Nov 7th, Choo Choo

This morning was almost surprising as I woke up, it wasn’t cold. Chilly, but not cold. I needed a fleece jacket for breakfast and took it off right before we left camp, but wasn’t wearing my biking jacket. It took me a couple of kilometers to warm up. The real warm up occurred about 5 km out. A fast drop followed by a huge steep climb, sometimes reaching 14 percent (14 percent means for every 100 feet you move forward you climb in elevation 14 feet) which is pretty steep.

Take a look at the elevation profile below. We had some steep climbs, but lots and lots of downhill!! The route today include a train ride at the 71 km point. If we kept up the pace and didn’t take our morning coffee stop we could make the 11:21 morning train. Miss that one and the next would be 1:31 PM. I was kidding everyone that I was looking forward to riding the choo choo, talking about a little steam engine that would take us on a journey to the coast. In actually the train was a modern commuter train with a limited number of bike spots, but we all managed to get on the train. The tour company TDA arranged for a packed lunch for us to snack on during the ride. In all a very cosy affair.

We got to the destination at about noontime and still had 50 km (31 miles) to go. The wind was in our faces and a couple of short but steep climbs, but we also had some beautiful ocean views and warm sunshine on our backs. It was another day that I would have liked to go on forever.

We got to the campsite at about 4 PM. Put up our tents and took a walk on the beach which our campsite is about a football field distance from. The water here is as cold as the Pacific off Los Angeles. It's early spring here so it may warm up during the summer. This has been the only day of the trip that the weather has been inviting enough to walk the beach and get your feet wet. Charlie (from Canada) Yvonne (from Netherlands) were not as hesitant to cold water and played in the water for a good 15 minutes.

Tomorrow will be my last day of the ride ending in Sydney. I understand that ride will include a “monster hill” so I just have to see how it goes.

Photo Link:


Happy Riding,


Brian