Day 15: Peter's Place to Gympie

Woke early-ish, heard Ev moving around and said hi then lay in bed for a bit longer because I could... I'm leaving with the group at 8am rather than when I want to. So about 7am I get up, pack my hammock and start looking for food. Rice and so on in the usual fashion, then I refill my bowl with last nights dinner that I missed out on because it was ready very late.

I faff about packing group gear then ride gingerly uphill to the start of the steep side road that we came down, then dismount and push the beastie up that hill. It's pretty nasty and I really don't want to completely break the drive bolt that is already half broken. So the pattern for today is ride until I get to a steep uphill, then push. Luckily there's not too much of that so I manage to keep up with the rest of the CANC crew as we ride into Gympie.

I hit K&R Fastenings since they're on the way into town and the TV people have deferred us an hour. They're at the bottom of a steep hill... but luckily Ray takes the problem in hand and dispenses advice and bolts with some skill. So I'm trying mild steel bolts in the hope that they deform to match the hole and then stop, not shearing at all. Just in case that fails I have a few more high tensile bolts very much like the one that already failed. I am curious to see what happens. But much relieved, as I pedal up a fairly steep hill to get into town. Then pedal back to K&R because I left my solar panel behind, pausing only to drop most of a litre of chocolate milk on the footpath. Not the best start to the day, but I recover my panel (phew!) and catch up with the crew at the art gallery.

The TV crew is slightly late and Evan slightly lied about them already being here. So I arrive just ahead of the WIN TV crew. They interview three of us then we do a quick circuit of the block so they can show us riding our bikes. Then they take off and we head for a local cafe for food and coffee.

The day is spent eating, talking and shopping. I eat last night's dinner, most people have cafe food. We kinda take over the gallery thanks to Joolie who works here and is giving us wonderful support! She drives Robyn out to her place to sleep - Rob was pretty sick yesterday and felt better today until she tried to ride and discovered that she's very weak. So I reckon she's mostly exhausted and needs sleep. I think that everyone bar me and Evan have just had a bit of a rude shock, going from a bit of riding now and then on a light bike to fully loaded touring just about every day. So people are coping pretty well.

Tonight there's some sort of event at the gallery featuring us, and I'm gunna try to keep my head down. But for now, it's out into the sun to try to get the solar panel working again. A joint failed and on inspection I wonder if Maurice simply forgot to solder it at all - the tag looks very clean, and the wire that came looks as though it's just been tinned. So I'll have a play and see if I can get juice again... ok, a bit of heat shrink and some playing has made it worlk so much better.

Joolie's son Leon became enamoured of the quad and spent a while riding up and down the carpark. Now he's all keen to go cycle touring once he finishes school and escapes parental control.

The public meeting was a chance for the playwrights to practice their craft. Valerie practiced the quiz presentation then they gave the play they've prepared its first public performance. Useful critique from the audience and hopefully the real