Cycle Oz day 6 – Rolling along - Adventure & Avocados

Start: Ulladulla
End: Batemans Bay
Day distance 53.83km
Total distance: 298.02km
Average speed: 14.4km/hr
Pedalling time: 03:43
Total time: 05:10

As with every morning, I struggled to drag myself out of bed. David showed me a few of the bits he has for cycle touring, he has been doing I a lot longer than I have! So I may pick up a few bits in Melbourne. I also made the decision today to dump my hiking poles. There is no point carrying them across Oz and not using them, and they were pretty battered.

David’s bike. He also has front panniers

I packed away and rolled out at 9:40am. At least the sun was out. First stop Aldi. Linda had told me there was a British food section there and I hadn’t been able to get digestive biscuits out of my mind since she mentioned it. I thought it was at the top of the hill out of town but it wasn’t, so after a momentary thought of shall I just leave it? I realised I would have to go back down and therefore back up the hill. Totally worth it.

I was in there for longer than planned, and bought more things than planned. Then went over to Woolworths to stock up on jelly sweets. So many people like to talk to you when you have a loaded bicycle and it took me a while to get away from all the people asking what I was doing. Then I remembered I had to stop at ‘the best pie shop in Australia’ on the way out of town.

So I did, and I got a beef stroganoff pie, and it was…ok. It may well be the best pie shop in Australia, but it’s no match to the pie shop in Fairlie in New Zealand. Sorry Australia. New Zealand win that one.

I hadn’t even made it a kilometre yet and it was already 11am! I guess I won’t be going that far today. Also, I can’t judge hiking in kilometres, I have to work in miles, but when it comes to cycling, I can’t work in miles, it has to be kilometres, plus it sounds like you’ve gone further!

Once I was on the move I had a good run. The day was spent entirely on the princess highway and as always it varies in quality. I stopped every 10k to rest my bum and eat a snack and that system is working out really well for me so far. It breaks the monotony of the road too.

It’s great when you have the road to yourself

I saw 1 dead kangaroo and 1 dead fox and smelt a whole bunch of other dead things. I was amazed at how much trash littered the sides of the roads today, so many hazards to avoid when riding in the shoulder. I only saw 3 roadside memorials. I found out that on a dual lane road, if you try and keep in the narrow shoulder cars won’t bother moving over and pass really close, but if you get out of the shoulder and onto the road they will always move right over to the other lane, which is a lot safer for me.

The road went gently up and down all day, very little flat but nothing that steep or long. I passed the turn for pebbly beach and I was happy that had the rain not got in my way, I could have made it there easily yesterday. But I was so glad I wasn’t camping in that rain. I dried my clothes in front of the heater last night but forgot about my shoes so they were soaking wet when I put them on this morning. And that meant I had really cold feet all day.

A stone flew up and hit me after it was flicked up by a passing car. It felt like a gun shot to the leg! I had another very short attack of tears today, they literally spring out of nowhere! Not linked to the stone hitting me in the leg.

When I rolled into Batemans Bay it was only 2:30pm but I decided to call it a day. I’m not in a race or a rush so I can take my time and stop where I want! And Batemans Bay seems like a nice place. There was a YHA there so I booked a bed. The great thing about travelling in off season is that I am able to get a whole room to myself which is wonderful.

It’s been quite full on these last few days and I’ve absolutely loved meeting everyone, but I am also looking forward to hiding myself away and an early night!

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