UPDATE - EASTCOAST

Sorry about lack of updates lately, just been relaxing and taking some time off inside my own head. Yes I know how that sounds, but you know what I mean. I can really feel the trip really beginning to take its toll on me. Though this area of Australia is really nice and interesting, the beaches are really nice, I'm beginning to feel pure hate towards that bike (almost). I think it's because my mind is realising that it isn't much left now. Only 732 km left until I'm in Brisbane and this journey is over. I cannot wait. Every bone in my bone wants me to push hard and get it over with. To do long days and just get north and cover the distance. But at the same time I need to explore Australia as well. So the plan is to do no more than 100 km a day, get up to Brisbane and then see if I can find some WWOOFing work on a farm up in that area. That will enable me to sell my bike, see the area and have no food expenses. Then when I'm getting closer to my return flights from Sydney I'll head down a couple of days before on the train or flying.

Anyhoodle, I had a great time in Newcastle with my new friend Marty. She was an amazing host and showed me all of the city. I even got to see a koala bear! So nice!

Because the wind still had a kick in it, biking wasn't too pleasant today. So decided to take my short day today and a longer day tomorrow. Need to get to a place about 5 km north of Nabiac, which means about 95 km in total. Fortunately the forecast said hardly any wind and sunny. Plus I've spoken to the couple I'm staying with tomorrow; the Highway have a emergency stopping lane all the way up which I can ride on. Which means I get heaps of space which is nice.

Also bought a new high-vis vest, cause the old one (which cost $3 on eBay) is falling apart. So now I'm visible and safe on the road. My phone keeps acting up, so had to manually track my progress today. Will try and restart it tonight. Hopefully that will do the trick.

Almost there... Almost there.

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Sorry for mangel på oppdatering i det siste, har slappa av og tatt en time-out oppi toppen. Jada jada, veit hvordan det høres ut, men du skjønner hva jeg mener. Jeg kan virkelig kjenne at turen har sliti meg greit ut. Selvom denne delen av Australia er utrolig fin og interessant, strendene er utrolig, har jeg begynt å føle rent hat for sykkelen (nesten). Jeg trur det er fordi hjernen min veit at det ikke er langt igjen. Bare 732 km til jeg er i Brisbane og denna reisa er over. Jeg gleder meg! Hele kroppen bønnfaller meg om å gi jernet og bli ferdig med det hele. Å gjøre lange dager, komme meg nordover og fullføre distansen. Samtidlig så må jeg se Australia. Så trur planen er å ikke gjøre mer enn 100 km om dagen, komma meg opp til Brisbane og se om jeg kan finne meg no WWOOFing arbeid på en gård i det området. Det vil la meg selge sykkelen, se området og ikke ha noen utgifter o forhold til mat. Så når det da nærmer seg avreise datoen fra Sydney, drar jeg ned et par dager før.

Uansett, jeg hadde det utrolig hyggelig i Newcastle med min nye venn Marty. Hu var en utrolig vert og viste meg hele byen. Jeg fikk til og med se en koala bjørn! So fett!

Fordi det var godt med vind idag, var det ikke spesielt digg å sykle. Så bestemte meg for å stoppe tidlig og heller ha en lang dag imorra. Må komma meg til en sted 5 km nord for Nabiac, som betyr at morgendagens total blir 95 km. Heldigvvis sier værmeldinga at det blir lite vind og godt med sol. Pluss, jeg har snakka med det paret jeg skal sove hos imorra; hovedveien har en «nød-skulder» hele veien opp som jeg kan sykle på. Noe som betyr at jeg får nok av plass.

Har også kjøpt meg en ny refleksvest, fordi den gamle (som kosta $3 på eBay) faller fra hverandre. Så nå er jeg godt synlig og trygg i traffikken. Telefonen min driver av å oppfører rart, så måtte manuelt legge inn dagens økt. Skal prøve å restarte den ikveld, så håper det vil fikse problemet.

Snart framme.... Snart framme.

A LITTLE PIECE OF NORWAY

Sjømannskirken in Sydney is like a little piece of Norway. You come in and the first thing you see is childrens bunad (Norwegian national costume), followed by a nice selection of Norwegian food and snacks. Nothing says Norway like Toro risengrynsgrøt (rice porridge) and Melkesjokolade (milk chocolate). And of course, the portrait of King Harald and Queen Sonja is well positioned above the fireplace.

Up the mountain we go

What a climb.... Today I basically hit the top of the mountain, 1193 meters above sea level. Up until now, I've never been scared on the road. Worried yes. Nervous yes. But never scared. Today I was incredibly scared. Why? Because of people's lack of ability to actually give me space when they can and the inconsistency of a road shoulder to ride on (and all the pieces of glass that was in it). A truck didn't give me any space, even though the overtaking lane on his right side was empty. So I ended up in the ''rainwater gutter''... Luckily I managed to get my feet out and avoid tipping over.

