Day 1: Sleepy Day

March 16th, 2011

Sydney to Bundeena
Distance: 58km

Outside the arrival hall at Sydney domestic terminal, I took my time building my trike, ensuring that all the bolts are tighten and test rode it a few times. I completed the trike after 3 hours, a “record-breaking timing”!

Had a pre-packed cheesybite sandwich at the bus stop and was reminded that Sydney is home to the largest population of cockroach. Killed two of them while eating. As soon as I’m done eating, I started pedalling out of the airport, riding along Princes Highway until I reached Southgate Shopping Centre at Sylvania. There I shopped for a bum bag and umbrella from the 24-hours K-mart while waiting for Woolworths supermarket to open at 6:00am. The bum bag turns out to be incredibly useful since I get to store and access my camera and phone without having to get out of my seat.

Once I was done shopping at the supermarket, I had a quick chocolate milk and muffin brekkie and headed south to the Royal National Park. As expected, the traffic on Princes Highway became quite intense so I chose smaller roads and occasionally rode on the footpath. Once I get to the entrance of the Royal National Park, the traffic was much better and I felt relief. The shoulder was not as wide as I had hoped for but motorists were quite courteous when it comes to overtaking. The scenery and air were quite pleasant but I believe I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn’t sleep-deprived. All I could think of is to quickly get to the camp site and settle down for a long afternoon nap. There were a couple of steep hills along the road before the Bundeena Road turnout. Needless to say, I switched to the granniest of my granny gear (gear 1 of 81) to crawl up the hill.

After 3.5 hours, I finally arrived at Bonnie Vale Camp Ground! I made a booking for this camp site one-week earlier so I just made my way straight to my camping spot. While I was setting up my tent, Gail and Michael, a friendly elderly couple, approached me and we have a short chat. Michael also owns a trike, the exact same model but an earlier generation. We discussed a bit about the trike and my route to Melbourne. They warned me about the steep mountain that I will encounter after Shellharbour and told me to avoid it if possible. Didn’t give much thought about it as the next alternative road (Jamberoo Mountain Road) is even worse.

Took a shower and tried to sleep in the tent but it was just too hot inside. It was noon and my tent was no longer under the tree shade. I was so desperate to sleep that I sat on my trike under the tree and tried to doze off. It was windy and nice outside the tent but there were ants and other bugs all over the ground so again I couldn’t have a peaceful sleep. Another thing that worries me was the Ultraman’s Monster-like lizard that is all over the camp site. There are usually at least one-metre long and roam around to seek for food from unsuspecting campers. Without much choice, I went back into the tent and my sleepiness overrules all the environmental factors that kept me from sleeping.

Woke up at 5pm and did the ceremonial ocean dipping of my rear wheel. Will do the concluding front wheel ocean dip once I reach Perth, 3 months from now. It was still daylight so I decided to ride to Bundeena town which is only 1km away from the camp site to search for hot food. All shops were closed so looks like I’ll be having muffins again for dinner, well better than nothing! Have it with the so called liquid breakfast “Up & Go” and find it quite yummy! I concluded my Day 1 by listening to the radio and fell asleep shortly after.