We had another early start due to the heat. Today was the first day riding without half the group, though we do have two new riders – Walker and Carol – from Vancouver, Canada.
Unfortunately today saw the return of my inner ear problem! I rode with Brett, which was good as it meant I did not have to keep looking down at the instructions. This morning there were three boards of instructions, with turns about every kilometre.
We knew it would be hot, but it was going to be fairly flat. I had not managed to find a post office open in Venice the day before so had to fit the post box into my daily bag as well. With a bit of careful rearranging I managed to move enough stuff to my permanent bag to fit (lucky I had already sent some stuff home).
The first part of the day went quite well, we were at lunch by 10.30am but then the heat really revved up! We were riding most of the afternoon on a levy with the wind behind us so the heat was stifling. John recorded it as high as 42 degrees. We stopped a couple of times, once under a bridge where it was nice and cool, and then about 5k later again as it was so hot I felt like I was going to be sick. Thankfully it was not too much further.
We went into the town, found shade, had a cold drink, and hung around for awhile enjoying being cool. When we got to camp there was not a lot to do – put up the tent, washing, have a shower etc. There was no Wifi, and only one shower for all the riders but as we got into the camp last there was no queue. For some reason the owner locked the shower at 8pm, not sure what he thought we were going to do, all have another shower or something?
After dinner three of Gergo’s friends turned up, they play in a band called Matana, and they were playing that night about 30k away. They played a couple of numbers for us, it was really great.
Matana: Gergo is second from the right
Kaye's Awesome Adventures 