Sunday- Inglewood to Milmerra
Was about to head off to milmerra when i was stopped by one of the Caravan residents. He was a lovely old guy, we had a chat about my trip & he shared some stories of his past, I was about to go when he said ‘I would like to give you some money!’ I was like..’No that’s ok you don’t have to do that etc’… but he insisted saying that ‘When you look after your creator, he looks after you in return’ handing me $55! I was blown away because it was only yesterday I was thinking that an extra $50 wouldn’t go astray. I had printed off a bunch of photos of me & my bike for people that I met on my trip so i wrote a thankyou note on the back and gave it to him. He thanked me and said ‘I love to help people havin’ a go’. What a kind & generous man.
I had hit the dried fruit rather hard the night before due to a lack of decent fresh fruit and was suffering a little bit of brain fog & probably slightly dehydrated too. As I took the turn off to Milmerran I headed straight into an intense head wind,… another 70kms of this!?. I concentrated on performing each peddle stroke at a time and went to class with TonyR on my MP3, it definitely helped having Tony in my ear but today it just didn’t cut it. After about 20kms I was ready to pack it in but I kept plodding on, after 30km I was starting to feel woozy & lethargic (probably due to not enough water). After 45kms after climbing a decent incline I decided to stop & ring my cousin who was going to pick me up at Milmerran and ask him if he could come earlier. He was more than happy & after an hour or so of hydrating and resting at the top of the hill he appeared over the crest. I was feeling much better by the time he came but not good enough to keep going on my own.
We had a great catchup on the way back to Goombungee which is just outside of Toowoomba. Haydn who is the same vintage as my dad, told me about the old bikie days he & my dad used to share and how my dad had at least 30 accidents on his bike and I think thats not including the accident where he lost his leg!
I had a great sleep that night, the temp was about 15deg, which is very unusual for the area. I loved meeting haydn’s dogs too – flippy, chomper and scooby. Haydn’s son Paul had grown up since I last saw him about 15years ago! We had some great chats about fitness and health. I am really living my passion when i am helping people with their health, i know this because time flies and I take on this confidence that I didn’t realise I had within myself.
kms: 45
So Im here!
Hey everyone, sorry for the delay.
I will update the last days of my trip as soon as I can but in the meantime I thought I should let you know that I arrived yesterday at my mums place.
My cycling ended just before Millmerran where my cousin picked me up, taking me back to his place in Goombungee outside of Toowoomba. I have been feeling under the weather from getting really sunburnt and rather dehydrated that day which then resulted in too many nuts and dried fruit comfort eating! My body has a difficult time with too much fat & I am learning just how much I can tolerate.
I stayed in Toowoomba for a few days helping my cousin pick up some bricks from Coloundra (enjoyed the resistance training), we ended up towing over 3tonnes back.
The bad weather came over and blanketed from Toowoomba to the Gold Coast with rain & wind …. I decided to accept a lift from Toowoomba to Nerang where mum picked me up. I would be lying if part of me wasn’t slightly disappointed to not have cycled to the very end but hey I’ve done over 2500kms on my own and I made it to QLD so Im happy!!
It was so good to see my mum again and we have been busy catching up, Im looking forward to going to the markets on the weekend and helping her with her organic fruit & nut business. Im currently at her friends place because mum doesn’t have the net on at the moment.
Wow what an adventure! Part of me is like….’well what now!?’ I experienced a little bit of what I call ‘numbness’ because its over but now I am planning the next leg of my adventure….
Im not sure how long i will stay on the Gold Coast but its such a beautiful spot that it may be a while! Harley is planning on doing a solo trip on his bike from Darwin to Adelaide followed by the Adelaide marathon ! So not sure when we’ll catch up.
Looking forward to meeting the raw crew on the Gold Coast. 
