Km’s – 70 on the nose

vert – 100 mtrs

avg spd – 17 kmph

total distance – 312 km’s

saddle time- 4 hours

Before I start I wanted to share the video of the ‘day in the life of the Redlegs’ from yesterday that I couldn’t upload. I must say, for an amateur I LOVE IT – I may have watched it a few times hahaha – THIS WAS YESTERDAYS FUN TODAY – bit different than today haha

Hi readers for the red headed pedal pushers

First off I wanted to take some time to mention my best friends Aunty, Janette. She passed away at this location whilst riding her Harley and tragically died by the hands of an emu running out in front of her bike. My thoughts are with Jeano, Malcolm, Gherna and her whole family. I knew her well also and Alex and I paid our respects as I retold the story about what I know of her and how it happened and we were quiet again, for a while and just talked about it for a while and also followed on from yesterdays attempted murder we shook our heads and started talking about life again, as you do on the road and how lucky we are. My thoughts are with everyone who knew her and her family – you know who you all are I don’t need to name names on this blog.

Today was the first wild camp for alex and also for our tour and i would say it was successfull Apart from Alex bitching that i snored at 4am and he couldnt get to sleep. Cry me a river bitch 😂

But all in all it was an awesome, quiet, secluded spot with no bugs – AGAIN – Alex gets the highlights of touring so far everyday – how lucky are we haha

I’ve noticed a lot of dead Deers on the road and last time I did the coorong a few years ago, I didn’t notice any – just kangas and there’s a few of those but seeing all the Deers was a bit of an eye opener considering I didnt see any last time.

Back to this morning, Alex was already organising his stuff so i though i might as well get up (6:20am) we slowly packed up our stuff as i yelled out a few tips and tricks which he took in his stride – this man is learning super fast and we are very quickly sharing the load of what touring is made of. its nice. I received a phone call at 7 about my sister who I look after and the food cupboard wouldn’t open – BIG DRAMA – so after sorting that out lolz it was pack up time.

We packed up, headed off for more head winds and decided on a 70km day today. Then we can do a few things we need to do to the bikes and some shopping etc. Today was a bit of a blerg day where there is absolutely nothing but road and shrub so pictures and vids were scarce. At one point i did clip my loud speaker to the back of my pants, crank Disturbed and Alex was happy to show me exactly why this song is difficult on drums or where the beat sits in the song. I like that because music is Life right???

Lunch stop was off a dirt road, coffee boiling and a dehydrated meal inside a roll OMG yummmmmmmy.

It has rained on us every day so far but it hasnt poured down which works for me. The headwinds were relentless actually but not as bad as last time I was here but still, easy to get frustrated because it felt like 120km day uphill lol. I could see a SMALLLLLLL crack in Alex and I knew he was in his ‘head space’ dealing with the the mental battle of ‘headwind city’ so on goes out headphones and I kicked into gear and trundled away slightly so we can just go heads down bum up for an hour or so. I slowed down 10km’s before town so we can take it in, reset the mind and head into town together and talk about how effed this is hahahaha

As today was rainy and humdrum, im pumped to upload this video from last night. It’s a day in the life of yesterday on the road. Alex told me today he was amazed at the range of emotions that occur whilst touring and how many there are on any given day so far. You can start out thinking the day is AMAZING and half way through the day you speak to people, go through rain, hills, hot weather, a flat tyre, murders, deaths, hunger and much more but not only that, sometimes, the fear of ‘Can I actually do this because i’m in pain right now – how bout the rest of the trip’. These things are so good to push through because when you get ‘there’ you’ve learned so much and you don’t even know it.

Whilst I was riding along today I thought ‘im going to miss you guys (wink) when i’m more remote as in up top of Australia. I feel like my network coverage will be scarce and I won’t be able to blog as much and that means I will miss you. I think part of my blog is for me but it’s also so you guys can live through me or should I say know what I’m up to and that’s somehow like having a friend along the way. I love that you guys can go through this with us (and me). It’s kind of comforting. We also saw an old couple on their bikes doing it like us but the other way – was nice to see a couple in their 60’s who have been together over 40 years AND doing it together, roughing it, loving it and with a smile on their face – BRILLIANT………Our setups were HEEEEAPS better though – JUST SAYING hahahahaha

Ok enough fuzzy warm stuff…….We soldiered on today and got to Kingston happy smiles and lined up where we will eat dinner tonight, already discussed logistics along the way, knew where coffee was and headed to our accomm.

