How good is a tailwind! Foul moods, sore bums, aching shoulders all seemed to disappear with a gentle shove on the shoulder from the wind gods, with both pelotons arriving in Brewarrina almost half an hour ahead of schedule.
The morning started with a bus ride courtesy of our friends at NRC Buslines from lightniong Ridge back to the Barwon Inn at Walgett, where a pit stop that would have made any F1 team proud had 26 riders on bikes in less than 10 minutes!
The front peloton were swapping turns, practicing the rotation signalling and had a crack at a pace line, averaging over 35km/hour for the 126 km leg. The second peloton was reported to have cracked the 30 km/hr barrier and allegedly played a game of charades.
We were welcomed into Brewarrina to cool drinks sandwiches and a hologram of Bradley Hardy telling us some of the local history. After a quick dip in the local we then got to meet the real Bradley Hardy, and boy is he impressive. He gave us a tour of the BREWARRINA ABORIGINAL CULTURAL MUSEUM where he managed to bring the whole exhibit to life. And what might easily be mistaken for a bunch of rocks in the bottom of the river turns out to be an extremely efficient and effective fish trap that supported a community of several thousand people. You should visit Brewarrina just to see this!
We had a quick visit from some local kids, and Sara Carrigan pulled out the shiny gold medal and put some very strong arguments forward for them to have a crack at cycling!
Tonight we are bunking down in the Community Youth Centre in swags and on blow up mattresses, a more communal experience for all.
Washing has been done, a couple of riders may be receiving fines, the use of highly sophisticated performance bikes as clothes lines is completely unacceptable!
Big Jimmy has been busy lubing the hinges on the squeaky mens toilet doors in anticipation that some of our more elderly prostate challenged riders might be making frequent visits, he has even taped a paper coffee cup to the top of the door to stop it slamming!
