Day 7: Crescent Head to Forster
Getting closer and closer. Not far to go now. Willie – fill us in!
Righto, let’s go. Dinner last night was held at the Crescent Head surf club. It seemed like the entire town had pitched in to help ensure we felt welcome.
The surf club provided volunteer waiters to help in the kitchen; the local realtors helped us with free accommodation; and one of the surf club members even went out a few days ahead of time to mark the potholes with bright spray paint. What a great example of small town hospitality!
In an unlikely turn of events, my legs seemed to have markedly improved since yesterday. Their boisterous complaints from my lower half have fallen almost completely silent…maybe because I have been repeatedly telling them, ‘shut up legs!’
They’re feeling so good I can’t help but wonder if I’m riding my way into some fitness, or more likely, I’ve lost all sensation from the waist down…
Unfortunately my brain is still a little fried. I didn’t get much sleep last night on account of two of my roommates hosting an epic ‘chainsaw vs lawn mower’ snoring battle. I’m not sure who won, but the rest of our room definitely lost. Oh well, it’s all part n parcel of the tour experience. As a fellow rider remarked this morning – ‘In life, sometimes you’re the bird and sometimes you’re the statue.’
Breakfast was consumed overlooking the famous Crescent Head surf break. The sun put on quite a show, throwing warm amber colours across the waves. Although with over 180km ahead of us, there wasn’t much time to bask.
Today’s schedule was rather simple… eat, ride, school visit, repeat. Tour gets a bit like that once you’ve found your groove. Days fly by as you are enveloped by the ‘Tour Bubble’. The support crew are so incredibly dedicated and efficient that all us riders have to worry about is riding and engaging with the school kids.
Today we visited my favourite school yet. Johns River Primary School is tucked away just off the highway between Port Macquarie and Forster. The school has a total of 15 children, and is as quaint as you could possibly get.
Sitting under the luscious gum trees, eating chef’s amazing curry, joking, laughing and chatting with the other riders is a memory that will be with me for a very long time.
We reached Forster just in time to see the sun setting. And just like that, another day is over. I’m actually starting to dread the tour coming to an end. It’s days like this that I’m really going to miss.
Until tomorrow,
I’m Willie Maykit
You know how I told you yesterday about my peleton getting in late, riding the last 10km in the dark. In hindsight if it wasn’t for the kind local who went and spray painted around the potholes we would’ve had a lot more punctures and potential accidents. I do recall being able to see the bright circles of paint around these hazards as we pedalled in at a pretty fast pace. What a great idea.
And I was pretty stoked to receive this little message last night from the kids (done in 1 take apparently!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxEGPVsuEh8
We had a full team photo before we headed off from Crescent Head on a crisp and sunny central coast morning.
I am not exactly sure who is doing the route measurement but our supposed 184km day ended up being 191km…what’s an extra few km’s between friends !?!?! It was a very scenic arrival however over the bridge at Forster. What a fantastic beach town.
A quick stats update…
Donation tally update:
Sitting at approx $17,000, up a few more hundred!!!
Stats update:
Distance ridden: 191km (1,187km in total)
Elevation climbed: 1,150m (9,765m in total)
Time ridden: 6 hrs 34 min (44 hrs 49 min in total)
(No punctures for me today… 🙂 )
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