Some kind of eventful day as I took the PacHwy towards Taree and then Old Bar. Started off super cold, so I layered up thinking I would warm up quickly, but did not, not the bestest of mornings, with a sprinkle of rain too. I made up my mind to ignore the trucks, in a respectful manner. I think I will meet worse up North and some of the other parts of the trip, so I’d better get used to them and quickly.
The majority of the PacHwy today was OK, except I started to hear a funny noise just before Bulahdelah. Thinking it was a new chain noise, paid little attention to it, took the deviation to the village, stopped for a bathroom check-in and looked at the bike, to discover a screw planted nicely in my back tire. The sealant around it had done its job, but it was a bit of a worry as it stuck out quite a bit, though not rubbing into the frame. I decided to push on as there was no way I could extract the screw with my bare hands, when I spotted a car mechanic shop up the road and very kindly they helped me to take the screw out and plug the hole (the plugs, I actually had those!). After repumping the tire, I was back on the road. That was kinda lucky!
Marched on and finally got to the turn off, towards Old Bar. My long-time friend Christine was waiting for me at a servo just around there, with her MTB, and we rode through some gravel roads and firetrails to her house. A bit more climbing – and descending – to close off the ride for the day.
We went into Taree so I could get some new tires as I decided to replace them a lot earlier than expected, maybe over cautious, but the guy in the LBS was good and did the fitting so I did not have to muck around with sealant and compressors and sore thumbs. A quick visit to the beach and then back to Christine’s and Paul’s house for pizza, camping on their front lawn.
Christine and I go back a long way, when we were both rowing for the Leichhardt Rowing Club (in Sydney). We had many rowing adventures and some decent victories too. Very happy memories. I loved seeing her again.
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Surprised you you didn’t have a quick row on the Manning.
Awesome. And my love to Christine!