Feel free to email me on ptlea@hotmail.com
Ok now to update some other days…
Saturday – Texas to Inglewood
Will finish this post later…
Friday – Yetman to Texas
Thursday – Spent a Day in Yetman
The lady at the Post Office in Yetman hooked me up with a lovely family to stay with. I was so fortunate (like I always seem to be!). A family of 6 just out of Yetman. They own 10,000 acres and are nestled right on a river. I basically had my own sleeping quarters, Sam & Jocelyn looked after me so selflessly even though they have 4 kids of their own! Jocelyn encouraged me to stay another day to rest….I couldn’t resist and I finally have a little sister! Claudia their only daughter has always wanted a sister and so have I, so why not? We had a great time making a raw cake together. I hit the nuts and fat a little too hard and today am paying for it but i had such a great experience and I don’t do ‘regrets’.
I babysat the kids for a little while, although they were very attached to the nintendo for the most part.
The net is about to throw me off for real this time so better run
kms: 48
Wednesday- Warialda to Yetman
Stayed in a Caravan park in Warialda, paid $15 for a peice of grass….but as the council lady was leaving she snuck over and gave me a key to a unit & said ‘I didn’t give you this’! Wow so lovely, I was nice and warm in there. I left her a recycled thankyou card.
Had a melon breakfast and headed off at about 11 towards yetman. Got to Coolatai, after battling some challenging hills. The hills were the size I actually enjoy and underlating so the trip went fairly quick, it was still definitely a workout! At Coolatai a ute drove up to me when I was munching on lunch in the local park, 2 guys said hi and asked me what I was doing. I told them & one said ‘Wow you must like exercise’? I said ‘yes love it’, he replied ‘i like exercise too, but making love is my favourite form’….I said ‘oh that’s great, im happy for you’…..He said ‘Hey chuck your bike in the back & we’ll drive you to Texas’….(yeah sure I wasn’t going to go after that call!) I think they were harmless enough but hey you never know!
I got to Yetman a bit over 4hrs which was good going and pulled into the Post office/corner store/bottlo, the first thing the lady said was ‘Your mum rang here last night’. That spun me out! Mum had delivered some yummy dried goodies there for me and had rang to see if they’d arrived….
Oh have to jump off as the net is going to run out, the lady here at the library donated $6 to my hour on the net
Im probably heading to Inglewood tomorrow then towards Toowoomba as Im going to visit my cousin.
kms: 87
Tuesday – Bingara to Warialda
Had a great morning helping Jo on the farm. We did some milking (although I don’t agree with the taking or the consumption of the cows milk) and moved the electric fence. Sounds as though everyone in the family and a couple of neighbours have had a little bzzz from the fence so far!
I made my fav breakfast – banana, celery and water and shared it around with the kids. They really loved it and Thomas wanted more and more! Its such a beautiful, light hydrating drink.
After an ultra warm send off and many blessings from the family (i could have easily stayed another night) I headed off at about 12 through town towards Warialda. Decided to drop into IGA and grab some melon as its been quite good and this time was no exception. Also cleaned out the fruitshop across the street of ripe ripe bananas for $1.50 a kg.
The days are definitely getting a lot warmer. The last couple have been ultra sunny and pratically no wind. The ride to Warialda is relatively easy except for a steep rise on the way in, ended up taking me about 2hrs.
I spotted a fruitshop when I arrived and found an awesome seeded (finally!)melon. It was delicious!! I asked the shop owner where they came from and she said ‘Down the road love’! Oh yeah I’m coming into the warmer weather and better fruit!
Well got to go, the kind lady at the library has let me on for over an hour for free and now its 5pm.
Kms: 49kms
A Day in Bingara…Day37??
Decided to stay in Bingara for 2nights, the family I am staying with are so amazing. They are beautiful & generous people. There are 10 of us in the house at the moment! But it all works so well. Jo’s son Brendan and I have been having some amazing deep discussions, I really love a thought-provoking convo.
I helped Jo on the farm today, milking the cows, chopping up pumpkins with the machette and picking beautiful tender greens from their organic garden for dinner. I have truly never experienced greens this amazing and full of life-force, I really believe its because Jo is so peaceful & sings as she picks! I really enjoy being around Jo and she has a wicked sense of humour. The family is Christian and before we sat down at the dinner table they sang me a beautiful song with my name in it! Oh it was so priceless I will never forget it.
