Day 73

Today was a leisurely 155km ride from Lake Albert to Kingston in the south eastern corner of South Australia. The Princess Highway runs along the northern side of the Coorong National Park and, apart from a few undulations, it was pretty much flat. The road surface was very bumpy, but it was better than corrugated dirt roads. I was fortunate to get up at 4.30am this morning when conditions were just slightly overcast, as at the time we finished it started raining and hasn’t stopped all afternoon. I was going to push on a few more kilometres, but have decided that, since it is Sunday and we have a media obligation at 5pm in Kingston, it is time to stop.

After 73 days on tour my body is still holding out fairly well. I have about six blisters from yesterday’s paddle and a small twinge in the lower left back which should disappear once I have my daily scan. One thing I do each day is start preparing my body for the next day before it is upon me. I make sure that I eat within 20 minutes of finishing each day to maximise muscle recovery, and then pump in the right ingredients to replace the energy storage used for the day. I generally let my body tell me what I need for each day as my taste changes according to what I have done on the day and how much I have been depleted.

Waking up each morning on this trip hasn’t been a problem. The last two ultra-marathons I have completed have been different and on many occasions I just wanted to lie in bed and have a day off. I believe that knowing this is my last ultra-marathon, I want to make the most of every day. Believe it or not, I don’t want to have a rest day as the body goes into shut down mode. Anyway, looking forward to heading off in the morning and hoping the rain will pass to have a fine day tomorrow. I hope you have all had a fantastic weekend.

Craig

Kingston

Winnie and the Hummer

Lake Albert

Sunset Lake Albert

Bright Night

Travelled the 90 Mile Straight

Craig and the crew are out of reception again today so CCIA is posting the blog on their behalf. When I called to chat to Craig he was off visiting some ‘deep and interesting caves’ with Mark, Petah and KT (because clearly he’s not getting enough adventure and excercise already!) so Bill Wall has kindly given me an overview of the day’s activities.

The team stayed at Balladonia last night and it absolutely teemed down with rain again. They set off this morning at 6am and Craig covered 250km before arriving at Cocklebiddy.  Bill says Craig was rocketing along on the bike and overtook the Hummer at 65km per hour… incredible.

The highlight of the day was travelling the ’90 Mile Straight’ on the Eyre Highway, Australia’s longest and straightest road – not a bend in sight!

At the end of such a massive day Bill says Craig and the rest of the team are well and feeling good. They are all living together in the Winnebago at the moment due to the bad weather and all is going well. Bill is very much enjoying having the girls on board cooking their gourmet meals, makes a nice change from all the meat he was eating with the boys on the last leg!

As there has been no reception today we are unable to upload any new photos or video but Craig thinks that they should get some reception tomorrow.

Don’t forget to tune in to Channel 9 on this Sunday at 6:30pm to see Craig appear on  Random Acts of Kindness!

90 Mile Straight