Sorry i haven't been able to update the blog for a while, but it have been a couple of hectic days and i also had poor internet connection few night.
Since last time i updated we have came a long way. We left Port Macquarie Sunday and were thinking to catch a train up to Coffs Harbour because we had accommodation there and Jakob's knee was a bit sore. But things didn't work out the way, when we got to the train station in Wauchope about 20 km outside Port Macquarie we found out that we need to take the bikes apart and need to have them in our own carry bags. In Sydney you just take the bike with you on the train, it was not a chance that we would be able to take the bikes apart for a short train trip. We ended up Camping at the showground in Wauchope and the next morning we biked all the way to Grassy head (95km) we camped there and watched the Sunrise the next morning at the beach before we left towards Coffs Harbour! We stayed at the Backpackers in Coffs Harbour and left early the next morning because we had 120 km to bike up to Maclean were we had a host to stay at.
I think everything went wrong that day. haha!
We left Coffs 7am, biked 15 km stopped for breaky and bought fruits with us and Lindt Dark chocolate with rosted hazelnut and one orange. Love these chocolates.
We started of on the High way for 25 km before we decided to take a short cut and avoid traffic so we turned off the high way and went into Barcoongere state forest that takes you across Yuraygir National park.
The first 2km was fine, pretty good dirt road to bike on, but from then everything went downhill, the roads got worse and worse, more hills, more holes, mud and big rocks. Not a road for road bikes loaded with bags. Would be fine for a Mountain bike or a 4WD. However we tried our best dragged the bikes across some rough parts, biked where it was possible, not sure how many times we nearly had a fall, we had falls, Jakob's back rack broke (lucky we could fix it with some strings we had), most frustrating was when i looked at my watch and could see that we only traveled about 4 km in 50 mins! We were hoping on better roads at every crossing but it probably just got worse and worse. It was horse poo every where, that was giving us hope that somebody should live near by and been riding on the trails. But there was no sign of people or better roads near us. We biked about 3 km wrong way too and have to turn around.
At the time we had fun, just laughing at it all, we named our bikes, my bike is now called "Lilla Pysen" or "Little Pysen" Jakob's bike is named "Petter Niklas" We also know that "Petter Niklas" is a pretty naughty bike that do things to makes our life difficult sometimes, all the trouble with flat tires, broken back rack, throwing things off the bike etc. "Lilla Pysen" he is always nice and quiet and tries so hard. He haven't done anything wrong yet. lol
This is the sort of conversation we will have on our bikes in middle of the bush.
When we actually thought we were coming out to better roads we ended up at a river!! YES A RIVER!!! I can't even explain what we felt when we saw that river with no bridge! First it was getting dark, it took us 5-6 hours to get down to that river and we had 70 km to go to our destination. Lucky we had a bit of chocolate left, we ate that and were pretty much ready to start to head back the way we came when i saw marks from wheels going down towards the river and said to Jakob if people been driving across surely we can walk across and it must be a road on the other side, couple of mins later we were carrying the bikes across the river and after that all our bags, by the time we got everything over to the other side it was dark so with headlamps on we were getting ready for another 10 km on a bad 4WD road in the bush, not easy in the dark, that was when we run into two white wild horses!! First time I have seen a wild horse! This explain all the horse poo too haha.
After 10km we finally came out on a normal road! I can't explain how happy we were, now we only had 50 km to go. We were tired and hungry. But just had to get it done! After 40km we came out to the high way at that time it was freezing and i was starving and exhausted. . Believe it or not but it was a organic bakery on the high way open till midnight. We pulled up there quickly had a hot chocolate, Jakob had coffee and we shared two cakes before we were back on the road. Some of the places on the high way had no space for us to bike on so every time a big truck came we had to stop and move out of the way. It was pretty scary biking on the high way in the dark with big trucks. But we didn't have a choice. It was amazing how much energy we got from the Sugar kick at the bakery we stopped at, it felt like i could bike another 50km easy. before we pulled up i struggle every peddle i took.
Just before midnight we arrived at Mclean at our hosts, at this time we had been our bikes since 7am to midnight! It was no words for how happy we were to arrive and felt so welcome.. Beautiful couple that welcome us at midnight and heated up a dinner for us. The next morning, we woke up 10:30 am, we must of been so tired, we got breakfast cooked for us when we woke up and our host offered to drive us down to the beach later if we wanted to have a look around, so we decided to do that after we done our laundry and cleaned the bikes. Beautiful beach here and lovely weather. We have been so lucky with the weather and the hosts we are staying with are so nice. They cooked us dinner tonight and we had few beers and ice cream together. I love how friendly and nice people are that welcome you into their home and make you feel like home straight away! We are so pleased for that :-)
Tomorrow we heading towards Ballina and staying the night there before we heading to Byron Bay!
Koala's at the Koala hospital in Port Macquarie
Riding in the National park
Sunrise at Grassy head's beach
//Gina Johansen xx