Day 17: John's place to Noosa

John kindly offered to ride into Noosa with us as a guide to the back roads so we could enjoy a peaceful journey in and see some of his favourite bike paths. I was impressed,there's a long downhill on an old road that seems to be maintained mostly by a car club that use it for hillclimbs, so it's well maintained and there are barriers on the corners. We had fun going down!



10km later we were in Noosa, or at least some approximation of it (Terwantin). There's a town called T something, then a bunch of "Noosa Blah" localities, and they're all made out of ticky-tacky and it all looks just the same. Anyway, we arrived, John left to ride home and work and we sat in a park and talked about what to do. After a while someof us went to do a stall, Ev and me geeked out a bit then joined them,and we did a bit more media.

We wandered along a bit to Noosa Waters or something for lunch in a park where Wayne? and Bruce caught up with us. They make handcycles and stuff and are interested in the recumbent bikes, so we chatted and they poked things. I rang Ben because they'd been trying to contact him this week with no luck, so he got to explain being busy over my phone... but I assume sold a seat and had a good chat. So that's cool.

Today we have a choice between riding 15-odd km to stay with friends of Cassie (she's doing that), then 15km back in the morning before we start a long 50km days riding. Oh, and we have to be back by 8:30am to meet the mayor... in the park where we arrived today. I also want some time out, so after lunch we split up - the CANC circus disappears into another bit of Noosa to do more stalls and I split off to camp somewhere. The only campground that's not full is no fun - bare gravel tent sites with no hammock trees, so I bypass it (and text Ev to save them the hassle, since him and Valerie at least seem inclined to stay in town rathre than riding an extra 30km). I'm currently not-very-steath camped in the sports complex listening to rugby players running around under lights at 6pm. It's been a nice quiet afternoon, much hammock time (bought copies of "Autralasian Science" and "ECO", the laytter being a CSIRO publication). Now about to sleep I think, after I ring Phuong for my daily dose of missing her. Only 3 days until she arrives to join the ride for a week, much organising is taking place right now.

Stats: about 10km from John's place, but for the whole day: 25km, 2 hours, 12.4km/h average, 57.3km/h down the step hill just outside John's place. Totals: 455km in 30:44.