Cycle Tour

Tuesday was our very first day of the Cycling tour. All of us went into the day feeling relaxed and excited to what we were about to encounter. But little did we know how tiring the cycle tour would be. Everyone in the group started the cycle tour very strongly. I was leading for most of the first bit and I was feeling very good about it. The road we were cycling on was very rough but everyone pulled through. At first I was unsure about if I could pull through the whole cycle tour but through to the end of the day I believed I could pull through.

Tuesday, 15th March 2011 

Old school house loop (20km)and Warroka loop (20km)
 
The first part of our full day journey, the Warooka loop began with us getting all of our gear together for the trip. We were given helmets and bikes from our Cycling instructor Pete. I was pretty amazed at the quality of the bikes and the helmets. They were very good. After everyone had measured up and has been given the bikes we took off around the wambanna area. On the way through our journey we came upon a old school. I was very fascinated by the school and was told later that they have all kinds of old schools like this various one all around the Yorke peninsula. We were told that these old schools were used in the early 1800's instead of having local and private schools as we have these days.

 We kept on cycling on. I was felling very good and strong about it all. I was very pleased with the lack of support all the kids gave to each others and the teachers seemed to be very impressed by it. It made me feel really good and gave a sense of "team" within the group. This was very good and lasted right through till the end of the cycle tour.

  The next leg of the 1st day of the cycle tour was of the Warroka loop. like the 1st leg of the the 1st day cycle tour, it was on rough roads. By now my muscles started burning and the mental factor of trying to stay strong was starting to come in place. I wasn't to happy at the start of the cycle because at the start I accidentally started cycling on the wrong side of the road. This then caused our cycling instructor (Pete) to give us the consequence. The consequence ended up being us carrying our bikes on our shoulders for 300m. And by the time we finished the other boys didn't feel very happy about me. But after a while they forgot about it.

 After the first incident with us all carrying the bikes we all worked well as a team and proved to the staff that we were a tight group who worked really well together. Even though some of the time a lot of us got too far in front of each others and were eventually told to stop.

 The Last part of the leg ended up being the best bit for day one. After cycling over big rough hills really made our legs feel it. The last part of the trip was us going down big hills which were bitumen roads. This really gave a thrill and was a relief to finally be going down nice smooth roads and down hills.

 When we finally got back I got off my bike. That was when I started to really feel the pain.

Wednesday, 16th March 2011 

Innes National park (40km)

 Today everyone started the day slower compared to day 1. I guess we were all feeling the pain from the previous day. We started with all of us checking our bikes seeing if they were still running fine. This was a bit frustrating because it took a while as quiet a few people needed to get there bike fixed. But after that we got started.

  The first bit of day 2 involved stunning views which many took photos of. The Views were just amazing and just showed the beauty of the Yorke Peninsula. After around 3 km of riding we approached a big hill. Getting up was easy but when we looked at the slanting part of the hill we were quiet pleased that we got to go down it. That was until we were told we would be coming up the same way. The view from the top of the hill was easily one of the most impressive views I have ever seen.

 The rest of day 2 cycle tour was very easy and relaxed. That was until we reached this long dirt road which had many many bumps which was so frustrating to cycle over. After we got past the dirt road we arrived at a beach. A few of the boys went for a swim while others wrote their letters and ate their lunch. It was only until later that we found out the the water at the beach was freezing. Writing the letter was a real challenge because firstly we needed to find 400 words to write on paper while we only had 1 hour to do it in. This may sound very easy but in real it was stressful.



  After we got up the hill it was all down hill and was a real relief on our legs.

Thursday, 17th March 2011 

Sunbury to Edithburg (48km)

  Today was the last day of our cycling tour and I was and I'm sure everyone else was very keen to get the cycle tour over and done with. I was feeling very fatigued and I was very tired from the lack of sleep from the tents and the amount of cycling we had done. One of the motivations of completing the last day of the cycle tour was the happiness and relief of completing the "highest gear challenge". This kept me going for most of the cycle.