Here comes the interesting bit…..We have a joint pile of joint washing and I took it all in the shower and what do Bro’s do, they wash the STENCH out of their mates garments don’t they, then they palm off the second rinse to the other mate who without a word finished off the final touches in the sink and hangs it up – what a partership huh hahaha

Above is what days of no showering and cycling looks like AFTER a first rinse already hahahaha – now you are really getting to know us 🙂

So we are off to tea and stay tuned for WHATEVER comes our way tomorrow Peeps.

Here’s a small vid of today

Red Signing out…………………………………

85 clicks in the headwinds

howdy everyone – well another succesful day on the road and again, I am thinnking damn, when is going to get hard for alex hahaha. Don’t now why but we were singing Michael Jackons Black or White this morning – wtf hahaha

We went to the bakery in the morning and a bunch of cyclists were there on a ‘supported’ tour pfffft hahahaha and we had a good yarn, packed our panniers with pasties and rolls as we know we won’t be getting almost any chance for water or food in the next two days.

Onboard goes 8 litres of water and heaps of food and boy were we feeling it. Those pedals were pushing a bit harder into the wind today along that bloody coorong. It was a day filled with lots of mini adventures. Beaches, good lunches (pastie inside a bread roll mmmmmm), flying with pelicans (watch the vid at the end), a random story that i’ll talk about in a minute that got Alex and I talking ALL day about and ended in an awesome campsite at the end of the day with hardly any wind, bugs or rain – this isn’t touring I said to Alex -it’s HEEEAPS harder than this hahahaha

We saw a few bottles of pee today – yup you read that corretly haha – I think truckies or whoever must pee in a bottle then throw it out – like wtf peoples – cmon hahahaha

I got my drone out a few times today which was fun – i’m getting better at it and loving it – can’t wait for great ocen road or somewhere up top of Oz that’s going to be wild.

The drone ran out of battery chasing some pelicans though and ALMOST didn’t get home – was a setting issue – i’ve fixed that now! – we had to back track a bit to find it but luckily we did!

Alex was saying to me today that it feels like we have been on the road for 8 days – It’s like that because so many mini adventures occur. So many discussions. So many hikes. So many randoms. So many different stops and scenery changes – the list goes on – you’d think all ya do is cycle but its so much more than that. You wouldn’t think you’re in SA still for most of our days it’s nuts. All the nooks and crannies and different people you see and things you do is crazy. Not only that but weather changes, clothing changes, injuries to negotiate bla bla bla – losts of new things every day it’s wild and refreshing

OK so lunch came about AND I knew there was a pub up the road that has closed down it’s main pub area but was kind of a motel – has a table (from last time i was there a few years ago on ‘from take 1 round Oz) so there we were enjoying a bread roll and out came the owner and was super nice and said we can have water and chill and eat and THEN started to talk to us about how he was stabbed not too long ago – ummmmm ok tell me more 🙂

He then went on to say that his next door neighbour broke into his pub and stabbed him multiple times an then ran off and he showed us all the scars and told us in detail and then the news article about it. The sliding doors moment for me was last time i was cycling around Oz – I slept behind this guys house hahahaha that next door neighbour was living there at the time – as Alex and I thanked him and rode off, we were pretty silent for a while and then discussed it all IN LENGTH – it was a weird couple hours hahahaha talk about wtf. We talked, laugh, shook our heads, was in disbelief – it ws a hell of a ride away from there hahaha. Little did I know the lunch table we were eating on was part of the crime scene hahahaha……

Ok so that was excellent. Tonight will be a bit of a shorter blog sorry peeps- we are wild camping, it’s cold, I need to pack up my gear bla bla borrring

so to end it I will say the last half of the day was kind of a slog however, filled with amazing scenery, laughs and some awesome cycling. We went for a walk along the beach like lovers, got almost our 10,000 steps up too and then trundled back to our site for some tucker (dehy meal which went down pretty alright)

I tried to upload an awesome video tonight but damn it the 4g isn’t happening out here so you will have to wait until tomorrow sorry but here are some pics of the day

SIGNING OUT

85 kms

Avg Speed – 15

Total Distance – 243kms

Elevation – 250

signing out peeps

look out for that vid tomorrow……..

