The heavens opened briefly in quite a heavy shower but it was over in 20 minutes. Hopefully the rain has eased stress on the local fire service. I had plenty of time for a good breakfast and enjoyed relaxing by the river waiting for the boat.
There was a boy in wheelchair who had cerebral palsy and was clearly super excited to go on the boat...the crew all knew him and he was treated like royalty..awesome work from his accompanying Dad.
Its a gentle cruise as the fairly slow boat has a complex route around mangroves, sandbars and rock walls...and very pleasant way to pass the time as I watched a seagull skillfully surf the cushion of air in front of the bow..with not a care in the world. The website for the NSW coastal cycle warned about the road ahead today...and so when we docked at Iluka I was very reluctant indeed to get going.
First up things were great, the rural road east is quite tight for space but is lovely riding through the bush. Apparently there are emu's here, but I wasn't lucky enough to spot one. Once hitting the highway...things rapidly turned to custard. Massive works are ongoing here on the upgrade. Both the northbound and southbound traffic was funneled into 2 narrow lanes with nothing separating them and an 80km speed limit. There was a patchy shoulder usually less than a foot wide and often with loose stones and debris. Total death trap I believe..but there is no detour around this. To makes things worse, the northerly kicked in here as well, and I don't like having low speeds in situations like this because you can be exposed in blind spots longer, such as on a crest.
Occasional passing bays were the only relief...I just hoped the works were not this bad the whole way, but they were...all 30ish km to Woodburn.
In the town I felt beaten from concentrating on watching my rear mirror. This kind of cycling is too risky for me...I don't think I would have done this tour knowing this information. Sitting outside a cafe utterly deflated and scared, 3 different groups of people came up to ask what I was doing. "Don't you think this is dangerous?" ummm...Yes. "You could get killed?" ...yup. One Dutch(?) guy actually offered to give me a lift. The interaction that really got to me though was a story a local told me about how she nearly killed a cyclist when she came barreling round a blind corner on a rural road that she knew 'like the back of my hand' at 110km/h. After screaming to a stop behind him apparently he wasn't very impressed and things got heated...she then said something about him being lucky she didn't set his dogs on him. I'm still not sure why she felt the the need to stop and tell this story to a stranger, but it wasn't out of kindness this time.
North of Woodend the road is also pretty hairy, thankfully there is an option to get off the highway here along River Drive and then using another ferry to connect to Ballina. Its exposed to the wind...but safe, albeit a touch wind/sun burnt. It was a massive relief to get to Ballina otherwise in one piece. I had a good chat to my wife and felt better afterwards, without going into too much detail on what had transpired today playing in traffic.
Ballina is effectively an island, and a wonderful spot even if the area has a more bogan feel too it. Tomorrow is a new day...there are some amazing bike paths to ride on, and hopefully no more highway roadworks!
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