Day 21 Cheltenham to Walter Falls

Wednesday 9th June
Daily mileage 79miles Average Speed 12.5mph Ride Time 6hr22min
Total Mileage 598

Wow… what a ride… our longest so far by miles! Pat got up at 4.30am and we made it up at 6.30am. We had a lovely breakfast and was on the road by 7.30am. Pat was showing us some photos she had taken of a TV series that was filmed in her garden just yesterday! Its called Covert Affairs and it has the girl from Coyote Ugly in it and the bloke from ER. Cant believe we missed it.
As we left it was raining quite hard and demanded several layers of clothing to keep warm but it was difficult not to get too warm and start sweating. It was made even more difficult by the hills that we had to tackle for about the first 20 miles. Just up the road we stopped at Caledon Badlands which are clay hills that are a local tourist attraction and were quite cool. We took a few photos in the rain mean while our feet were building up a layer of clay so we were a few inches taller by the time we left. This caused issues for the rest of the day with the cleats on the bottom of our shoes that clip into the pedals.
We stopped after 18 miles at Orangeville in a shop to get warm and dry out with a hot coffee. After half hour we forced ourselves back out into the cold, wet and winds. We actually had the wind behind us for the first time on the trip and we relished it. It was blowing from the South East which was perfect. There is one main road the number 10 heading NE which is where we are heading but its busy with trucks and no hard shoulder so we spent all day finding smaller white roads that run either West, East or North so we were never really going in the exact direction we wanted but it was worth the extra distance for the quieter roads. This was made more difficult as some of the roads were unpaved but equally our ride was made easier thanks to the maps from Terry yesterday.
We stopped after 38 miles in Dundalk for more fuel then carried on still in the drizzle until we stopped after 60 miles to talk to a couple planting plants in the Rotary Club Park, they said we could camp there but it was still too early to stop so we carried on. After 70 miles we stopped on the side of the road just past Markdale for more fuel and a rest. As we stopped we got cold so we carried on for a further 12 miles into Walter Falls which is a tiny village but as we entered we came across tonnes of people wandering about.
There was a dinner being prepared in the community centre for the villagers and I wandered in and chatted to the bloke on the desk and asked if there were any camp grounds around. He said we could camp in his field down the street past the church and the 2 cemeteries and his is the only house in the road. So we headed there and set up the tent. Kris cleaned the bikes thoroughly with his hose to remove the clay and grime from the unpaved roads and then we relaxed for a bit in his beautiful gardens as the sun finally showed itself for the first time today.
Today was our first experience of long straight open roads that went to the horizon and further. On days like today it did not phase us as the wind was with us but we dread the day they are against us. We also noticed the isolation for the first time. As we head north it is apparent we are on our own for long periods in the middle of nowhere and it was quite intimidating where you could see for miles in all directions and could see nobody.