115km, 14 hours. Day started with 2 mountain portages.
Took 6 hours, that is considered good. The navigation in this race is crucial. You need to check and check again. One wrong choice can cost dearly.
The population density here is extremely low. You can travel for hours without seeing another person.
After our 6 hour portage we anticipated a relatively easy ride to the next support station, still about 70km's away. However, we didn't figure on a gale force wind.
At one stage we were walking down a hill because riding was too dangerous. One gust stopped us dead in our tracks and we had to lean hard into the wind to stop the wind pushing us backwards!
On the final few km's it got worse. While pushing the bike the wind blew the back end around completely behind me hitting my leg on the opposite side.
Forecast for tomorrow (day 9) is less wind but loads of rain. Not really the stuff fun is made of. Quote of the day is from Rohan. After coming down from the long mountain portage he commented "this really is not a route for recreational riders"!!!
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