I have an admission to make. I didn't take any photos other than virtual ones that are firmly in the memory bank. I don't carry a camera when I ride. Correction. I have, but only once. These pictures are from the web...yeah yeah not the same. And you could also question the fact did Emma REALLY ride Ocean ride or did she spend Chrissy day in bed eating chocolate and drinking beer?? I leave that up to you.
You can ride for 300km's in one direction on Ocean road. That's a heck of a long way. The idea was to have a wet suit swim and then ride to Appollo Bay. I didn't realise it takes so long to get there from the city. About 2 plus hours! By the time we arrived it was a little after 3pm. I suited up and went down to the ocean. It was pretty choppy to say the least. I was also still in a LOT of pain from my bruised/torn/pulled pectoral muscle whatever it is! The short of it is, I didn't get to swim. It hurt, it killed, it was not going to happen. The good news: I was in the water and the suit is warm! But the pain from breathing and trying to get through the surf was completely NUTS.
I stomped out the surf and sat on the beach and sulked for a while. With the sulking behind me I changed and Lycra'd up for our ride. It was now knocking on for after 4pm (okay, so I sulked and scowled a little longer than I should have)!!
It was a beautiful sunny day. But it was COLD. And it was WINDY. I was informed on many occasions 'it is not usually this windy OR cold'. Did not really help. I was using borrowed wheels that had a 28/11 cassette on. Now that is like driving a car with no guts but in this instance I was glad of the relief. It was still difficult to ride without pain. Staying in the aero bars with 40+kmp gusts coming at you sideways was a no no with the cliff edge just beckoning. And out the saddle was just to painful on the muscle. So I had to sit up and wait for it...just ENJOY the ride.
It was awesome. Scary, windy, bloody cold...my nose and eyes never stopped running because of the cold air. My riding buddy on hearing me sniffing and seeing the tears asked if I was ok. I quizzically looked at him and replied yes? Are you sure he asked? I'm not crying ya nana!!! I am just ******** COLD was my reply :)
And there you have it, that was Ocean Road. We spoke of going back later in the week when I was better. The idea to ride the 300k's and get a train back. It didn't happen. Probably a good thing at this stage of the game. But it is definitely down in my 'to do' list...next time maybe?
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