Day 6: Miriam Vale to nearly Rosedale

I rang Ben (TriSled) this morning during the prolonged faffing stage before we left. Despite the faffing I managed to leave my tea infuser behind. Anyway, I forgot that it was the weekend so I rang Ben at about 8am and woke him up. Oops. We talked anyway, I gave him a bit of a rundown on how the quad is going, whined a bit more about the lack of a Rohloff and the main outcome was that because the left rear tyre is really doing it tough he's going to see if he can scrounge up a Schwalbe Big Apple with a kevlar belt in it, which should last a bit better than the Hookworm that's there now. That wheel is driven, so it works a bit harder, but it's also the loaded wheel that spends most time in the dirt and the glass zone on the very edge of the road. The right hand side wheels are mostly out where the motor traffic clears the road surface pretty quickly, and they're at the high side of the camber so they should have an easier time. The mini pump that I carry is great for such a small pump, but it only gets up to about 80psi before further pumping is just about impossible. So I need a better pump too.

On the bike I'm having a nice, easy day riding along a quiet road. I'm riding behind Val again and Hope is being her usual co-operative self despite the late start. After about 25km we reach the lunch spot at "the Fingerboard" junction where you choose between Agnes Water, Miriam Vale and Bundaberg. There's a really great fruit and vege stall run by a local farmer, so we are having lunch sitting under a tree near the stall. Val bought a pineapple and a rock melon herself even though we have group money, because she didn't think those would last long enough for anyone else to have any... but I got a little bit. Hope is more into smearing than eating solid food but she's keen to participate.

The rest of the mob roll up over the next hour or so and we have a leisurely lunch. Another hour and a half or so on the bike sees us at the next big intersection where we are due to camp. I' end up riding with Evan for once, and he's got nothing in the trailer - Peter and Gill are driving out this arvo to spend the night with us, so a lot of stuff is in the troopy. So much for a non-supported ride. Bah. I've got my usual 100kg or so on board, which I'm getting used to. Having the tires pumped up helps a lot.

Now that I have my speedo hooked up: 51.3km today, 3:09 taken for an average of 16km/h and a maximum of 60km/h. Arrived about 4pm I think. Camping next to a dam somewhere.


Phuong: more puncture repair patches etc from my collection. Also bolts etc. Bring lots of spare space :)