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.

140km left to get to Sydney. One day of riding, follow parallel to the highway and I’d get there by late afternoon all going well. After all this time the finish though wasn’t such an appealing prospect. Another day in the saddle seemed like a good idea, the traffic was getting heavy and I wanted to get away from it so I took some diversions. Instead I was heading east through lush greenery not north to Sydney but towards the coast and almost my doom!

About 100km from Sydney I nearly ended my ride (and other things) in spectacular style. I was riding down MacQuarie Pass towards Wollongong. The road was a damp, tight, twisty, a 500m drop in just a few kilometres – Fun but not ideal conditions for a heavily laden touring bike. Halfway down, barreling towards a corner at a speed far in excess of what was wise (the signs were indicating 15km/h) an articulated truck appeared filling the entire road. I grabbed on the brakes as hard as I dared to try and stop in time but there was no chance, too much debris on the shoulder of the road. I went as far left as I could, my bags rubbing up against the rock face and I still had to twist my body to just avoid the edge of the Trucks trailer catching my shoulder. It was that close! After letting the adrenaline levels return to normal I turned around and headed back up the hill a little to get a picture of the corner. Thereafter I took it calmly, keeping a firm grip on the brakes but still enjoying the descent.

The little villages and towns I passed through were quiet and pretty, and everything was very green. It almost felt like being in home, it was that lush. Barely a day ago I was riding through scrubby brown countryside suffering the effects of drought. Clearly at least this area was getting enough rain. Adding to the familiarity were the names of the places I passed through and the way they appeared. Sutton Forest, Moss Vale, Avoca, Fitzroy Falls all names that would fit right in at home. Not only that but the appearance of the towns, houses and shop fronts were decidedly un-Australian and very British.

Yass, Gunning, Goulburn, Marulan. The towns ticked by as I made my was over the lumpy roads, lots of long draggy climbs followed by eye watering descents. I’m being more cautious on the downhill parts, it’s only two days to Sydney and I don’t want to crash now. And by cautious I mean keeping it under 80km/h. Summer is fading now, it was pretty cold, and by the time I got to a place called Marulan in the evening it was spitting rain.

When I got to Marulan, I figured that as it could be my last night on the road before Sydney I could indulge myself in a treat. So I had a cooked meal instead of my own culinary creations. I’m not sure if it was any better but I didn’t have to cook it and I had a warm comfortable chair to sit in so happy days. I wanted to get properly clean so I went in search of shower facilities of which there were none. Darkness was drawing in and putting up a tent in the rain is just about as enjoyable as you imagine it to be. There was a Pub with rooms for $40 and feeling like I went to hand over the cash

As soon as I walked in the door, the barkeep yells “Well you took your fookin’ time gettin’ here mate!”. Every eye in the place was on me and a little bewildered I muttered something about it being hilly maybe? I didn’t recognise this bloke from Adam and I clearly thought he mistook me for someone else. Maybe if I had been less tired I’d have done better then just looking confused. He broke into laughter looking at me, he was just taking the piss, he passed me near Seymour a few days before on his way from Melbourne. Reckoned I was “the same fella because you’re wearing the same clothes and smell like it too!” I took a room and when I came back cleaned and somewhat revived he had a plate of chicken and fish with an assortment of dips waiting for me, on the house. I munched away watching some Super 14′s on the TV before hitting the sack early.

The towns of Albury in NSW and Wodonga in Victoria, are just separated by the ‘mighty’ Murray River. It may be the lifeblood of this part of the country but it seemed anything but mighty to me. The size of the river basin it has to draw water from is mind blowing yet in Ireland there are rivers barely a fraction of its length that are far bigger. Gives some idea of the depth of the problem, the lack of water is out here.

Crossing the river back into NSW the road became a little more fun to ride. The foothills of the Great Dividing Range start here so there were plenty of little climbs to tackle and the bigger hills are in sight off in the distance. It’s been quite some time since I’ve seen any real hills. After being much cooler than usual the last two weeks the weather was warming up again, into the 30′s again.

The smaller, quiet roads eventually gave way to pure highway – the disadvantage of being in sparsely populated mountains, limited choice of roads. So alternative routes were few and far between – not having very detailed maps – I stuck to the highway. I stopped for the night at a place called Kyeamba Gap, a big parking area beside the highway. I pitched the tent behind some bushes, a nice grassy site which was rather comfortable. It’s just about the halfway point between Sydney and Melbourne so all night long there were lots of trucks stopping to change trailers. Rather than go the full distance the regular runs only go halfway and then they swap trailers and head back. I got all the details from some of the truckies. Its a properly time tabled scheduled, most trucks were not waiting longer than 30min before swapping with their colleagues. These guys meet here all the time, one guy had the grill, another had the sausages and bacon, someone else the salad and eggs and fifteen minutes after 4 random trucks pulled in we’re having a full on barbie!

Despite the constant stream of trucks all night long, as soon as I closed my eyes they disappeared. I’m a deep sleeper and after a long day with plenty of climbs I was in a comatose state about half a second after I closed my eyes.