From camp onwards!

The portable showers which were worth the wait!!

Hello.

So it has been a little while since we have been in to update the blog and I know that you are all hanging in complete suspense. Right?
Well, anyway, this blog will be a little longer and I will be getting back on at least once a week to update from now on! A cat's life - sometimes life just gets in the way.
So.... where was I? That's right. End of Day 1.

This event is so well organised, the only thing that they needed more of, was people to massage our tired and exhausted bodies. Unfortunately, we didn't go to check the massage tent until after the shower and by that time there was a wait list sooooo long that they had stopped taking people on for massage. I pity the poor people who were volunteering their time to rub down these sore bodies, I am sure that they would have been feeling the pain in their own bodies by the next day.

Directly next door was the Yoga tent and opposite were areas to chill out and as the day wore on, we had hit our sleeping bag, the chill areas kept on going. Fires were lit for people to lounge around with a beverage or two and they could sit around outside and listen to the live music going on inside the MASSIVE tent.

The other thing that was fabulous was the MASSIVE tent that had tables set up for everyone to eat at and a stage for the speeches, presentations and live band and entertainment. I was so keen for bed after the shower that I hit the dinner spread by about 4.45pm, ate, forgot about everything else and headed off to the tent (in the tent city) to read for a little while and go to sleep nice and early. Really, not such a silly idea. Remember, the night was to be spent in a tent city. I would be sleeping within very close proximity of many other bodies - bodies that snore, talk in their sleep, moan, snore, and did I mention snore! Wow, I have never heard such an orchestra of sound such as that of a snoring tent city.

After a while, the snoring becomes a sound that equates to people sleeping soundly and doesn't really bother me too much. The new mat that I am sleeping on is comfortable - the first one that Carly has ever owned! The new sleeping bag that I am sleeping in is lovely and cosy - also the first one that Carly has ever owned! and curling up beside Carly is wonderful as she is wearing brand new thermals and is very warm and toasty. The 13 year old kid sleeping directly beside us in the next tent, however, is somewhat annoying. He woke up about six times throughout the night - "Dad, are you awake? Dad, I'm not sleeping. I'm bored now because I'm awake. Wake up, I want someone to talk to." To which 'Dad' does not reply, go to sleep, everyone else will wake up - you are sleeping in a tent! But proceeds to say, oh really, what do you want to talk about? Oh I don't know - (son), etc. So every two to three hours this conversation would start back up and continue. I discovered that 'Mum' had been in their tent and hidden lollies and chocolates, had changed their pillows, had added extra blankets, that sometimes the satellite phone would work, but that other times it had no signal amongst other tidbits that were revealed through the night.

At 5am, it was time to rise and greet the morning!
Now the showers had no wait whatsoever!

I went on to the MASSIVE tent to see what the breakfast spread had to offer. Pancakes, snags, bacon and poached eggs. Plenty of protein on offer. Top that off with a steamy hot chocolate and we are almost fueled up and ready to go. This time we know what is ahead of us - 120.55 kilometres to go till we reach the end! Plenty of hills, lots of potholes and suburbia towards the end. We know that there are pitstops approximately every 25 kilometres apart and our mindset is fabulous! A little knowledge makes a huge difference. We also know that those massive hills will be tackled from the opposite direction as the route is just reversed. This is good, as we know how many times we got off and walked yesterday, so today the challenge is on to try not to walk as much!! You'll notice that I didn't say not to walk at all. Again.... knowledge.

Collecting my bike at 5.56am Sunday morning

So, getup, fall out of bed, drag a comb across my head, make the bus in seconds flat...this is what is going on inside my head for the first two hours of the day! Credit to the Beatles for these lyrics. The good news is it keeps Carly pedalling over the hills, hills that previously she had walked. Look down at the ground and move the legs in time to the lyrics and make it up and over the hill! Yay! (See pics to the left - one of the first hills we hit! You will see Carly riding her bike down on the lower left side of the  first shot - white top and what looks like a purple helmet, in the second shot, still pedalling further up - didn't stop on this hill). Then we hit one, one that stops us, that moment that you are trying to push your way up and over the hill and your eyes look up instead of down and you catch sight of them - the people that have got off their bikes to walk! Your brain says, 'Well, there you go. You can do it now. Get off. It's hard - this hill. Walk. They are. You can.' Next thing you know - we are off the bike. That wasn't the plan! The plan was ride the hills, look down and ride. The problem was, we are riding on our own, we looked up and all of a sudden (I truly believe that the body could have gone on!) the brain convinces the body that the jig is up. So as we are walking up the hill, Carly starts a conversation with Michelle, a lady that she doesn't know about this exact thing. They decide that once they get to the top of this hill, they will jump back on their bikes and ride each of the hills as far as they can, then not let each other give up. Good theory, except that Carly & I like zooming down hills, Michelle is not as keen. It still helps for a while though. We get to the first pitstop without another walk!

The second stage is much of the same. However, I lose contact with Michelle quite a few times, don't walk any hills and get along quite nicely. Hit the next pitstop, refuel, refill the water with gatorade (I am struggling a little now!), catch back up with Michelle and head off again.

In the third stage is where things begin to change a little. No walking! Okay, so some walking. But only once and it really was a HUGE hill and it wasn't my fault (or Carlys) truly. The intention was to ride. Looking down, not up, pushing the legs around, using body weight to get the pedals around. Carly looks down and notices that because she is getting tired on this hill, the bike is swaying a little from side to side. The thought pop's into her ead - 'Be careful Carly, the side of the road drops down to the clay, you don't want to hit that edge' and what happens within less that a second? Boom! We hit the edge of the road, the bike drops, Carly is still cleated into the pedals and we both go down! Now we walk. Michelle is there and the first thing Carly does is yell out to her - 'we're fine, don't you dare stop pedalling - get to the top of the hill, you are almost there!!'. Michelle stops. Carly has super mild grazing, nowhere near good enough to elicit any sympathy from anyone, on her right palm and right knee. Now we are all walking. 

We get to the top of the hill and go through the usual - take off and enjoy the downhill ride. Head down, Bum up and go!! The speedo on the bike hits 62.5km, which wouldn't be fast in a car, but feels awesome on a bike! Then we notice the clouds come across and then the rain hits along with crazy winds! Crazy cross winds, with big butted hills! At 62.5km per hour on a bike. Hold on... tight. The rain turns into a deluge, a downpour, if you live in Qld, you may remember it. It really got wet on that Sunday! I know. I was in it. We rode through this along Pine Mountain Road - the road with the potholes - but now, the potholes are filled with water - now they're not as easy to see! We finally turn off Pine Mountain Road and head towards suburbia and in to Ipswich, we are still riding in crazy crosswinds and rain. We ride in this until we got close to lunch, then about five minutes away from the lunch stop - it stopped! Yay, at least we could eat without rain.

Grabbed our yummy lunches, sat down in a beautiful gazebo and the sky opened up with force! The rain was so heavy it was like sheets of white gossamer. All I can say is yay to the gazebo! There was something quite soothing about sitting under cover with the rain hitting the roof and being sheltered while eating lunch.
Did I mention that the food is super yummy! Lunch today is a salad with chicken, pasta, pesto and chilli - soooo good. If you want an adventure with yummy benefits, do this ride next year. Truly. This yummy lunch made up for the hills, potholes, rain and gail force winds.

Anyway, my little paws are getting sore from all of this typing, so until I blog again, Cheshire grins to you.

I am Cwa, Cat with Adventures and this was my big bike adventure - Ride to Conquer Cancer.