Morning – 1 Apr 2017
After a good night sleep, I was on the beach at 05:10, yes pushing the bike again in the dark this time. Low tide was predicted to be 06:56, so I knew it would be some time before I could get good sand conditions for riding. The sea was very calm, a very slight easterly breeze gave me hope it would not be long before some decent riding was possible.
At 05:38 reach Woodside Beach, just as the first indications of a awaiting sunrise unmasked the eastern horizon. I had managed about 2.4km in 30 minutes, not bad for mainly pushing the bike. In the dim morning light, a friendly fisherman greeted me, with a joyful and flamboyant manner he told me this was a great morning for fishing, explaining he had already caught; one gummy shark and two salmon. I thought wow if he was doing so well then, my luck might change. What the heck, as I bid him farewell, pushed down on the bike peddles, I was riding. Maybe it was the karma, the lowing tide, the rising sun, the fisherman or a combination of all, but suddenly I seemed to have the best riding conditions in front of me. In the next hour completed 12km including a rest break to welcome the morning sun. It was a great morning and I was feeling fantastic. By 08:30 I had reached McGaurans Beach Road about 20km completed. By 09:45 the next schedule meeting place, Seaspray SLSC as the sky became a little bleak, clouds and light patches of rain move up from the south west. I had completed 30km that morning, having rode all the way from Woodside Beach. I exited the beach using the wooden boardwalk up to the Seaspray SLSC, exhilarated with the mornings ride. The SLSC flags were out on the beach and two life guards were sheltering in a car at the top of the boardwalk, rugged up in red and yellow jackets. I guessed it was a little too cold that morning for even the most enthusiastic swimmers, so I struggled to understand why they were there at all. No one was on the beach at that time apart from me of course.
Jo’s Report
I managed to arrive roughly the same time as Chris in the very tidy seaside settlement of Seaspray. A very pleasing and relaxing break, we cooked lunch and then spent time together looking around the town before Chris resumed his trek north again.