  We started like the previous day of checking all of our tires. Again it was stressful and took a bit of time but we finally got going. One of the things that was special about today was I was the leader of the day along with Sibly. (More information on the leadership program can be found under "Leadership day") what was even more special about today was the staff gave us much more responsibility compared to the other leaders. We were expected to encourage all of the boys, keep them as a team and make sure there doing the right thing. This was another motivation for me, although at times it could be really stressful as people really got on your nerves and annoyed you although they were doing the right thing. Another responsibility the staff gave us was to navigate where we were going. This was good knowing that we had power to prove our selves to the staff but was very hard at times because it was a stressful responsibility knowing that if we stuffed up it would effect all members of the team.

  The first part of the journey was bumpy but all boys kept relatively close together and our improvement of team work was really starting to show and everyone was impressed by it. The first part of the journey was hard because some of the navigation was very difficult with sometimes finding the turns was difficult. The end of the first part of the day lead to us ending up at a beach. The beach was ultimately called suicide point. The story behind the name of the beach was about a man in 2002 who was a keen fisherman went out there one day and caught a huge fish apparently and was eventually dragged into the water. I found this story very interesting. There was also a memorial dedicated to him at the beach.

  At the beach we wrote another letter. This was starting to get very annoying having to write 400 words every day. And finding words was very difficult.

  After we had eaten our lunch, finished our lunch and played around a bit we took back off on the bikes. This last part of the journey easily summed up our whole cycle tour and really showed what we were capable of doing as a group. It was a real thrill.

  We started the first part of the last leg of the cycle tour as we had been starting the whole tour. faster people at the front and slower people at the front with a fairly big gap between all of us. It was only until around half way through the last leg was when our instructor came up with the idea of all of us getting in to formation. Getting us to form lines of 3. The aim of it was to get the stronger cyclers at the front and their aim was to try to absorb the head wind coming from in front of us. This would in return allow the weaker cyclers at the back to just cycle with no problems in having the wind dragging them back. Everyone obeyed the orders and we kept as tight as we could for the whole way back. As the leader of the day it made my job so much easier and really showed what sort of things our group was capable of.

  When we were around 3 quarters finished we had a quick stop at a light house. This light house was extremely windy but was just amazing to look at. The structure of it was just spectacular.

  After our stop at the light house we took off again down a big steep hill. Although this time we went one by one due to safety concerns of someone crashing into each others. When it was my time to go down the hill I was given a real scare. Due to the hill being gravel the instructor warned us to be careful because the bike could slip on the gravel. This is what happened to me, I was going down fast down the hill and suddenly I hit a dip or a rock or something on the hill and my bike tilted slightly. As soon as I did this my front wheel skidded and Just as I looked like I was going to sleep I managed to save my fall. It was a real relief.

  When I got down the hill after my little problem we all regathered as a tight group and we took off again. On the way to the end we approached windmills. These windmills were amazing and were huge. Being right up next to them made you feel so small. After our encounter with the windmill we approached our destination and the end of our cycle tour. We had finally arrived in Edithburg.

  When we arrived in Edithburg we got a few videos of us finally arriving. It was a real achievement in knowing that I had just completed 128km's in 3 days. But our journey hadn't finished there. When we had came to a halt with our bikes Dale told us that we had to go swim in the tide pool at Edithburg. I was really looking forward to this moment because I thought they would be refreshing. This was until I finally saw them. For those of you who don't know what a tide pool is. It is a big pool located next to the beach. The beach due to it location right next to the beach all the salt water from the beach flows into it. Making it freezing and salty. It was just horrible when we were told to jump in. But after we had finally got out of the tide pool we knew our cycle tour had finished and to my own thought I belive it really made a difference on me and I felt mentally and physically stronger. And I hope I proved the point to the staff and my fellow students of what I am capable of.

Adam Gwinnett