Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Day 11 Dubbo to Coonamble 158.45 kms

The dreaded day has arrived, we are going 160 kms today- the longest day so far (actually the longest day in the whole trip is 185 kms). Everyone (or most of the riders) were a little more than concerned about the distance and no one was wanting to be the last in for the day. Georg was not worried as he said he does these distances all the time (he is a very strong rider). They were away at a good time today and everyone handed back their toilet key and none were misplaced :)).

Morning tea stop was at the Gilgandra Memorial Park which was 64 kms down the track. I had made an apple & passionfruit tea cake for them as a little boost. Michael placed the 'cyclist on road' sign out about 10 kms before the tea stop and Collis & I both missed it for a pickup on the way in. It must have been blown over. We are being a little precious about our signs now because we discovered this morning that we had actually left one of the new signs on the road near the gelati place in Molong (OOPs). Collis has organized the manager at Molong caravan park to go pick it up for us but now we are trying to work out how to get it up to us in Queensland. (Addit: Alf and Anna picked it up for us and it is currently residing in their shed- thanks Alf.)

The winds were in our favor today and the riders were mostly blown down the highway  with a nice tail wind, they were all making excellent time. We were running behind them most of the day. Lunch was at Gulargambone, in a little park with huge ants. The riders were all lying around on the grass when we got there but apparently that was a bit of an act to make us feel bad. They had been there only 5 - 10 minutes. Gulargambone looked to be a bit of a sad town with alot of businesses closing down and selling up. At lunch we had a huge bowl of leftover salad shared between us all- thanks Fliss.

Ben, Fliss, Annie and John had a bit of a peleton going after lunch and made excellent time once again. We were all in camp at Coonamble by 3 pm. the 160 kms was achieved easily without any concerns. Well done riders- I take my hat off to you all.

Collis & I joined the boys down at the bowling club for dinner and a few of the riders stayed in camp and cooked themselves a dinner. The bowling club was bigger than expected and the meal was OK. Georg had the biggest steak I've ever seen AND he managed to eat the whole thing on his own. It was chicken Tuesday so most of us had a chicken dish but I went for the prawn pesto pasta.
We were all pretty weary and most of us were into bed early doors. A few stayed up and played 500 again and I noticed I wasn't invited to join this one- I wonder why?

We have a "Quote on Wheels" book and I thought I might start sharing some of the quotes. It is all anonymous (or supposed to be).

Collis' favorite:" Buy cheap, buy twice"

"I can't find the road or the way out of town"

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