The Bike Ride

This is the beach smack in front of my parents' house at Robe in South Australia. It's called Long Beach (so imaginative!) and runs for 11kms around the bay. Aside from the first few hundred metres, the rest is deemed highway and you can drive your car on it, so if you don't like the surf or people nearby, you can simply keep going around the bay to find a spot away from everyone.

Those are cars in the distance.

A few days ago, I came up with this hair brained idea that I'd ride my bike to the end of the beach and back. Having done some riding a few years back, I thought it would take me a bit over an hour for the round trip. I borrowed Elle's bike, which is (appropriately!) a bit of an old lady's model which seemed better suited to the terrain than my thin-wheeled road bike.

Off I set.

It was a little harder than I thought but okay - until I ran out of hard sand. A few times the bike literally came to a grinding holt as I chose the wet sand that had been vacated by the tide merely moments before over the dry sand that offered no traction at all. Hmmm. At those points I had to get off and push until I got back on to a firmer surface. And the wind was starting to pick up.

Anyway, I made it to the end and here's the proof!

The seaweed did NOT help my progress here either.

It hadn't taken half an hour to get there - more like an hour - so I decided to ride back on the road. I had to push the bike over the 4WD trail and then peddle my way down a track, with deep trenches caused by soft earth and heavy rain, to reach the road. There was a combine-harvester working a paddock nearby which was vaguely reassuring that if I did collapse someone might eventually notice.

As I moved away from the beach, the temperature rose but perhaps it was due to the track being somewhat sheltered from the howling gale. I made it to the road and started peddling, consoling myself that the trip wouldn't be much further now. There were few cars which was also good. And then I reached a T-intersection. The sign post showed I'd come 6kms from the beach and had 16kms to go to get back to Robe. 16??? How could that be?

This road was much busier and the wind now a dry, blasting heat like a fan-forced oven. I did have the sense to actually appreciate the breeze as I knew if it dropped off I'd suddenly be aware of how baking hot it actually was. On and on I went, clinging to the edge of the bitumen as large vehicles towing boats and trailers shot past me at speeds in excess of 110kms with centimetres to spare. (In fairness, some did slowdown and I gave them a courtesy nod. I'd have given the speedsters the finger if I'd been brave enough to take my hand off the handles.)

At one point, a large piece of agricultural equipment was heading towards me, with about 5 cars backed up behind. On this occasion, I did seek refuge in the driveway of an olive farm (for sale, about 5,000 trees and about 7kms out of Robe should you be interested) and consumed the last 3cms of simmering hot water from my bottle.

Finally, I saw another sign - 5kms to Robe - thank the lord! As I pressed on I wondered if that was 5kms to the centre of town, 5kms to the Long Beach, 5kms to the Ski Lake? Anyway, it was getting closer! Having been sure I'd knocked over at least one more 'k', I saw another sign approaching - Robe 5kms. WTF?? Damn you sign. I wanted to rip it from the ground and would have had I had the strength.

I did make it back and once off the bike, collapsed into the foetal position to recover while Eleanor laughed and took photos and mimicked my 'it'll only take about an hour' claim - I'd been gone nearly three. Over the remainder of the day I drank about 3 litres of water and didn't wee once! I suspect I was a tad dehydrated.

Relaying my adventure to the others later, and showing the photo on my phone that proved I'd made it - my brother asked; 'Why didn't you just ring and we could have come and picked you up?'

Because that would have been defeat my friends!!!!


I'd like to dedicate this post to my amazing proof reader Penny, (if there's ever a typo it's because I have by-passed the service, it's not PB!) who pedalled an amazing 800kms through Thailand to raise money for tsunami orphans. I have a whole new respect for you PB!!