GLOBAL CYCLE EVENT

In a world increasingly preoccupied with throwaway materialistic things; where people are constantly busy earning money to pay for those things, or so their children can have those things;
This is the story of my dreams of travelling the world by bicycle. Because it's there. And because I dont want to die without experiencing the truly important things in life .

A sense of wonder and a sense of adventure.

Friday 6 January 2012

Free Drinks All Around.

Day 4.

Here I sit on the bed in a nice little chalet at Makarora . My eyes feel like they have sand in them as I had 90kms of consistent rain this afternoon after the 110km that I completed before lunch in the dry. Once again the West Coast scenery was superb and the rain although pretty thick and wettesh wasn’t a problem as long as I kept moving. That way I didn’t get cold.

I lost Adi at the half way point but since it was lunch time and my stomach was grumbling I just found the closest cafĂ© and ordered three toasted sandwiches and a large Coke. I’d cycled up over the Haast Pass on previous occasions and had it figured out as a three toasted sandwiches sort of a climb without stops. I didn’t want to stop for three reasons; firstly because in the rain I just like to hunker down and just go until I get there, secondly because lack of time is always an issue with 200km days and finally the sand flies are ravenous in these parts.

Coming down off the pass I was thank full for my full mudguards as there were little streams of water all over the road and I could just let rip and not worry about being water blasted . Not only do the guards keep my cycle clothes cleaner they also keep the whole bike quite a bit cleaner.

I’m feeling stronger on the bike each day and now even take a few moments to chat to the cycle tourists I catch up with without fear that I’m wasting good recovery time at my next food stop. I’ve even cut back a bit on the caffeinated energy drinks. I can’t totally cut these out because they have a promotion where 1 in 5 is free and I like wining the free ones. This reminds me that I have one to redeem tomorrow.
Long Range Action Shot.

Time almost out again. Its 11.30pm and I’ve still got to throw down a couple of punnets of jelly and fruit before braving the outside toilet before hitting bed. Of course if I could find an empty coke bottle I wouldn’t need to brave the toilet.

Adi’s going to get on her bicycle in the morning and do a couple of hours so I think I will sleep in. I have 130kms over the Crown Range to Queenstown to deal to. That doesn’t sound too bad after today’s effort. I’m thinking the Crown Range could be a knarly little gravel road though. Nothing cycle touring is ever quite as expected I find. One thing I learnt as a kid ‘no matter how bad things on the bike are they can always get worse’.

Jelly time. .. It’s a tough life.
It Might be Raining But the Scenery was 10/10.

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