1 week in, feeling the pain...

Hey all

Sorry its been so long in between posts. So far we've made it to adelaide, and today we head off towards Port Augusts before hitting the Nularbor to WA.

In all honesty the schedule that Harv and I put together has proved very intense. The kms we cycle daily to reach

 the next town is highly physicaly demanding, and its an even greater effort with the sleep deprevation we have experienced so far. But we're not broken yet!!

All the gigs so far have been really great, and I thank everyone who came deeply, sorry if I was a bit of a zombie though. 

Besides all of the intensity, cycling around the country is great. We have seen some amazing places, and you really get time to take in the scenery. We've met some amazing people, and eaten a shit load of good food!!

On our way from Millicent to K

ingston in SA, we decided we would take the highway instead of taking the coast road. Only to realise later that there was no way to get water for the next 100kms half way into the trip. So we decided to turn off to Robe. Half way to Robe we were both feeliing realy sick and dehydrated to the point where we were getting really worried. So we found a property, jumped

 a fence and filled our bottles. But the water was discusting. So we kept going and eventually fo

und a CFA and sat for about 40 mins drinking water and snacking on lollies. That sorted us out, but when we reached Robe, we were pulling into town and Harvs leg went on him. He droped off the bike and could hardly move. Eventually he got up a

nd we decided to stay the night and give it a rest. So off to the bottle shop for a few bevo's and a jam on the beach for the arvo. Seemed to be one of the best afternoons so far. Although we lost 75kms that day because we had to stop.

We decided to try and get to Ad

elaide a day earlier so that we could have a rest day and get a good sleep, recover a  bit etc. But what a mission that proved to be.

With a 200km day ahead of

 us we set off from Salt Creek for a long night. 150kms into the trip we were both tired and really over the whole thing, only to realise that we now had to tackle the Adelaide hills. It was 1 am, and now my knee was playing up, I was struggling to cycle with my right leg, and only really putting in any effort with my left. But we had to keep going.

We spent the next 3 hours 

cycling what felt like a 20km climb around the hills, stoping here and there laughing at each other, stating our stupidity, and screaming about how crazy this bike tour idea is, but we were laughing and we kept going. Eventually we reach the top of the hill in Stirling. we had to get from

 Stirling to Adelaide city, but weren't aloud to ride on the freeway. 

Being 3 am, and really tired 

from 11 hours on the bike, I decided I would risk it, and take a fine from the cops if it meant getting to bed earlier.

So we took the highway, and how cool it was. From Stirling to Adelaide city the highway runs downhill the whole way for 

about 12kms. The most amazing downhill Ive eever riden. It did get really cold though, we were totally wet from sweating it out on the hill climb, and now we were rushing downhill in the wind, and felt freezing.

So we rocked up in Adelaide, both tired and in really shit moods. It was now 4 am, and any accomodation we tried to get was either not open, or all booked out because of some car race in Adelaide. for some reason we resorted to McDonalds for a burger, and never again. We felt sick and started talking to a security guard. He was a good bloke and wanted to help us out. He got talking to the local police who were in Drive through Macca's pursuit, and they said we could go and camp on a footy oval just next to the city. 

Off we went extremely excited about sleep. We reached the footy oval and set up our tents. After unpacking things the sprinklers decided to fire up and give us a good old squirt. Really funny now, but not at the time, trust me.

After 3 hours sleep we woke up and searched around for some accom but no luck. So we went to the Grace Emily and ended up crashing there. Which we should have done in the first place, but never mind.

Yesterday we both had a remedial massage to give the legs a bit of recovery, and we also had Physio Consultations to suss out our leg issues. I've worked my legs a bit to hard, and basicaly I have some inflammation from overuse. Harv has some issues with his left ITB, and is also suffering a bit of inflammation. Hrmmm...

Its now time for food, and we still have 150kms to cycle today, so I better get crackin.

We'll let you know how it all goes sometime soon.

Cheers

Rob and Harv!!