New Years Eve in Borong

​Saturday 31 Dec, 2016. Gurusina to Borong. 13th cycling day. 8 hours 39 minutes. 99.55 kilometres. Average 11.5 km/h. 1634 metres up, 1958 down.

So my Garmin 510 is my main navigation device. It’s designed for bike riding, and while doesn’t have a map as such, you can send a file (think Google maps when you select a destination) to the device and a little line tells you the way to go. Before I left Australia I did all my route planning using gpsies. It’s neat. What it can mean though is I trust it more than I should (think Google maps sending people through fields and into lakes). I’m not quite that bad but if I’d spent a bit of time last night looking at a possible alternative to climbing that mega steep hill I came down yesterday I would have seen that there was a road heading south, that would have taken me to the coast and flat roads that I could have followed, that met up with my initial route planned on gpsies. I think the road to the village was too small to register and so it couldn’t find the coast road.

Still, not unhappy about what resulted. I was able to test myself on a serious climb. I made it without pushing, but only because it was a) overcast and cool, b) the road surface was good and c) it was early in the day.

I enjoyed it. And, it meant a nice long downhill to the coast. A short sharp uphill and a long windy downhill. Good riding all around! 

Pretty knackered when I reached Borong after 100kms though. In bed by 8pm as normal but awake at midnight with the fireworks. There are fireworks every night on the streets here but there were more than normal tonight. I got dressed and went to the street to check it out. Big party atmosphere. Not for me though. Back to my silk sleeping bag and ear plugs please.

Happy new year! 

Thanks for reading and special thanks for taking the time to comment. 

It’s uplifting reading messages from you. Despite being somewhat isolated it makes me feel connected.

I appreciate it greatly.