I packed all my stuff had a coffee and just after sunrise was off down the highway toward the town of Collarenebri about 50 kilometres away.This was to be my water restocking and breakfast stop before riding the 78 kilometres to Walgett to finish off the day.I didn't know very much about this town at all and would have left earlier but didn't know if they had a roadhouse or a gas station that would be open all night and delayed my start so I would arrive in town at the reasonable time of around 8:30 am.Surely by then the town would have started to come to life.
The ride that morning was again flat with a gentle tailwind and I was enjoying the morning especially as it was quite cool and my legs weren't hurting too much,which had become my morning norm.One thing about this ride that did surprise me,not just on that day but for the past few days was that,even though I had done pretty much no training at all nothing hurt.I didn't have really sore legs,just the fatigue you would expect from riding when unfit.There was none of the back pain that had so screwed with me during the last few long races I had done.There was no sore feet and perhaps most importantly,my ass had adapted to sitting on the saddle almost immediately leaving Coolangatta.I was actually pretty amazed by all of that as I really did expect to be hurting from at least one of those issues .That day though I did have my first "issue" and that was mechanical and not physical.After about 30 kilometres I swore that I heard a loud metallic bang and looked down to see the bike rolling along just as it had all morning.I figured I must have kicked up a stone onto my frame and didn't think much of it until a few minutes later when I heard my front brakes rubbing.I pulled over, stopped and leaned over my handlebars to see my front rim hard up against my left brake pad.I stood,lifted the front wheel off the ground and spin it and sure enough it was wobbly,damn,must be a broken spoke.I got off the bike,checked my wheel and sure enough a loose spoke was hanging off the rim,snapped at the hub.
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| Where I've been and where I'm going |
I had spare spokes for both wheels and knew I could fix it but really didn't want to do it here on the side of the road so I decided to ride on to Collarenebri 18 kilometres away and fix it there.For the next hour I babied the bike along the road,slowly dodging potholes and lumps as the wheel wobbled more and more.I was thankful that it was the front wheel as the back one would most likely been toast as the weight of the trailer would have trashed it just like it did as I rode through the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State the year before.That time the rear wheel was destroyed and I had to hitchhike with my bike to two different towns to find a new wheel,eventually picking one up in Seaside,Oregon.That wheel is still going strong on the back today.
At about 8:30am I rolled over the bridge spanning the Barwon River,through the one street town of Collarenebri and into the driveway of the local gas station.I parked my bike in the driveway and went into the store and saw a real coffee machine sitting at one end of the counter.Real coffee,awesome!I odered a large Flat White and asked the two girls behind the counter if there was a campground around the place and they said yep but asked why I would want to stop so early in the day.I told them of my broken spoke and how I needed to stop for a while to fix the wheel and a campground might have enough space for me to spread all my crap while I did so.I was told pretty matter-of-factly that going back down the highway,over the bridge to the towns main oval where folks camped,unsupervised wasn't a really good idea considering I couldn't lock all my stuff away safely.I asked them if safety was really an issue and was told not really but theft is and one of them indicated to the window.Outside,on the other side of the street were a four young local Aboriginals looking toward the gas station and pointing.The older of the two girls said "They are checking out your bike."
With that I took my coffee outside as the four locals came over and asked my where I was going,I told them, " To Walgett" and they shook their heads and the three boys walked off.The young girl stood their for a few seconds before she was yelled at buy one of the guys and she joined them sitting on the steps of a building across the street.
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| Gas station and social centre of town for the morning |
I stood out there drinking my coffee slowly trying to make a decision on what to do while a few cars came and went,filling their tanks up for the days drive.It was a very interesting social experiment actually as I found the white folks who stopped all wanted to chat and asked me all about my trip and offered advice about the towns ahead,including warnings about the rough towns of Walgett and Brewarrina that lay ahead for me.There was a couple on a Harley Davidson who were off to check out the opal Fields of Lightning Ridge,a farmer who was very proud to tell me,when he had found out I had started my ride in Coolangatta,that he had been to the Gold Coast once."Too fancy.Too crowded.You can have it!" he said.One other was an old timer who had lost an arm in a farming accident and was now the local postman.We chatted for quite a while and if you want to know what "local" means around here,he told me that his mail run that day was going to be 515 kilometres long!
He was a funny old guy and he had the perfect security system to protect the local mail.In his car was the most beautiful White German Shepherd who was totally savage to anyone who approached his car but turned into a real softie once his owner turned up.The local Aboriginals who came to the store during our conversation must have known all about that dog because they gave his car a very wide berth with one girl telling him." I'll shoot that dog one day".That was what it was like,as I said the white folks were happy to chat but getting a "hello" or a polite conversation out of the Aborigines that walked by was like pulling teeth.On leaving the gas station,my new one-arm mate advised me not to hang around too long in public with all my gear and he told me that if I wasn't going to be able to ride for a few hours I might as well call it a day and get out of the sun before the expected heatwave hit.He told me to go down to the pub and ask about staying in their motel.
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| My lodge room. |
I thought about what he said for a few minutes and as the lazy bastard in me kicked in I found myself riding a couple of hundred metres down the street back to the pub and around the corner to the motel section.As I turned the corner I found a guy bringing in the wheelie bins from the street and I asked him if they had any rooms for the night.He laughed and said "Mate,take your pick,there is nobody here". Ten minutes later I had unhooked my trailer and wheeled my gear up the ramp of the new, lodge like building and into my huge room that would have looked more in place at a ski resort in the Rocky Mountains than out here in the Aussie bush.I hadn't seen that much wooden panelling in a motel since I drove around the Rockies in Canada six winters ago.
I showered ,washed my bike clothes, and set the air conditioning to sub-Arctic before settling into the couch to catch the end of the morning news on the television.It was still so early that I was told I would have to wait until the pub opened at 11am to pay for my room which left me an around an hour and a half to make myself a coffee and literally chill out feeling both happy and guilty that I would be doing nothing for the rest of the day.
While I watched the news I took my wheel off and set about replacing the broken spoke.It didn't take long at all and after a few minutes the easy part was done and the new spoke was in.I decided to leave it until later in the day to do the tricky part which is "trueing" the wheel or put simply getting the wobble out of the rim.I am a crap mechanic at the best of times so I figured if I put it off long enough the cycling Gods might strike me with a bolt of competence and I would be able to get the wheel rolling straight again with a minimum of fuss and colourful swear words.
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| The pub and the main street with the motel to the left behind |
Just after mid-day I wandered out into the superheated air and into the pub to pay for my nights accommodation.That done it was off to see the local sights which comprised of and small park,the river and several abandoned buildings.The touristing done for the day I went to the grocery store and wandered around the isles trying to figure out what I felt like to eat for lunch and dinner that day.Fifteen minutes later I was all stocked up and it was back to my room to settle in,true my wheel and as there was no internet access,settle in for an afternoon of cricket on the television.Like I said,I felt a little guilty for being so lazy but that didn't last too long as I started to enjoy an afternoon evenly divided between bike related chores,cooking,watching television and napping.
Maybe it wasn't such a bad day after all....
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| He musn't have been home when I was there |
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| A little local history |
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| The very brown Barwon River |
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| Upstream from town |
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| You know you are in the bush when.... |
