Day 6 & 7

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Wow, what started as an easy 3/4 day turned into an adventure of epic proportions, ending up with me camping in a ditch on the edge of a field, a body search for weapons and a 2km single track adventure with a fully loaded road bike….
So I left my camp surrounded with giant trees and quiet peacefullness in brilliant sunshine. An easy(ish) 50km ride brought me to Monterey where I decided to have a break, chill out and catch up with the world with internet. After that and lunch it was time for me to move on, not really having a destination I just figured that I'd take the rest of the day as it came following my bike path.
That plan backfired when my bike path ran out at a busy intersection with the freeway. So I found a starbucks to get back online and get directions around the freeway through a whole load of small towns. So 20 mins later I was on my way and carried on that way until about 20kms later the road ran out and had a fence across it saying closed! Bummer, not having a real map of the area but having a general direction of where I needed to go I decided to investigate a dirt track that went in my direction. This turned out to be some kind of off road trail that was ride able(in parts). After some scary riding and too many falls I decided that pushing the bike was the best option. After about another kilometer I managed to find my way onto the road I was aiming for. Success!
By this time it was starting to get dusky but I decided to try to push on to a campsite that was marked on the map. So I took off on wee roads around huge fields that seemed to go on forever, until I realised that I had gone past my campsite and was in fact in the middle of nowhere! By this point it was fully dark and foggy and about 9.30, well past my bed time already.
So riding along the side of a field I decided that the ditch around the edge looked habitable for the night and it was dry too! Farmers don’t mind you camping in ditches right?
So after I was all cozy in my bed a car stops on the road and a light shines on my tent. A voice calls "you in the tent , come out here" Turns out that it was the local police man on his rounds. Before he would speak to me he insisted on checking me for weapons and looking at my passport before radioing my details into his base to check I'm not wanted!
After the check came back he let me go back to sleep only to be woken up by tractors going past from 4am. By 7 it was daylight and time to pack up.
After getting lost again this morning I decided it was time to buy a detailed map of the area with every little street marked on it. Turns out I should of done that a long time ago. I managed to make my way to tonight's campsite with no real dramas, other than that I can't check in and put up my tent until 4. I arrived at 10 hoping to get some sleep in before doing some washing. Never the less I was able to have a shower and then make my way into town. So I'm off to do my laundry, have lunch and service my bike after a hard weeks riding. Heres the stats from the last 2 days

Ride time - 7:59:09
Average speed - 19.1km/h
Distance - 153.08km
Max speed - 55.5km/h
Trip distance - 706.54km

Aly x

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Comments

[Angie]

Wow
Hi Aly what an adventure I got frisked in Austraila on our back from New Zealand. Like you not wanted Angie

[Chris Gould]

Best Wishes
You are doing well Ally. What an adventure. Best wishes from Chris G