95km’s

Hello everyone – thanks for logging in and reading this unfiltered and basic blog of a cuttla red heads pushing some pedals around and just talking shit and having lolz – ok and suffering a bit 🙂

Today was half bliss / half suffer but all in all – TOTAL BLISS. It was a good intro into a tiny bit of suffer and what is to come and a tiny bit of joy. it was a brilliant start to day 2 and let me unpack some (if you can be bothered reading through my multiple change of subjects and butterfly chasing) – bare with me whilst I sidetrack, get off the rails, get back on, take you through the roundabout, tell you a story, digress but then get abck on the rails again 🙂

here we go…..

The day started with a massive tailwind and a beautiful sunrise. It was calm and enjoyable. We just talked shit for a couple hours and took some pics and enjoyed the beginning talking all important things such as…………………..’Hey Adrian, do you think pelicans compare dick sizes with each other’? This then went on for half an hour about why and if they do. My thoughts were, no they dont, however, they would compare how far they fly or how wide their wingspan is but just quietly, the female pelicans would be squabbling about it 🙂

Along the ride today we were discussing about yesterday and had a big laugh about how much we actually hung shit on EVERYTHING – the whole day we just hung shit on everything in our lives and how much awesome we are than everything we discussed. Any cyclist we saw, every driver, everyone and everything – what’s wrong with us hahahaha

Sooo the day started with an awesome tailwind…..lols, good pics, easy cycling and I was starting to think Alex was getting it too good. This isn’t REALLY touring hahahaha – well it is but perfect weather, no niggles, lolz, water supplies ok, food supplies ok, no bugs etc etc hahahaha this is too good lolz. My saying is normally ‘there’s always something that annoys you it hardly ever is perfect’. It’s always either wind, mosquitos, heat, wind, rain, hunger, pain, flies – the list goes on – there’s at least ONE thing in Australia whilst touring that ANNOYS YOU or should I say, that challenges you hahaha but the first 50 was BLISS and LOLZ…….

We got to Wellington so easily and hopped on the ferry which was up and running since the floods so that was good. A little bit of logistics were undertaken the night before so we knew where supplies would be because we are about to head into a few days of NOTHING along the cooring so we knew where we need to stock up. When I say stock up i’m talking pasties and water hahahaha. The next couple day will be camping and dehy meals so I’m pumped to show Alex how this shit works. I must admit, I wanted to shout out to Alex because I know it’s only been two days BUT i’m super impressed at his attitude and willingness to take all the experiences in. Sometimes in this game you have a plan for water, food, wind, sleeping etc etc but sometimes it turns to shit many times in one day and you have to shift your mindset multiple times in one day regardless of your energy levels. Yes it’s early days however, he has been a soldier. We smashed 95 km’s today and he smashed it and we are planning the days ahead together with curiosity and team work – I haven’t had such help before – it’s refreshing. Fast forward two weeks – lets revisit this post shall we hahahahaha

Ok so back on the ferry, Alex said I should whip my drone out (lol) – so within 3 minutes out it came, up it popped in the sky and OMG it wasn’t calibrated for some reason so it was going all over the place so I cut about 2 minutes of footage and somehow landed it back on the ferry ahhaah. I didn’t know that the operator was watching me the whole time and commented ‘oh that’s yours is it, I was wondering what was going on’ hahahahaha.

