Power trip

Day 47. The Gap to The Gap

We've had no power on the laptops or my phone for a few days, so we decided to do a 60km-ish round trip on our bikes to hook up to the grid for a while.

You may be taller than me, Nolan....

We rode along the shoreline dirt track for 12kms to Balgowan. Now known as 'the town that once was' AKA 'the town soon to be'. Deserted. Pretty much completely. Heard a dog bark and a few cars drove through. The houses were either pretty much dilapidated or brand spanking new and BIG! Definitely a holiday home spot. No shops. And with no cafe in sight, onwards to Maitland.

But my arms are longer...if I could stretch them a bit more...maybe...

It was quite a hill to Maitland! Not a particularly steep one, but a long steady one without a bend in it. Pretty taxing on the old Lily legs. Tim switched on his encouraging-sargeant-major routine for me and we were soon singing away army-style with whatever random rubbish we could make rhyme, to the tune of whatever worked at the time! Time flew, we reached the top of the hill, to find another hill. And another. Etc....Until we reached Maitland, 20kms later.

Unstable Cliffs. We've all met them. 

A lovely couple in the cafe let us plug in our laptops and phone while we ate baked potatoes, lasagne, two cheesecakes (one strawberry, one mars bar), coffees, chocolate milkshakes and juices. Sated, stuffed, a bit windy, and three hours later we jumped back on the bikes for the return trip.

Wheeeeeeee! 20kms downhill! Awesome! While it took us about two and a half hours to ride the 32kms there, we took just under an hour and a half to get back. The dirt track between The Gap and Balgowan is more sand than dirt, so lots of skidding and giggling, but we made it back without coming off! High fives all round!

I hope they've got erosion insurance

I asked Tim to make dinner as I'm a lazy wench at times and he made a magnificent pumpkin salad. He'd caramelized the pumpkin in the frying pan with red onion, camembert and mixed seeds. Yum! We sat on the dunes watching the sun set as we ate. Doesn't get much better than that.