Saturday April 12, 2014

We woke up with rain on the tent, a wet start to the day. This was the first day that we actually packed the tent in the rain. We managed to get the tent down without the inside of the tent getting wet.

The rain stopped as we set out but, it was a very grey and overcast day.  The route was undulating, not too hilly.  Unfortunately, it rained on and off all day.  Only 10 kms out of Ulladulla and half way up a hill I got another flat tire on the rear tire.  We replaced the inner tube and found the nail that had pierced the tire – definitely need to get the back tire replaced as soon as we can.  It also started to rain again.

We called our warm showers host to tell them we would be later than expected.  I must admit I was hoping that they would say they would pick us up, but they didn’t and really, it is not part of the warm showers responsibility.

We got the tire fixed and carried on in the rain.  It continued to rain for the rest of the ride.  Again no photos of this day, although the scenery was very nice.  We arrived at Paul and Maggie’s house at about 3:30 pm, soaked to the bone.  Maggie was out playing her ukulele and arrived home about 5:00pm.  We had a lovely hot shower, and settled in with a cup of tea.

When Maggie got home she suggested we go out for dinner to a lovely little town called Huskisson.  It is on the coast and has some very nice shops, coffee shops and restaurants.  The RSL Club we ate had a “Chippendales” show on that night, Maggie and I decided not to watch it!  When we got back to Maggie and Paul’s, Paul and Ralf sat down to plan the route to Kiama.  Paul suggested a route that was very scenic, but was 67 kms and we still would not get to Kiama.  Ralf and I modified the route to better suit our new riding style. Sometimes we do not take the advice of locals, especially if it is going to be a hillier ride than we really need to do.  Riding a fully loaded touring bike is a little different from riding a light road bike.