Day 106 – Sydney to Cessnock

I really need to get to bed so I’m going to keep this short. I do owe a few thank you’s though. Firstly to Doug and Steph who fed me, gave me a bed and generally kept me alive yesterday. And took me round Manly, I had a great time and that’s definitely a place to go back to.

Secondly, to Stephan and Abbotsleigh School for cheering me on as I rode past.  A fantastic way to leave Sydney so thanks to everyone involved for that.

Today in itself has been pretty tough. There were a lot of hills, as has become the general trend over the last week and it made for a less than straightforward ride. After leaving Sydney, not that much really happened. I managed to drop my credit card and money and stuff on a dual carriage-way whilst pulling a banana out of the same pocket; so that meant I spent 10 minutes running around dodging traffic trying to get said items back. Despite being run over, my card does still work, so that’s good.

Five days riding left in Australia, sounds fairly simple but I’ve learnt from 3 of the previous 4 legs not to get complacent. For one thing, I’m expecting it to get a fair bit colder over the next couple of days as I gain altitude and head inland.

Lastly, my beard has now reached the point where I can no longer pass it off as stubble. Actually, I think it reached that point quite a while ago but I was in denial. I’m starting to look more like a typical ‘explorer’ which I definitely am not and which is really not what I was going for… At least it will keep me warm I guess.

Distance: 104.4 miles / 167.9 km
Riding Time: 7:50:43
Av. Speed: 13.3 mph / 21.3 kph
Elevation Gain: +2000m