Vanderpants Oz Tour

Distance: 116km’s – TOTAL SO FAR – 2,651 km’s

Avg Spd: 16.8kmph

Max Spd – 51

Saddle Time: 6:51 – TOTAL SADDLE TIME – 175 hrs 19 minutes (or 10,519 Minutes – sounds much more doesn’t it)

Elevation: 1,200 mtrs

Quote: What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving them – This is true – i often believe when you have forks in the road in life – the hard road is generally the right road regarding the hard conversation needed or the effort required to ‘being a better person and growing stronger’. That road although hard – moulds you.

Song of the Day: No music today – it was a hard grind, windy, rainy and lots at night Time

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Hello devoted readers – thank you for tuning in again. I hope you enjoyed the last video. I must admit I have used it a couple times to look back on what feels like 6 months already but needed to so I can see how lucky I am and how many experiences i’ve already been a part of. Yesterday was one of the ‘grind’ days where I let my mind slip a little and got pretty down. I hear you say ‘how can you get down when you’re doing such a great adventure Vanderpants’?. Well one can’t be happy ALL the time when you have to ride most of the day through all elements, be cold then warm again, find a campsite, navigate, cook, work though a few niggles and injuries, hills etc. They are all things I enjoy overcoming don’t get me wrong but I realised that this time was nutrition. I’ve learned with endurance stuff is that fuel is really important for the mindset. Take that as a lesson…you don’t get your fuel right and your mind plays tricks on you. I smashed a whole lot of food and no joke within 30 minutes those thoughts were gone and i was climbing hills in the rain with more optimism (and after a call to my endurance mentor Gherns hehe).

before the grind (I go back a bit) I saw my mate patty and his amazing fam again to pickup a gift from my bestie Helen (thank you Helen) with a top up of the positive quotes for my blog – in good time too as I had one left. Sofia drew me a lovely pic as she knew I was coming (thank you so much it was so cute to receive) and i got a full breakdown of the pic. It’s me and her and my two whippets schnitzel and nico – it was quickly placed in my handlebar bag for motivation and I used it today as a quick look down at that and it made me smile.

Was great to see you and yr amazing fam patty – your family brings a smile to my face.

So the day was awesome until I left patties house when it started raining (whatever that’s fine – you get wet and you dry) and I had enough at about 75km’s and found a rest stop (shelter and toilet) and thought let’s stay here for an hour and see the traffic and people and see if it’s ok to pitch my tent here. A local came up to me and chatted for 45 minutes and boy could he talk….i couldn’t get a word in edge wise and it was interesting and funny at the same time. He covered topics from truck drivers, global warming, pharmaceutical companies, David Attenborough, cyclists in general, unions, his gardening, oil prices, crime in the area (druggies in the area), snow since the 70’s hahaha I could go on and then he finished by saying ‘yeah nah thanks for the chat, I enjoy hearing other people’s opinions’………I didn’t even say anything hahahahah I love it. So I waited an hourish and then as he mentioned earlier – a car pulled up and and I swear they were doing deals and i didn’t feel safe so i knew I had to move on. That was hard to fathom as I knew I had forrest with no camping opportunities for 45 km’s With hills (7km limb) …in the rain – blerg….that meant about 3 hours more ……. I knew there wouldn’t be camping as it was such dense forrest with lots of flooding Everywhere. Sooooo on I went hahaha…..I must say at first it was really annoying and i was cold and over it but on went three head lights and two rears plus reflective vest. If you have good quality lights, in my experience, riding at night is safer (as long as not on main highway). This is due to being lit up like a xmas tree you can be seen from a long way away rather then blend into scenery during the day. Cars were highbeaming me as I was too bright hahaha that’s how I like it

So on I went at 10:30 ish onto the town ‘Yea’. It was marvelous. The rain stopped and the sky opened and my headtorch was on hunt for wildlife and it did not disappoint. I saw frogs, 10 or so wombats, sugar gliders, possums, herds of kangaroos, birds and much more. I had a smorgasbord of sounds and sights. So on came 1:30am when i reached the caravan park and I snuck in, setup tent and slept a happy and tired man. The Next morning I told reception and they didn’t charge me for the night and i wanted to dip in the cold pool to ease the leg pain and the owner said ‘I created a magnesium oil that’s clinically approved etc etc you can have a bottle if you like’. I’m down with magnesium so he gave me a massive bottle – so gooood. I knew it was going to rain all day so took the opportunity to shop up and chill for the day……and also bloody lost the cabin key which cost me a bit which I won’t go into…don’t want to go through the ptsd of it all hahaha. I don’t lose much on my journey as everything has a place but it had to be the bloody cabin key didn’t it hahahaa. Shit happens – you move on.

it’s nice to see all the Small towns that I ride through all do their bit for the bushfire appeal – there’s alot of donations (Financial and physical) – really great to see the community spirit. On that note…So far in my navigation endeavours I thought it was just fires but now it’s turned out to be fires, floods, hail, dust storms and road closures so I’m going to have to be vigilant in my plans I think.

Dinner tonight was on my Camping stove in the cabin (no cooking facilities) and it was spaghetti, sauce, garlic, onion, brocc, carrot, chickpeas and tuna). You can’t be fussy bike touring – throw it all in one…carbs, protein and vitamins hehe. plus – in the leftovers go a ziplock bag for tomorrow’s lunch or dinner. I boiled a few eggs too as i LOOOOOVE them mid ride with a bit of salt – it’s a bloofy bit of hard boiled goldness when you’re hungry from riding all day.

My final thought for the day is salespitches. Why I hear you say…well everything is isn’t in…for instance like selling a house or a caravan park attraction like the one i’m in…..it’s either on the beach, close to a beach, within sight of a beach/lake, you can smell the beach OR within 30 minutes public transport to a beach hahahah. I’ve learned this (if I can be negative for a second for the sake of a laugh)……

A lake – this means hard ground for tents and too boggy
a River – Mossies
the beach – overcrowded, loud and windy

I’ll finish with an excerpt from a poem I read in a cafe today by a local that’s seen a lot of change in this area and it’s along the same lines

Muddy Creek
This is the river that flows past my back fence.
Though to actually call it a river is a bit of an offence
it rarely runs clear, strangely usually in the middle of a drought
It carries more dirt than a tip truck, but the fishing is good for trout
That’s Muddy Creek

Night all – Vanderpants OUT – until the next day of 20 adventures…..