On a recent ride the big excitement was My First Snake Encounter. I had my head down riding into a fairly sprightly sea breeze and didn't see it coming at all, in fact, I nearly ran it over. Locals will laugh but I definitely jumped out of my skin...it was a big snake! (To me, anything larger than a garden earthworm is a big snake mind you...).
Whilst I didn't get a massively detailed look as I furiously accelerated away, having poked around on-line it seems most likely to have been an Eastern Brown snake and I think looked pretty much exactly like this:
A bite from one of these, if that's what it was, is not a good thing. Symptoms include: diarrhea, dizziness, collapse or convulsions, renal failure, paralysis and cardiac arrest. Wonderful. Fortunately for me this snake's cyclist eating days were over...for once a car had actually done me a favour and got to it first.
The sad thing is the area I've been using to train around had a major fire near a village called Little River last weekend. Deliberately lit apparently, which seems like a particularly sadistic thing to do. This one wasn't as bad as others around the country but still blazed though 350 hectars of land before it could be contained. I took this photo in the area:
The weekend before. Its so dry and windy out there you can see why they are so dangerous!
Anyway, am trip planning now for this years cycle tour which I'm going to do in Winter time to fit it round work. At the moment it seems heading further north is the best option but we'll see! This time I plan to ride with a bigger load and camp out more, so also thinking about kit list.
Grabbed these Polar Bottle insulated water bottles yesterday:
Which supposedly will keep your drink cooler for longer. Just had the one test so far and am not totally convinced the cost is worth it yet...but next time I'll stick some ice cubes in as well.
83km done today, it feels like I'm heading in the right direction fitness ways. Goal for the year is 10,000km. Or, 833km a month...27 km a day, every day!
Ace, a new blog to read, great to hear your getting out on the bike again dude. Im also in training for a triathlon and a couple of cycle events, going to france to do a ride with a friend of mine from work so that should be cool than a tri in May with Geno. Good luck with the riding I look forward to reading more of the blogage:)
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Hey Badger great to hear from you! Triathlon sounds a bit serious, I don't think I can ride fast anymore! Way to go...
DeleteRegarding the bottles and cold drink, have you tried filling them 50% and freeze them horizontally? That way you'll get a "standing" ice cube in the bottle, and you'll just top up the rest with liquid before heading out.
ReplyDeleteNot tried that Anders...sounds good. Incidentally, The bottles themselves work for a little while but obviously not 30 degree heat
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