But all this disappeared when I got see and hold a baby kangaroo. The lovely couple I'm staying with takes in baby kangaroos that have lost their mothers in traffic accidents. It was so cute and truly amazing.

Tomorrow I'll be in Sydney in the afternoon most likely. Then I'll stay there for about three days, resting and sightseeing. Also going to the Norwegian church on Saturday for waffles, Norwegian porridge and more. I can't wait!

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Litt av en klatretur.... Idag nådde jeg toppen av fjellet, 1193 moh. Fram til nå har jeg aldri vært redd på veien. Engstelig ja. Bekymra ja. Men aldri redd. Idag var jeg veldig redd. Hvorfor? Pga folks manglende evne til å gi meg litt plass og mangel på vei skulder (som som regel hadde godt med glasskår). En lastebil ga meg ikke nok plass og jeg endte opp i grøfta. Heldigvis klarte jeg å få ut beina og unngå å tippe overende.

Men alt detta forsvant når jeg så baby kengeruen. Hællandussen å nydelig. Det utrolig hyggelige parret jeg er hos, tar imot kengeru unger som har mista moren sin i trafikk ulykker. Så søt atte!

Imorra er jeg endelig i Sydney. Her skal jeg være over helga. På lørdag skal jeg innom Sjømann kirken for vafler, grøt og mer. Blir så digg atte!

INSPIRATIONAL BREAK

Decided to have my day off early, because my body and mind were tired. It's getting really cold now and it's taken a toll on me. Because what has been my routine now for 4000 km no longer applies. Up until about Renmark, I would be up and on the road by 07:30, 08:00 the latest. Now, I'm lucky if I'm on the road by 09:00. Why? It's not because I'm having a lie in. It's because winter has arrived. Last night it was -1 here. The problem is that it's such a huge difference from night to day, that it takes a while for everything to heat up. So around 9AM it will be around 8-10 degrees, which is warm enough to start out in. Then gradually it will climb to about 15-17 degrees in the day.

So the new routine is to get up around 7AM, have breakfast, pack etc. and then get ready to hit the road by 9AM latest. Then I also will finish a bit later as well. Oh well. All part of the adventure! At least it's not raining, haha!

Did some shopping today. Got myself a fleece hat and neck-thingy to go with my mittens. Ready for winter.

Also did a photoshoot by the river. Thanks to my mate Patrick for being a photographer.

Now, it's way past my bedtime. I have to do about 130 km tomorrow to Albury. After that I'm heading north towards Bathurst, a few days off and then across the Blue Mountains into Sydney. I cannot wait! But for the next five days I need to focus on getting up to Bathurst, which is about 550 km away.

You just have to get into the zone.

Anyway, night! Sorry to tired to write in Norwegian today.

Echuca to Cobram 102km

Easy enough day today. Hardly any wind and pretty flat. Managed to get a good average speed. Was about 4-5 degrees when I woke up this morning, so a bit nippy, but warmed up.

Staying with a Warm Showers host. Really nice! Went to the pub for a couple of pints. Decided to have my day off now instead of in Albury.

Also stopped by the supermarket for a shop. Even after living in NZ I still can't get used to having pet food in the fridge section. It's literally two meters away from the meat we humans eat. Weird Aussies...

Anyhoodle, really tired and it's late, so only a very short post tonight.

Kerang to Echuca 97 km

I've decided to start writing my posts in both English and Norwegian. Why you might think. Though most Norwegians can understand and speak English fairly well, there are some that aren't too steady with it. Besides, I'm aiming to become the first Norwegian to cross Australia, so should maybe write in Norwegian as well.

Rull ned for norsk.

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 YES! I've done over 4000km (2485 miles)! Only about 1900 km to go. Yay, haha! Well at least I'm way past halfway. Best way to look at it. My only focus now is to get to Sydney before winter really kicks in and there's ice and frost.

You can find all my workouts by clicking on the Endomondo logo on the right hand side.

Felt a lot better today after a good night sleep complete with ibuprofen for my wisdom teeth (did wonders). The wind was also less today, which did help. AND I found a "bypass" which took me of the highway half the day. Quite nice to be honest, getting away from all the trucks. The wind had its gusts here and there, but still less than yesterday. Checked the stats, it was an average of 18 km/h winds (with gusts around 20 km/h) between 12 and 2PM. No wonder I had a hard time battling that headwind!

I'm back into New South Wales for a few hours now. Will cross back into Victoria after about 30 km.

This is my route tomorrow; Echuca (West) to Cobram (East). I've managed to find a (sealed) route which don't go on the highway, well hardly anyway. So I'll start off by going past the national parks and then into diary country. So many cows today. All you could smell was cow shit.

