As Forest said: “I’m pretty tired”

It is showing more in the planning than in the cycling, but I’m definitely doing less. I guess having cycled more than 4000 miles in the last four and a bit months is taking a bit of a toll on the mind. This is of course not helped by the fact that I know I only have another day to go and then I’ll have completed, for a change, what I set out to do.

The fact that I’m almost in Sydney gives me a degree of satisfaction, as there is a part of me that is still suffering for having given up the African expedition. I guess this is what makes us human, the fact that in the face of overwhelming logic we still can find many ways to torture ourselves.

I woke up with very strong wind, and I expected to have to battle it all the way today, It turned out that this was not the case and the 30 or so miles I had planned melted away in just over two and a half hours.

They were however not devoid of incidents, starting with various wrong turns and culminating with a cycle road leading me into the river.

In this specific event there was not much that I could do but to take the plunge and ride through the water as the obstacle that I was trying to avoid was the very large motorway above me.

I live to tell the tale and not only that but I have to make a special mention for the quality of my Ortlieb panniers. Fifty yards after I reemerged, and note that the water was up to the reflecting patches you can see on the back of the panniers, I stopped to see if anything inside had got wet. Well, nothing did, not a drop of water had filtered through. I hope I won’t miss them too much in my next pannier-less setup.

As I said it was all over very quickly, I got to the campsite at 13:30 and, being the sun still high I went for another swim in the sea.

Tonight I’m going to eat up the rest of the provisions knowing that from tomorrow night I’ll be in the centre of the biggest and most vibrant city in Australia, in an hostel sure, but with all I could ever need at the doorstep.