It's all so weird

Yesterday was the most godawful day. The bitterly cold wind and rain made the route so slushy and miserable.

We were managing 8km an hour on flat roads and reduced to pushing bikes frequently. The rain was driving horizontally into our faces and all we could look at was the ground in front of us.

Eventually we decided to stop for lunch and pulled into a little shack next to the road. As always, the poorest of poor shared their fire with us. Shaking with cold we headed out again for the next stretch which was only 6km but was another push affair along a disused railway line.

At times the wind would lift our bikes into our legs as we pushed. When we reached the gravel road it was another 2km of pushing into the 65km headwind and driving squalls of rain.

It was getting dark and Doug and I decided to stop at the one and only farmhouse on the road. It would have taken at least 4 hours to do the next 20km in those conditions.

The farnhouse was deserted but we found two labourers who ushered us into the tractor shed. While we were there Bruce and Greg arrived and we sat huddled over the brazier they made for us.

We had no option but to bunk down. Luckily they had keys to a room with a carpet so we were out the wind. But a space blanket and all our clothes wasn't enough to keep the cold at bay. We shivered and shook the whole night.

With no cell reception we couldn't notifty anyone that we were safe but we were.

This morning it was snowing.

But a breakfast at Brosterlea makes the nightmare recede and we are on the way again albeit it in an unconventional fashion.

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