Turning back.
Royal N.P. Escarpment
My last night on the road I stayed in a place called Stanwell Park, just north of Bully. I’d planned on camping back up the escarpment in Royal National Park but I couldn’t make it up the hill. 400 metres of elevation gain in just a few kilometres was too much for me and my tired legs. 14% is a difficult gradient without the extra weight I was carrying, this evening it was impossible, a sad moment.
Riding along the coast the road went up and down constantly, over lots of short, sharp hills. 40km of this totally sapped all the strength from my legs. I got to Bully and made the left turn to head back up the hill. Immediately I was presented with a sign saying 14% and it wasn’t kidding. 14% constant straight up to the face of the escarpment and then winding its way along, never easing – at least not the 2.5km I managed. Even in my little granny gear 34 x 32 – thats almost 1:1 – I couldn’t keep my legs turning over, and after lots of little digs to try to keep going I conceded defeat and coasted back down. It’s the first time since I started riding again that I had to get off on a hill and so close to the end.
Despite the days off in both Adelaide and Melbourne I’m just completely exhausted. More so than I’d ever felt in my life. Looking at myself in the mirror, I can clearly see it too. I kept following the coast trying to find somewhere to sleep. Every little bit of ground here is built up, there is only a very narrow stretch of land between the cliff behind and the water. Eventually I got to Stanwell Park, the last settlement before the road went into the Royal National Park. There was changing facilities at the green near the beach for the surfers with cold showers – no hot water unfortunately. Still it was nice to feel clean and get out of my wet clothes, there had been showers most of the day. I made it back to my picnic bench and forced myself to stay awake long enough to cook a meal, then fell asleep sitting at the table before I even tasted a bite. Sometime during the night the pain in my shoulder from sleeping hunched over the table woke me. I ate some of very very sticky pasta and went back to sleep.