We are up about 7:30 – 8:00 – not early risers!

We pack up the sleeping area, deflating mattresses and pillows and stuffing the sleeping bags back into their sacks, before leaving the tent.

Breakfast is either rice with dried fruit, tinned fruit (as it’s easier to carry than fresh fruit), seeds and water and/or water or Greg will poach a couple of eggs each on naked toast. Whole milk powder has become a staple but butter is definitely a thing of the past!!

After breakfast, it’s back to packing and balancing the weight between the panniers, and packing down the tent. A religious count of the 20 tent pegs is done every time!

We’re carry about 90 kgs between us including bikes – probably 48kgs for Greg and 42 for me. Two front panniers, two panniers and a handlebar bag each and Greg carries the yellow tent pannier too.

Generally this will take about 2 1/2 hours getting us on the road around 11:00.

Our rides are getting a bit longer, our rides around 40-50km a day. Helped by the fact we are getting stronger every day, the length is dependent on road conditions, wind factor and next available camping area.

We are riding between 10km and 12km an hour, which is between 3 to 5 hours on the road each day. Not very fast for those road cyclists amongst you but riding with about a loaded bike of about 45kg each, with Greg carrying more than me, it does makes quite a difference. Definitely not the 1 1/2 to 2 hours a day I had in my head before leaving home!

We generally stop for a quick snack of almonds, dates and lately a piece of chocolate and water after about 2 hours riding. Jelly snakes are also starting to feature.

Lunch is a sandwich made on the road. Bread and boiled eggs with avocado and cheese if we have them, washed down with a cup of tea.

We stop at some wonderful places for lunch.

The traffic has been amazing – moving over and giving us plenty of room on the roadside. We were told at Fox the other day that the 30 cars that would have passed us riding into to Fox would usually have been about 300!! We are thankful for these quieter roads.

On arrival at our campsite, our first task is to pitch the tent and setup it up inside. Placing the panniers in their right spot and setting up the sleeping area.

We usually have a walk around to see the local area, with the odd stop at the local for a drink and more regularly than we should, a bowl of hot chips.

And sometimes there is time for a pre dinner wine and cheese.

Greg does the dinner. We were very thankful for our Christmas presents of the freeze dried meals in our first week out but Greg does a lovely potato curry regularly or sometimes just a can of tomatoes with veges and rice. We are well fed

We generally cook more than we need for one night and fill our containers with any leftovers.

Bed can be anywhere from 8:30 to 10:30 depending on the day. With a torchlight read before sleep and it all starts again.