Day 78: Hepworth to Primrose

A quiet night was shattered by the cawing crows, once again. Go and caw elsewhere. Please.

After the pretty easy, albeit long, day yesterday, today was going to be a mentally testing day.

Rain, rain, rain. There wasn't much to see on the road today apart from a few small towns and a bit of construction. With the lack of shoulder on these roads, riding in the wet becomes an even greater challenge as you're constantly fighting for a spot in the main lane.

I stopped in Flesherton for lunch at the Bicycle Cafe, which seemed appropriate. I walked in dripping and cold, and ordered a large cup of tea, pork and chive dumplings with rice, and finished off with a slice of cheesecake with strawberry and maple syrup.

Two words. Tay. Stee.

Fuelled up and back on the bike I ventured back into the rain. I headed towards the campsite, which was 16km down the road. It was in these 16 kilometres that the gods above reckoned I wasn't wet enough, so turned up the volume on the rain.

And did it rain! The drops got harder and harder, and the noise of them drumming into me and the road was quite deafening. Soon I couldn't even see the road and where it became the 'shoulder'! I reckoned that cars probably couldn't see me, so I steered off the road onto the gravel shoulder, and rode about 3 metres off the road for a bit. I'd love to know what passing motorists thought of me.

It all became too much, the water was pouring off me, I was soaked. No, SOAKED!
I had to just stop and laugh, to take it all in and just be thankful that my skin is waterproof. At the end of a farmers driveway I spotted a sentry box, so ducked into that for a moment, to check on how far I was from the campsite.

In all the chaos I had missed the turning (there wasn't a sign, I asked) and wasn't prepared to back track, so I headed towards Shelburne, just a few kilometres down the road.
Thankfully the rain was starting to let up so I could now make some headway. Shelburne provided me with some supplies for dinner and I soon rolled into the campsite at Primrose.

The lady running the camp had sympathy so gave me a nice discount, and a good site to pitch the tent. I stuck all my wet gear in the industrial tumble dryers and put them to the test.

Dry clothes, a warm dinner and a comfy tent soon had me feeling relaxed after a longer day than expected.

Only a rummaging raccoon disturbed me in the night, scratching against my bags in search of food.

Distance: 110 km
Time: 6:08:54
Height gained/lost: 802m /-637m
Calories: 3183

(Due to the rain not many pictures where taken today)