was cold as usual and I was starting to think that sping was never going to arrive this year.I got my shit together and was on the road pretty quickly which is something quite unusual for me.I didn't take long to ride into Grenfell and as I rode in I saw a huge billborad that told me this was the birthplace of one of Australias legendary poets,Henry Lawson.I hadn't known that and it was pretty cool to be riding through this historic little town.I stopped at a gas staion to fill up my water bottles and have my usual breakfast which consists of a mixture of rolled oats,weetbix,mixed nuts,dried fruit,Nestle choc powder and brewers sugar(maltodextrin and dextrose) with a drizzle of honey over the top.

After a short look around town I headed out on the highway again toward the next major town of West Wyalong.The ride that day was pretty easy and I had covered 57k by 10 am along the boring flat isolated highway.It was at that point when I started to see the effect that the prolonged drought has had on Australias farming towns.I rode into the the tiny town of Caragabal to find pretty much every store in the place empty and boarded up.I think that the only places open were the store,the pub and the police station.It was very sad to see but a sight I would soon get used to.I sat and had some lunch and a coffee hiding out of the cold wind in a shelter at the edge of the local playground.There was a local couple playing with their kids there when I arrived but it didn't take long for them to pack up and leave once their son became interested in my bike.I was really beginning to get sick of being the guy that everyone seems to worry about.I mean really, does everyone have to be suspicious of me just because I'm on the road by myself?Fuck me,what has happened to the world?

Another 30k or so riding along a featureless highway I hit the T-junction of the Mid-Western Higway (which I was on) and the Newell Highway which came in frm Forbes in the north.I turned sout-west and dead straight into the same wind that had been at my left shoulder all morning.God almighty what a pain in the ass to suddenly go from getting the job done to struggling to turn over evry pedal stroke.I stared at my speedo and was flat out determined to hit 100k that day.It was still pretty early and I knew I was approaching West Wyalong and so when I hit the 100k mark I immediately started looking for a campsite.Luckily for me there was a state forest lining on side of the highway and at 102k I found a dirt road which I followed into the wood to a really great camping area in a think stand of pine trees.It was perfect,out of the wind and in the sun where I could actually get warm.Woo hoo!

After hanging pretty much everthing I had in the trees to dry I went for an hour long run in the forest trails followed by my swim band session in the sun.It was great to be warm again and hanging in this beautiful forest but still I felt that something was missing.I guess the isolation was starting to get to me here on the road after spending the two weeks in the company of my parents.It had been good to be able to have conversations with my dad and hang out with him and his pub mates at the "local" on Friday nights.I guess I just missed having friends around and was hoping that the trade off for all this isolation would be increased interest in Athletes in Kind and from the Nth American triathlon community in my ride.I was beginning to think that I would set a deadline for commitment to crossing the Nullabor Plain.If there was no more interest by Mildura another 600k away then I would reconsider the rest of my trip.I didn't want this trip to turn out to be a chore.I wanted to achieve something positive for Athletes in Kind and if I failed to attract interest this year like I had done in the last two attempts then I would bail.The ride across Australia is just a vehicle to attract interest to my fundraising,I really didn't want to spend my "holiday" alone and in the middle of nowhere.Most of my life is spent alone, then again what the hell else is there to do?If nothing else I'll get fit as a fiddle.

WE BEGIN AGAIN

After the very relaxing two week rest at my parents house it was time for me to hit the road again.I had put the next leg of my ride on hold for a few extra days due some some seriously bad weather in the mountains but it was time to move on before I lost interest completely.The fact that the very morning I packed my bike up I somehow did myself some sort of lower back injury by bending and twisting the wrong way while attending to my bike.There was a really sharp pain in my sacrum and it extended down the back of both legs.I could not really straighten myself and when I went to sit it hurt like hell.There was no way that I was going to delay again.The bike was packed,I was dressed and that was that. I said my goodbyes to my parents and rolled out of the driveway and rode up the hill toward the Western Highway where I turned west for the first time on my trip.

One would think that as I was pretty much at the top of the Blue Mountains when I started that days ride that it would be a pretty easy ride across and over the top before making the descent down to Lithgow some 40 kilometers away.How wrong was I?The road heading west from Katoomba rolls constantly,following the contours of the spectacular mountain ridges that make up the this part of The Great Dividing Range.It was a tough start and the traffic did nothing to help though the great road conditions did ease my pain a little.The fact that I had done almost no riding at all over the last ten days of my stay was the one thing that hit me the most.I felt like I had lost so much of my fitness but I knew that in a few days the old legs would soon feel stronger again and all would be good.Strangely,the back pain I had felt that morning eased as soon as I hopped on my bike and it wasn't too long before I was back into riding mode and enjoying the passing scenery.

Not long after passing through Mt Victoria I found mysel at the top a huge descent.It was one of those scary steep and long downhills that truly worry me when I have a full load on the bike and a trailer draging along behind.There was not much in the way of a shoulder and I hoped the trucks behind me would be symathetic to the fact that I had no option but to take up the whole left lane as I rode the bakes down the dangerous,three kilometer descent.Once at the bottom I regrouped and began what would be a twenty kilometer rollercoaster ride through some of the hilliest terrain faced so far on my long trip.My poor legs hurt and I was definately happy to roll into the car park of the Lithgow MacDonalds after 40k for a morning coffee break out of the cold wind.