Packed the drone away, cycled off the ferry and away we went again. I could talk all day about why I love bicycle touring and all the things it teaches me however, one thing I loved about today was the fact that we shot the breeze about silly things, funny things, serious things, random stupid things, laughed a lot, cycled hard, enjoyed the sunrise and spent 10 minutes talking about it – we experieced a whole day today however, it felt like 20 + unique experiences in one. When you setle down for the day, there’s so much that went on regardless of how hard the day is (or easy) haha

Welllllll we were smashing the k’s and then turned south INTO THE SMASHING HEADWIND. My bro in law Ned warned me about the weather coming up so we took that in our stride and have planned our days based on that damn headwind which is soul destroying. Give me hills ANYDAY over headwind. It was crushing. I could see the smile dissapear from Alex’s face pretty quickly and that turned into quietness (from both of us) which then turned into putting my headphones in which then turned into a few more rest stops hehehehe. It was ok though – just a small challenge to get to Meningie and we ended up doing 95 clicks (50 into solid headwinds) – I’m super impressed at Alex’s effort today – I secretly wanted him to suffer a bit more though hahaha

The next two days are pretty much no supplies so we have to stock up on lots of water and food and camp – i’m really looking forward to this. It’s been nice for me to finish the day with a mate and go through literally 50-100 stories and then pick a few each day that keep rotating and make me lol – it’s nice to share it with someone as i haven’t had that before for a multi day touring journey.

Arrived at Meningie SPENT, happy and hungry

Smashed some food and a coffee (terrible but awesome coffee haha) and we were pretty quiet and I think that was from wind in our ears all day, loud traffic and 95km’s under our belt.

Went to the supermarket to overhear a bloke try to pick up the supermarket attendant and it went like this (made me LOL)

bloke ‘howdy love how are YAH’ (full aussie accent here)

Attendant ‘great darl how are things with you’?

bloke ‘Yeahhhhh not too bad hey, It’s been a tough week because the doctor told me to use this cream once but I found that this rash I have needs it twice a day so we are getting better’

Attendant ‘insert long silence and awkward look to co worker at next till’

attendant awkardly laughs ‘hahahahaha good luck with that have a nice day’

Bloke looks at me standing behind him, pauses, walks off’

attendant ‘next please’

Me ‘well i don’t have a rash but id’ just like these thanks’ BWhahahahahahaha

The day ended with us having a counter meal which was terrible but awesome, walking along the river, viewing kangaroo island from where we are and laughing about everything that happened in the day (and drinking a bottle of red from the bottle along the beach hahahaha)

Thanks so much everyone for tuning in and lolling with me – Instead of pictures today I put together a little 2 minute video so I can practice putting all the pics and vids together for my blog and give you an idea of the things we see so lets see how it goes – enjoy a day in the life peoples and

tuning out until tomorrows adventures begin again – have a great night all……

KM’s today – 95

Vertical Gain – 243 mtrs

KM’s to date – 158

Wind – EFFING ANNOYING 🙂

RED SIGNING OUT…..

62km’s

and the first leg of 3 weeks with this legend below

We are calling ourselves ‘The Redlegs” well because have a look at that HAIR from both of us……

His name is Alex and he is good mate of mine who for what reason I don’t know, has decided to join the pain, I mean adventure for the first 3 weeks of my YEAR AND HALF JOURNEY around Australia. Have I gone nuts again – what am I thinking? Has he gone nuts? does he know what he is in for – I don’t know however, I do know we will smash whatever is in our way and bloody get this 3.5 weeks DONE – then i’m left to my own weird mind all on my own 🙂

That’s right people, it’s TAKE TWO TIME. If it wasn’t covid (two waves), major bushfires, fractured ankle, sick dogs, moving houses, basically shaping my whole life to this point ETC ETC ETC I won’t go on, but I AM GOING TO DAMN WELL COMPLETE THIS THING SOMEHOW SOMETIME and aint NOTHING going to stop me hahaha.

