May 28th, 2011
Cocklebiddy to Caiguna
Distance: 91km
Total distance: 4280km
Couldn’t sleep well last night. I think it may be too cold or the sound of the generator or both. Before I go to bed, I spent about an hour sitting on my trike enjoying the view of millions of stars in the sky. It was nothing short of spectacular. I saw one shooting star and something that looked like one, it appeared and disappeared about 5 times on the same trajectory, strange.
Anyway, since I wasn’t able to get much sleep, I thought I may as well pack up and start riding, perhaps I could hit my first 200km day ride. Getting all excited, I did just that, packed up my tent and was on the road before 4am. Based on my calculations, I should be able to make it to Balladonia just before sunset, which is about 250km away. Sounds like a perfect plan no?
Of course not. This was the stupidest decision ever. The first 5km was quite a pleasant ride despite the cold air. I get to enjoy riding beneath a sky full of stars. How often do I get to do that. After riding for 5km, I began to feel the dew all over my body and my toes were so cold it started to feel painful. Nevermind, its all going to be good when the sun comes up and when I reach Caiguna. Only problem was, the sun doesn’t comes up until 3 hours later. The sunrise get pushed later as I approached west. Smacked my head twice there. Second time for not seeing the obvious. A night of clear sky with a full view of stars means there’s little or no clouds, which means a very cold night. A total miscalculations and poor judgement there. Blamed it on my lack of sleep.
Okay, now with 11km into riding, I still had 55km to ride to reach the next roadhouse. But my toes were freezing, I had never felt this much pain from coldness before. It felt like fire burning right into my bones. For a moment, I thought I was experiencing frost bite. I somehow managed to keep myself calm and brain storm for a solution. It looks like I must head back to Cocklebiddy if I wish to see my toes intact. But this also means I must bear with 45 mins of exposure to cold air. When I stopped riding, I had a slight relief on my toes but my body gets cold instead. Therefore, stopping and riding regularly won’t be a good option. Looks like I don’t have much choice other than seeking refuge in a building ASAP. Took out my stove and started boiling a cup of water, not to drink but to place it under my feet to provide a temporary relief. My body and hands shivers so much that I had problem lighting a match and I spilled the spirit fuel all over my burner. The hot steam warmed up my feet, but as soon as the fuel runs out, the cold sets in. Packed up my stove in seconds and raced back to Cocklebiddy. My headlight ran out of power so I switched to my second headlight, another poor judgement there as my high energy consumption headlights wouldn’t have enough runtime to ride for 3 hours in the dark.
As soon as I return to Cocklebiddy, I went straight into the toilet and soaked my hands into warm water to heat up my body. Stayed at the roadhouse until the sun comes up and made sure it’s high in the sky before I pedaled away. Since Caiguna was only 66km away, I reached fairly early. It was clear blue sky today which means tonight it’s going to be as cold as last night. Didn’t want to take any chances so I just booked into a budget motel at Caiguna. Took a quick shower and doze off immediately. Woke up 2 hours later, and now I’m just going to fill up my stomach with some Tim Tams before returning to sleep. Time to clear off my sleep debt!