My morning coffee lasted about an hour before I filled my water bottles and continued west toward Bathurst.I had figured that todays ride would end just short of Bathurst which was about 100k from Katoomba an I always like to finish my rides about an hour or so from the next town so I know that if I use all my water overnight then a fresh supply will be just a short ride away the next day.Unfortunately for me the weather and the hills conspired against me and only ten kilometers out of Lithgow my legs really started to feel it.I struggled on through the seemingly endless rolling hills for another couple of hours gaining little headway beofre finally calling it a day at the 72k mark when my lack of enthusiasm, combined with a presentable camping area,coaxed me off the road for the day.I set up camp in the scrub beside a disused side-road and within an hour was,believe it or not,actually pulling on my running shoes to begin the long run training build up for Ironman West Oz which was just two months away.I went for an easy fifteen minute warm up run before completing eight,one minute hills repeats and 30 minutes of run drills which left my legs throbbing and my belly growling.It was time to eat and then prepare for the first night on the road to Ironman.

The next morning I woke up to a very painfull lower back.Just sitting up hurt so much that I could not put any weight at all on my tailbone.I had to roll over onto my belly and then do a push up to get into a crawling postion before backing slowly out of the tent and slowly standing up.What the hell had I done to myself?I went for a little walk to warm up and then slowy set about packing all my gear before gingerly hopping back on the bike and coasting down the hill near the top of which I had camped.The first uphill wasn't much fun but before too long any lingering pain had gone and about 5k later I had finally crested the Great Divide(according to a sign on the side of the road) and began the 20k descent into the frigid town of Bathurst.I passed the famous Mt Panorama race circuit and was thankful to be in town this week and not the next when the highways would be full with every petrol headed motor enthusiast in Australia making the annual pilgrimage to the famous Bathurst 1000 motor race.

As I rolled into town the grey clouds rolled in and a light mist began to fall.Thankfully I spied a pair of golden arches not too far away and was soon in the Bathurst MacDonalds warming up over a large Mac Cafe latte and chowing down on a couple of muffins.I had tucked myself into a corner where I could keep an eye on my bike but my little hideaway didn't stop the countless odd stares that I was recieving from those who walked by.The joint was jammed with people and I really felt out of place in a town that is far more welcoming of people driving hotted up cars than those riding bicycles.The kids,as usual,were very into my bike and a couple of them came over and asked me all about my trip and my gear.Until their parents told them to get away from me that is.Strange,single men in MacDonalds are not the sort of people most parents want their kids chatting to.Sad but true.

Once the clouds started to clear about two hours later I pulled on all my warm clothes again and headed off,out of Bathurst and on toward Cowra about 110k away.I knew I wouldn't make it that day but I fugured if all went well then I'd be riding through Cowra at around late lunchtime the next day.If the hills out of Bathurst were any indication then that was truly a pipe dream as I was to find nothing but more long rolling hills stretching as far as the eye could see.The hell of it was,I had now found myself riding into a strengthening headwind which made the ups hell and the downs heaven.The end of my day was heralded by the sounds of thunder in the distance and as I struggled mightily up the hardest hill of the day I could feel a few raindrops cooling my face in the increasing wind.I crested yet another hill to see lighting flashing in the distance and knew my day was nearly done.Another light show had me duck into a now unused part of the old highway and rushing to erect my tent and throw my tarp overtop in preparation for the oncoming storm.Once all the hatches had been battened down,so to speak,there was nothing left to do but duck inside and wait it out.With only 60k in the bank for the day I was pretty dissappointed but hoped that I'd be able to ride to the town of Blayney a mere 12k away before nightfall.I didn't fancy spending to much time roadside if there were severe thunderstorms about.About fifteen minutes after steeling into my tent the storm hit and stayed for a couple of hours with the rain pounding pouw on my tarp and the wind howling in the trees above.By the time it had eased it was around 4pm and there was no point moving that day.I fired up my stove,cooked some food and prepare my tent for the night.

The next eighteen hours or so were spent either asleep in my tent while the rain poured down or ducking outside during lulls in the storm to check to see if it was all over.All through the night the storms came and went and I was really preparing myself for a whole day stuck in the same spot but at around 11am the skies cleared a little and I decided to pack up and make a move.It took me about an hour to pack everything and get going again and once everthing was ready I made the quick dash into the town of Blayney about a 12k windblasted ride from my camp.I stopped briefly to fill all my water bottles and then was out on the highway again trying to get as close to Cowra as possible.About 10k out of town as I was climbing a little hill when I noticed a rattling sound coming from my rear wheel.I looked down and saw that the spoke protector(designed to stop my chain from shifting into my spokes)was loose and I though I'd better find somehwere to pull off the road and fix it.Halfway down the next hill I saw a sign signalling a rest area ahead and I pulled in to find that it was also a viewpoint for the local windfarm.I could clearly see about a dozen huge wind turbines slowly rotating on the nearby hillside.Behind the giant fans I could see the darkening sky which told me that the bad weather was not over quite yet.I had only ridden 22k that day and was already making a mad dash to set up a shelter for the next round of storms.Bugger it!!!

For another 10 hours or so I was trapped inside my tent as a fresh round of storms battered the rest area.Thankfully I had found a spot hidden by some think low shrubs and about eight feet below the crest fo the hill which meant that most of the wind just blew straight over me.The tent would be out of the wind and secure,I would just have to hope that it would continue to hold out the rain.Thnkfully it did keep me dry and even more thankfully the tarp managed to retain a lot of heat as the temperature dropped into the low single digits for the night.Inside my tent it was seven degrees celcius and it was a couple of degrees colder outside,geanerally a miserable night to be camping but I was warm,dry and well fed.This was not the nice start to the second leg of my trip that I had hoped for.I guess it couldn't get too much worse though and tried to stay positive as I went to sleep that night cozily warm in my sleeping bag.Hopefully the next day would bring better weather,better luck and a few more miles under my wheels.