I’m super excited to start this adventure with some good company because this thing can get lonely sometimes and it’s nice to share it with a mate and shoot the breeze all day and share some of that ‘load’ (wink)

It’s been a huge journey to get to this point and i won’t go on about it but let’s just say today’s start was pretty big for me – so many big life changes along the way some good some bad but all life changing in a good way, has shaped this very moment – it’s so hard to believe that the first day is done and dusted and although it wasn’t the most adventurous it also was at the same time for so many internal reasons. Not only for me but also Alex – I could see it in his eyes hehehe It was BIG but moreso in my head. The people in my life who know me, KNOW (wink wink you know who you are and you KNOW i’m talking about YOU hahahaha)

Ok so enough about the emotional BS – I have so much time to get into that later like chasing butterflies which everyone tells me i’m soooo goood at 🙂 – yeah yeah I can hear you now….’you’re chomping at the bit to hear about me writing 100 paragraph about ants or butterflies hahahahahah – wait what, i got sidetracked 🙂 . If you don’t remember from my last journey, you will be reading an unedited, unfiltered version – I don’t pretty it up – what you read is ME. Another exicting thing is that this time I HAVE TAKEN A DRONE WITH ME THIS TIME – I can’t wait to show you all some of the beauty of this land on two wheels.

first off, shout out to my best mate Schnitzel who a couple days ago, passed away with an auto immune disease. It was a very unpleasant and difficult 5ish days as he slowly declined and then it was so strange to then take off straight away after such a sad experience. This dude had the best but very short life – RIP lil buddy, i’m truly going to miss your guts and thought about you for most of the day.

SO the day started off leaving from my mates house and it was a lovely farewell with Pancakes (thanks NOMES) and kisses and hugs and lots of excitement.

This is me looking and researching what a relationship looks like – I feel awkward because I don’t know anymore 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 bwahahahaha

We made our way up busy portrush road as Alex tells me off for texting and cycling up a busy road during peak hour #usedtoitalex #je 🙂

We reached the Mt barker freeway bikepath which is approx 8-9 km climb in which we said – ‘seeya at the top’ and for me, this was a good headspace to be in and for the first time actually took in the enormity of it all and also attempt to leave behind the last few busy and difficult months of planning, life events and big changes. I do admit it did hit me quite hard and I had ‘sand in my eyes’ for a lot of that hill. HERE WE ARE AGAIN – approx 20,000km’s aaggghhhhhhh

The day was pretty straight forward and we chose a short day for the first day so we can both get into the swing of travelling together – this is a first for both us (first for alex touring and first for touring with someone else). First time I have to think about someone else on the road and negotiate and discuss and share. I’m looking forward to seeing how we work together as a team and discuss things like logistics, food, destinations, injuries, weather etc etc – it’s all new for both of us – stay tuned for updates hahaha – who knows, Alex is probably going to roll his eyes at me alllllllllll day because i just don’t SHUTUP hey – I chase butterflies at work and on the bicycle hahahahahahaha – I think Alex is going to go home and need therapy after travelling with me – I’m DEFINITELY on the spectrum and i’m ok with that HAHAhahahahaha he is the one suffering NOT ME bwahahahahah

The day had some rain, some sun, good chats, tailwinds, some bike repairs, good bakery, OK coffee, good ending, a small hike, a glass of red wine and finished up in a hotel room so we can fully reset and relax as we slowly enter the hardship that is bicycle touring. If you were to unpack today, in all aspects it was a brilliant start.

I think I need some time to get back into the swing of blogging again as it doesn’t feel as though tonight came naturally to be honest however, hang in there people, i’ll ‘loosen up’ i promise. At the end of today I feel just bloody happy and greatful A F for so many reasons.

KM’s today – 63

Vertical Gain – 830 mtrs

KM’s to date – 63

Im already smiling thinking about some of the random and funny shit I KNOW is going to happen hahahaha but for now…..

here’s some of our day…..

ME BUSTED PEEING INTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC

Ok peeps this is Redman logging off and thanks for reading the first blog – I already know in the back of my mind how awesome it’s going to be but also foreseeing the very very challenging days and I can’t wait for you all to share them with me..

Want to know WHERE WE ARE – go to the main menu and click ‘Locate Me’

Signing out………..