Tuesday 23 August 2011

July 28: Gogama to Rattle Snake reserve

   Downey and I enjoyed our free breakfast at the Stardust Motel, then jumped on our bicycles and started our day. The biggest problem about riding these days was not exhaustion or dangerous traffic. Nor was it a sore behind, or even the fact that we were falling behind schedule. Lately the biggest problem for both Downey and I was boredom.
   We would cycle next to each other for hours at a time and say nothing, not because we no longer liked each other, but rather because we had exhausted every topic of conversation we could imagine. The problem of boredom was compounded by the fact that both Downey and I no longer had working Ipods due to water damage incurred in the many bouts of rain.
    When we arrived in Sudbury we saw a way to temporarily relieve our boredom in the form of a shopping mall and movie theatre. The day was hot and we used that as an excuse to enter the mall and watch a movie. If we were lucky enough we would be able to remember enough of the story line to recite to movie to each other later.
    The movie was a new Pirates of the Caribbean. It was ok, but didn't seem long enough. Our boredom was back, but as we left Sudbury we found something more valuable than anything we had seen for a while: other cyclists.
   Downey and I saw them at a touristic information booth on the way out of town. We swooped in like hawks at fresh road kill and desperatly grasped to make new friends.
   There were two of them, Andrew and Mel. They were riding for an organisation called Doctors for Doctors and were headed in the same direction as us. That was good enough for me, they were like family now and we carried on as such. It is my belief that both Mel and Andrew were as desperate as Downey and I for conversation. We talked for hours..
   At the end of the night, we found a relatively secluded area to sleep in. It was barracaded by a fence but in the midnight darkness Downey, Mel, Andrew and I just threw our gear over the fence and drifted off to sleep.

No comments:

Post a Comment