Then tomorrow I'm staying one night (possibly two) with a Warm Showers host. Tonight I'm staying at a caravan park. A bit pricey today, $28, but that's because it's a Steam Engine festival (yes) on in Echuca. The forecast said possible showers in the afternoon/early evening and sure enough, the heavens just opened up a bit. Hopefully that means the clouds will stay a bit longer, making it a bit warmer at night and in the morning.

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Da tek med det på norsk au! Vurderte et halvt sekund om jeg skulle skrive på nynorsk for moro skyld, men så kom jeg på hvor bra det gikk på ungdomsskolen og VGS. Som sagt, skal jeg prøve å bruke mere norsk på bloggen (og Facebook) slik at de som ikke er så stødig i engelsk alikevel kan få med seg oppdatering. Dere får unnkylde eventuelle skrivefeil eller rare ordvalg i starten. Merker at norsken sitter litt dypt inne etter å ha bodd i det store utland såppass lenge. Oh shit it's på norsk som de sa i The Julekalender på TV2. Ord jeg slter med blir innimellom merka med (?). Rett i vei.

JADDA!! Da har jeg sykla over 4000km! Bare rundt 1900 km igjen. Haha! Vel jeg er ihvertfall over halvveis. Beste måten å tenke på. Mitt eneste fokus nå er å komma meg til Sydney før vinteren virkelig setter inn og det er is og frost.

Du kan finne alle med treningsøkter (?) ved å klikke på Endomondo logoen på høyre side.

Ting føltes mye bedre idag etter en god natts søvn og en ibux for visdomstanna. Var mindre vind idag i forhold til igår, men fortsatt godt med trekk rundt øra. Og jeg fant en slik en sidevei som tok meg av highway'n halvparten av dagen. Digg med litt fri fra alle de lastebilene og campingvognene for å værra ærlig. Var et par kraftige vindpust her og der, men ikke på langt nær så ille som igår. Sjekka statestikken fra gårdsdagen; det var et snitt på 18 km/t vind med et par vindkast rundt en 20 km/t mellom klokka 12 og 14. Æ'kke rart jeg sleit litt da.

Tatt en liten snipptur inn til New South Wales, men tilbake i Victoria imorra etter en 30 km. (For de som ikke veit det; Australia er delt inn i stater og terretorier, som omtrent er sine egne land. Western Australia, South Australia, Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria og Tasmania. Alle har sin egen interne regjering, utdanningssystem, helse osv. osv. I tillegg så har bare enkelte stater sommertid, resten vil ikke. På mange måter veldig likt USA, men istedenfor 50 stater, har de bare 8. Håpløst og tullete organisering av et land spør du meg. Enten burde de være fullstendig uavhengig eller så burde de være et land, med like systemer.)

Detta er ruta mit imorra; Echuca (vest) til Cobram (øst). Jeg har klart å finne en (asfaltert) rute som ikke går via hovedveien (det var det norske ordet for highway ja! Den satt godt inne). Så starter med å sykle mellom to national parker og ut på landet blant kyra. Så mange kuer idag. Lukta kudritt hele veien.

Imorra skal jeg sove en natt (kanskje to) med en vert (?) fra Warm Showers sida. I natt tilbringes i en camping park. Litt dyrt idag, $28/155kr, men det er grunnet den årlige Steam Engine festival (kødder ikke) her i Echuca. Værmeldinga sa også at vi kunne vente en liten skur seint på ettermidagen/tidlig kveld og sant nok, i skrivende stund kom det er par droper. Forhåpentligvis betyr det at skydekke blir litt lenger og varmer holder seg her. For det er bikkjekaldt om morran nå!

Mildura to Boundry Bend 133 km

Morning fog... I kid you not, you couldn't see further than 150-200 meters at most. Luckily it cleared around 10AM. It was FREEZING today though! Hopefully I'll get to warmer places soon.

True true! Stop revive survive. I normally try to stop and have some food/snack every 25 km. Feels heaps better that way. Then if I have a long day I stop for a while around lunchtime.

My two least favourite words... They're everywhere in Australia. To save some money they might as well just put up one sign at each international airport "Australia is under construction. Expect roadwork". Also one thing I noticed when I crossed into New South Wales for a short while today; Victoria spends more money on their country roads!

Staying in Boundry Bend for the night, which means I only have a short 89 km to do tomorrow.

Check out the view of Murray river. Aww!

Decided to buy a meal tonight. Chicken burger with "the lot" (cheese, salad, beetroot, egg and salad) + a pile of chips = $6.95 (£3.50/32kr) BARGAIN!

So tomorrow I've only got 89km to do to Swan Hill, where I'll be staying with another Couch Surfer. So plan to sleep at bit extra tomorrow. One because I can and two because it's really cold in the mornings now.

Anyhoodle, going good!