Coffs to Grafton

Our last riding day. We got up and had breakfast of coffee, muesli and strawberries, toast and jam. We read our proclamations and had devotions and then discussed some of our thoughts about the trip, goals for when we got home and so forth. It was a fairly slow morning – I guess we didn’t want to rush it.

We were sore from walking – we walked at least 12 K yesterday which is about seven miles. Anyway we began the ride to Grafton heading up through the banana plantations which were hilly but kind of interesting. The day was very hot and humid and misting. Sweat was just pouring off of us, hanging off our noses and ears and dripping off our arms.

The ride undulated all day long through fairly uneventful territory. After the banana plantations it basically looked liked rural America with rolling hills. We passed very few structures or services. We stopped at two towns – the first was fairly early on – a town known for its timbering. There were about seven or eight buildings – one a bakery with a very old oven for making bread. The second was at a historic general store in a town with about ten buildings – one the smallest post office in Australia. We found the dog at the general store more interesting. A black dog with bright blue eyes. We rode without our ipods because we were hearing kookaburras which we totally enjoyed. We will miss those birds.

Despite knowing it was our last riding day, and knowing that I would soon miss riding – I was getting really ready to be off my bike at the end of the fifty one miles of rolling and undulating hills. We arrived in Grafton and headed for the i-center as we were on a time crunch to get the bike shop and get the bike boxes before they closed. Everything was amazingly smooth – again God’s provision went before us – we know how wrong these things can go…. Last year we walked a couple miles from bike shop to bike shop looking for boxes. This year we get directions from the i-center to the shop that is saving them for us. We find it easily. The woman greets us with a comment about how we must be the travelers needing the boxes – she tells us her shipment of bikes didn’t come in so she doesn’t have any boxes, BUT she has made arrangements with the other bike shop and they are holding boxes for us. We ride just down the street and check with the other bike shop and yes they have the boxes for us and tell us a good clean cheap hotel to go to within easy walking distance. We go to the hotel and they give us a ground floor room (not always easy at a pub), they give us stuff to wash the bikes with too and arrange a taxi for us to get the boxed bikes to the train. We go back to the bike shop and get the bike boxes and return to the hotel. We walk to the train station and arrange our train trip to Brisbine… 2am in the morning. They agree to let us bring the boxed bikes early and check them in so we don’t have to carry stuff around all day. Very smooth.

We go back to the hotel and rest in the AC while it pours outside. We totally rest the whole next day until about 4 in the afternoon. We break down our bikes and pack up, watch ‘kitchen nightmares’ on the ‘teli’- a program about a consultant that goes into high end restaurants that aren’t making it and helps them turn things around– very interesting and some things to remember! Then we drift off to sleep talking about how ‘travel days can be stressful’ and preparing ourselves not only for travel, but re-entry. The next hours, which are really days condensed into one long day, will be filled with God’s grace and our emotions. We don’t know it yet, but tearing up when discussing the very fresh memories of our ‘together adventure’ will be frequent, as well as excited discussion about what we look forward to doing at home. This coupled with the very presence of exhaustion will make us rely on one another and God to make the journey home which will last more than 48 hours.