... After Losing Our Way
Three months of excellent training in which we both logged more than 4500 kilometres on our bikes with no significant setbacks had us primed for our big ride across the continent. To take you back to where it all started, I had a significant rock climbing injury just before Christmas. I thought I'd just badly sprained my ankle ...
... but a visit to a physiotherapist a week later revealed that I'd also ruptured my Achilles tendon. I had surgery on Christmas Eve and spent the holiday week like this ...
... before having a cast and subsequently a moon boot on for the next three months. It became apparent that I wasn't going to be able to manage the big hiking and climbing road trip to North America that we'd planned for later in the year so, after finding out about the ride from Perth to Melbourne that CycleAcrossOz was running, we decided to train for that.
As I said, things were going along brilliantly. Then suddenly, just before leaving for Perth we had a major reversal of fortune. On Sunday morning we were setting out - literally - on what was going to be a last, easy ride before packing our bikes up for plane travel when things went awry 300 metres from our front door. We had descended our street and just turned the corner. I wasn't sure Di was with me so I slowed slightly and looked over my shoulder when suddenly BANG!
Di careered into me, putting both of us on the tarmac. (Looking at her bike computer afterwards revealed that she'd hit me while travelling at just over 40 km/h.) She did a drawing of the mishap, which I've made into a silly little animation ...
... but a visit to a physiotherapist a week later revealed that I'd also ruptured my Achilles tendon. I had surgery on Christmas Eve and spent the holiday week like this ...
... before having a cast and subsequently a moon boot on for the next three months. It became apparent that I wasn't going to be able to manage the big hiking and climbing road trip to North America that we'd planned for later in the year so, after finding out about the ride from Perth to Melbourne that CycleAcrossOz was running, we decided to train for that.
As I said, things were going along brilliantly. Then suddenly, just before leaving for Perth we had a major reversal of fortune. On Sunday morning we were setting out - literally - on what was going to be a last, easy ride before packing our bikes up for plane travel when things went awry 300 metres from our front door. We had descended our street and just turned the corner. I wasn't sure Di was with me so I slowed slightly and looked over my shoulder when suddenly BANG!
Di careered into me, putting both of us on the tarmac. (Looking at her bike computer afterwards revealed that she'd hit me while travelling at just over 40 km/h.) She did a drawing of the mishap, which I've made into a silly little animation ...
A little reminder (to Di!) that a split second's inattention at just the wrong time is all it takes. I ended up with fairly sore ribs and a somewhat less sore shoulder and hip. Things were a lot worse for Di, finding herself with a severely jolted right hip and almost unable to walk. She spent the rest of the day nursing her injuries in bed, and has been moving around very gingerly ever since. I was very doubtful she was going to be able to commence our long-awaited bike trip, and Di wasn't very confident either.
Recovering
Despite our doubts, we thought we'd come across to Perth and see how Di pulled up, as she seemed to be a bit better Monday morning and a bit better again on Tuesday. The hours confined to an airline seat yesterday wasn't very helpful, but we had a bit of a stroll around the neighbourhood yesterday afternoon which seemed to help a bit. We chose a location right near where our epic ride will start, which happens to be just across the river from the CBD, and I took this photo while we were out walking ...
The good news is that we went for a short ride together this morning and were delighted to discover that Di is far more comfortable on her bike seat than she is walking. She thought it wise to have just a short ride to get the feel of being back on her bike. To give you a bit of an idea of how very pleasant the cycle paths are alongside the Swan River I shot this little, impromptu hand-held video while riding along behind Di ...
School holidays are on in Australia at the moment and the weather just happens to be gorgeous here in Perth, so there were loads of people out walking, running and - of course - riding bikes.
After Di decided that some rest and gentle stretching for the rest of the day would be a good thing I decided to head off for a bit more exploration, and rode out to Fremantle and back via a reasonably convoluted route that looked something like this ...
Upon crossing the Swan River before entering Perth I was tickled to see the side of an old building painted with a giant octopus ...
I found many more beautiful, winding kilometres of bike path along the way which caused me to wonder: is Perth the most bike-friendly city in Australia? Being on our first visit to the city of sandgropers and having done only a small amount of riding in Alice Springs, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Cairns but none in Darwin or Sydney I don't think I can make a fair call on that. But, judging by the number of folks we've seen zipping about on bikes yesterday and today I'd have to say that they must be in the running. Upon finishing my ride I paused before coming in for a shower to take yet another photo looking across the glassiness that was the river towards the city ...
I found many more beautiful, winding kilometres of bike path along the way which caused me to wonder: is Perth the most bike-friendly city in Australia? Being on our first visit to the city of sandgropers and having done only a small amount of riding in Alice Springs, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Cairns but none in Darwin or Sydney I don't think I can make a fair call on that. But, judging by the number of folks we've seen zipping about on bikes yesterday and today I'd have to say that they must be in the running. Upon finishing my ride I paused before coming in for a shower to take yet another photo looking across the glassiness that was the river towards the city ...
It was great to find Di resting and quietly confident that she will be able to set off the day after tomorrow on our big adventure. I haven't disposed of the bike boxes yet -we'll ride again tomorrow and see how she pulls up before I do that - but it looks like she is slowly recovering and that being on her bike could be the best form of recovery. We certainly hope so. But please sir, no more crashes!
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