I have to go for now but I am heading for Warialda tomorrow which is only 40kms away but apparently a little hilly, looking forward to a workout.
Ciao for now
Lovefreexo
Barraba to Bingara -Sunday
Woke up at about 730 (seems to be the time I naturally wake these days). Headed for the local IGA for some fruit. The lovely owner John donated my fruit to me after he heard what I was doing, he was impressed with my bike setup as well as a lot of men seem to be. I just tell them my boyfriend set it up and it does the job!.
I filled my tyres up at the local servo and went back to the caravan park then continued to fill up my belly with about 8pears while I watched Bob darting around from cabin to cabin. I have photos too which I will get up soon. I was quite full after breakfast and headed off towards this infamous killer hill….I was determined to give it my best shot. After about 10kms I could see it looming over the hills. I was told it was about 1.5kms long and boy it looked it. I ended up getting 3/4 of the way up which I felt very impressed with but I started to feel like I wanted to vomit & nearly fainted so I got off & held myself up with the bike. I really think I ate too close to tackling a climb like that. The last quarter I walked up (although my ego was complaining, wanting me to get back on) but I couldn’t I was spent and feeling ill.
The rest of the trip was mostly underlating hills except for about the last 15kms which was flat…beautiful I earnt it! When I rolled into town I was feeling very spent so I looked for somewhere to stay pretty much straight away. I came across the salvation army, it seemed to be the only place really open so I popped my head in and ran into Jo. Her husband is the minister here and he was giving a serman (spellng?). Jo offered me her lounge room to crash in as she already had a family of 6 staying in their guest room. Wow such a lovely family. I was lucking out a lot lately and really enjoying meeting so many new people. I picked my own organic greens and oranges from their beautiful garden….the taste is amazing! I wish I could give you some to try. The greens were so sweet. They also have plenty of other amazing fruit trees that aren’t in season at the moment.
Jo & her family moved here from Sydney and are really enjoying country life…here here. Anyway everyone is watching a movie so I better be more social!
kms: 70
Manila to Barraba – Saturday
Had a reasonably challenging ride to Barraba as I had a pretty intense head wind. It was only about a 45km ride but the chillout wind makes it feel like a lot more!
I pulled up at the local caravan park & straight away got chatting with the owner Bob. He is a lovely man who can certainly talk! After about 20mins he asked me if I wanted somewhere to stay, I explained that a cheap place preferably inside would be great. He said ‘no worries I have a cabin you can stay in’, I asked him how much, he said ‘its on the house! You’re having a go and I like to support people having a go in this life’… I was blown away, the cabin had an ensuite, tv etc and could comfortably fit 6! usually its upwards of $55. I was definitely spoilt. The weather predicted -5 that night but it didn’t get that low, maybe zero if that.
Bob tried to feed me but I explained my lifestyle & he was pretty confused but we got through it! Bob really takes pride in his park & he lived there for something like 17years in a little caravan before he bought the place. I really think he needs a rest as he is on the go 24/7 looking after everyone, he is a very generous man. I highly reccomend staying at this caravan park (will get name) as it is very clean and the vibe is fantastic thanks to Bob.
I asked him what the road to Bingara was like (hill-wise) and he offered to drive me up the first one 10kms away! He said a guy came through on his bike once with a similar setup & Bob drove him up this hill because its such a killer! I thanked him and was honestly tempted but that would be cheating and I couldn’t live with myself.
My speedo gave up a couple of times on the ride so my dial calculations will be out. Also I’ve noticed that the back tyre tread is coming off, may have to change that soon.
I have a bit of a rash of my hands which Im not sure of, maybe it is from too much conventional produce or a certain chemical in a soap I could’ve used as my system is very used to clean organic products. The skin is very inflamed, itchy and looks like I have been burnt.
kms:
