Well, today was much better – and it would need to be! Before heading off I did a media spot on local ABC radio – all good.
Since I am now starting from Uranquinty not Wagga itself, I have an extra 17km to do today which will push today’s ride over the 100km mark. 🙁
It drizzled on me into Wagga from Uranquinty and, when I got there, I found a message on my phone to call WinTV in Wagga LAST night – oh well! Being the media tart I am I called anyway and they sent out a cameraman to take some more footage of me. I think this is all very weird (not being used to the attention and all) but, if it helps me get my message out there and more people to my events then it can’t be bad.
It looked to be clearing up so, after picking up a couple of spare tubes (did I say that yesterday I had a slow leak in my back tyre as well?!) and some more muesli bars I headed out of town. Craig Alexander (the ATA member I was supposed to stay with last night and didn’t because of my day’s trials – I owe you Craig; I hope you got to Sydney in time for your appointment) suggested a back way to Gundagai but, after the events of yesterday, I thought it wise to stick to the main roads which meant all the way down the Sturt Hwy to the Hume. This meant some monster climbs but at least people would see me if I collapsed from exhaustion! The weather gradually improved as the day went on and I even had a reasonable cross/tailwind for part of the time.
There is not much in the way of food stops along the way but I did stop for a cup of chocolate in a servo where the owner admitted to being a Climate Sceptic. As my talks are not predicated upon being a convert but simply upon a desire to reduce energy waste and hence energy bills, this didn’t present too much of a problem for me. I don’t know whether I really got through to him but I’m engaging with with people wherever I go. Who’d have thunk I would be doing this 6 months ago???
The going was a lot easier than yesterday and I managed to arrive in Gundagai at about 3pm (I left Uranquinty at ~8:20am) – 4:44 hours in the saddle; 105.1km; 22.1km/h average witha whopping 59.4km/h maximum!!!
I’m now stoking my fires again (eating up big-time) as I have another 100km to do tomorrow. No talk tonight unfortunately but this will give me a chance for an early night.
See you all later.