Lost in transit

2-2-10


Difficulty- Sam 8, Shanna 8
Distance- 96km (Sam rode an additional 16km to pick up new tubes)
Weather- Bit rainy, bit sunny, bit cloudy...


We left Burleigh Heads at around 8am, and within around 15 kilometres, Shanna's rear tire was once again flat. Sam tried fixing it but while he was able to find the glass sticking through the tire (the culprit I suspect also caused the flat from our last riding day) we were unable to find the latest hole in the tube. To make matters worse none of the tubes we had left would fit on Shanna's wheel as they were both Shraeder valve (car valve) type, so the valve was too big to fit through the rim of the tire. 


So reluctantly I rode around looking for a bike shop (if only we had of had the GPS phone we just bought then...) I located a bike shop, and they had nothing so, I kept riding. Fortunately the next bike shop I found had what we needed, but they only took cash and I had none on me. Fifteen minutes later after locating an ATM I was back with some dollars.


Finally on our way again and we heard the dreaded noise of a tyre rapidly deflating. It was the rear again, but this time in a different place. We got off the busy road we were on, pushed our bikes through a big ditch and onto a patch off grass and started taking off the pannier bags, wheel and tyre. We found the culprit, another piece of glass, but this time it has torn a small hole in the tire. I had a spare tire in one of the bags, but it was a much wider one and Shanna preferred to keep the one she had, so we patched the hole, a put the tube and tyre back in. I soon realised that keeping the tyre on was impossible, with air in the tube it poked through the tyre... Off again came the tyre, and on with the new, bigger, heavier, wider one. 


We'd been given instructions from a couple of people of the best way to get to Brisbane without riding on the motorway. Shanna had looked at google maps with Barry before we left and we'd confirmed it with a man at a bike shop along the way (where we'd bought new tubes and a new spare tyre). After a number of twists and turns it seemed we were headed the correct way along the Pacific Highway Service Road, but up ahead we'd switch to the other side of the road. The bike shop man assured me that the road we would hit when we crossed over would take us to Logan Road (and Shanna knew how to get to Kristen's from there).


If only it had been that easy...


To start with, we missed the spot where we were meant to cross over the motorway and ended up further north. We had limited time until it got dark but we quickly found our way back to where we needed to be, after navigating an extemely narrow, steep and rock strewn back-path, and were confident we'd make it before dark despite the mornings setbacks. We found the road we needed... but it hit Loganlea Road, NOT Logan Road. We were lost with no map, and the locals didn't seem to know were we needed to go either...


We took a few turns down some major roads trying to head in the direction we though we should be going, but the road ended up turning into nothing and took us down a local street into a suburb we'd never heard of. In a quiet local street some children stopped and yelled out, 'hey, what are you guys doing?', 'where you from,' what do you think of this scooter?', and finally, 'are you lost or something?' When we answered yes they all took turns trying to help us find our way, and the shouting back and forth was getting a little crazy, so we sent two of them off to get a street directory for us. They soon returned and we wrote down the names of the streets we needed from the ancient book and were on our way.


It didn't take long to realise that one of the streets we needed had changed name and all of a sudden we were lost again. Angry and annoyed as it was getting dark, we were still a long way from our destination and I was hungry tired and frustrated, I located a service station to look up were we were. Luckily we were close to Logan Road and soon we were flying along in the right direction. In a light drizzle, with the light fading fast we knew we had to keep up a fast pace, and so with tired and hurting muscles we averaged over 30km/h for most of the way, with even the hills barely slowing us down. After riding through or being stopped at more than twenty sets of traffic lights (and running a few red ones) we finally arrived, exhausted and big grins on our faces at Kristen's to a meal prepared and ready to be eaten, just as it was getting dark.