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Journal: |
Up at 4am. Drove with Sharon and her kids to the Terrigal
Surf Club where our running club, Terrigal Trotters, meets every
Saturday morning at 6am for a run…..all 100+ of them.
They
gave me a rousing send-off as well as some other friends who
attended and I headed off into the early dawn. Shortly after
the start, Dan Cleary, the proprietor of the Pushy Galore bike store
who has helped me immensely with preparations for the ride drove up
beside me to wish me well. At 10km, cycling friend, Marg,
joined me for 30km and we headed to Tuggerah and onto the F3 freeway
northwards. The k’s passed quickly as we chatted. After
Marg left I continued to make good time northwards with the Watagan
Mountains, where I enjoy running and mountain biking, to my left.
Later on, friend, Mark, a teaching colleague of Sharon’s, drove up
to also wish me well. It felt great to know I have so much
support, but also a little daunting given the size of the task
ahead.
Given the relatively late start, I was determined not
to dally, if I wanted to reach my target, Kew, 283km away, before
too late. There was also bad weather forecast with a storm
system supposed to move through late in the day.
I passed to
the north of Newcastle and stopped for a second breakfast at
McDonalds at around 10am. The continued north on the freeway,
through country which became relatively more hilly, crossing
numerous small mountain ranges. It was pleasant riding,
although rarely flat. The weather stayed sunny and mild.
This was the pattern for the remainder of the day, although I could
see storm clouds building behind me and, after dusk, saw them
illuminated with lightning within. It became dark about 5:15pm
but I still made good progress despite a strengthening headwind.
The last 30km in the dark wasn’t much fun as it was almost
continuous roadworks, very narrow and hard to see because of the
headlights of the oncoming traffic. More than once I found
myself suddenly negotiating piles of gravel or dodging potholes.
I eventually reached Kew about 7:15pm, quite tired, but
otherwise OK apart from confirming that sometime during the day I
had managed to lose my iPod. I won’t get much sleep tonight,
about 5 hours, but hope to finish a bit earlier tomorrow and also
hope that the storm system, which is still coming, delivers the
promised southerly winds.
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