Travel

It's Tuesday evening.  I'm in Brisbane waiting for dinner to arrive in my hotel room.  It's been a long day in a  room with no windows working with people involved in what appears to be an intractable conflict. At 5.30pm I wrapped things up and walked out into a perfect Brisie evening to news that all flights in and out of Sydney have been cancelled by the ash from the volcano in Chile. I'm here until tomorrow evening when I fly further north to Cairns until Friday and then home to Sydney.  Hoping the ash has blown back to Chile by then.

My exercise since the weekend has consisted of doing push ups and core exercises yesterday and again this morning followed by an early morning walk along the river. On Saturday I cycled from Bondi to Wollongong in what turned out to be one of the toughest rides I can remember.  I left home at 12.30pm on Saturday 'avo and straight into weekend traffic. Not a smart idea but I decided to push on.  I wasn't out of Bondi when the back wheel started to bulge so I dropped into the Bike Bar.  They checked it out and gave it the all clear. Back on the bike and through the southern suburbs was tricky enough with the traffic, but it was complicated by the wind, blowing at an increasing rate as the afternoon wore on.  I felt OK for a while and at about 25kms reached the Georges River and the Captain Cook Bridge. As I crossed the bridge, some turkey in a  BMW came way too close traveling way too fast and well and truly woke me up. He then had to slam the breaks about 100 metres further on as the traffic came to an abrupt halt at the top of the bridge. Hyped up on adrenalin, I rode right up to the driver's side window and banged on it to give him a mouthful. Turned out he wasn't only an idiot in a fast car; he was also a big, well built, footballing boof-head of an idiot.  We exchanged a few ugly phrases and he asked if I wanted to take it further. I said no and asked him if I needed to explain the obvious.  He asked what the obvious was. So I explained that on appearances he was twice my size and I had no intention of getting into a blue with a brainless boof-head, at which I gave him an Angry Boys salute and pedaled off.

I got about 15 metres further on feeling witty and better than the Boof-head, when right on queue my back tyre blew again. It wouldn't have been at all cool to walk down the bridge with a flat so I hobbled down the other side and pulled over to change the tyre. If you've ever used the small hand held pumps we all carry these days, you'll know they're next to useless.  And I was reluctant to inflate it to the maximum pressure as I was concerned it'd blow again. So the tyre was changed and I rode on into an increasingly strong headwind with an under-inflated tyre and traffic all around me.  At 50kms into the ride I finally reached Waterfall and felt clear of the City and suburbs.

The rest of the ride to the 'Gong can only be described as torture.  The wind just kept getting stronger.  It was a Sou' Sou' Westerly gale blowing directly into my face, made worse by the cuttings in the road which acted as funnels to focus the wind directly onto the bike. At times I was pedaling as hard as I could down on the TT bars, managing a maximum of 20km/hr and seemingly getting nowhere.  If rain is a curse for the runner then the wind is the enemy of the cyclist. With about 30km to go Genevieve sailed past in the car, honked the horn, gave me a big smile and a bigger wave and sped on. Hmmm. Happily she didn't stop. If she did, I would have been in the car in a flash.  But push on it was.

I eventually hit Bulli Pass, a solid few kms of steep descent and flew down it at a top speed of 78km/hr, then onto the cycleway on the freeway for the last 15kms to the City. I rolled into Margaret's driveway, gave my wife and Mum a kiss, had a shower, met the family at a local restaurant, woofed down a solid dinner and drove back to  Bondi with Gene. It was a completely forgettable ride and I hope never to have to repeat it. 

So it's a much quieter week this week.  It's been long days at work and time away from home with more to come. Ash in the sky not with standing, I'll be home Friday 'avo and looking forward to the next long ride and a good swim across the beach. Next weekend is the last weekend before the Gold Coast Marathon and the girls have been seriously tapering, so it'll be a slow weekend for them. The weekend after won't be so slow.  Can't wait!