Leaving Gladstone we rode south into the (what I thought was freezing) cold head wind.

We stopped at Georgetown, 11km (that felt like 100km) from Gladstone.

Talking to Suede about how cold it was and how far it felt like we had travelled, his puzzled expression told me the experience of our morning ride was very different.

I was SLOW! I was finding it hard. It had taken us well over an hour to do 10km. With another 70km to Clare and the time reading 12 noon, there was no hope to make Clare. I felt rubbish! Recovering injuries and energy levels have been slowly growing issues. Throw in a day of strong head winds and getting rained on and these problems quickly surface.

It was decided – we had to get a ride. But in a quiet town, with little to no one passing through, who? None other than Patrick the postman, that’s who!

What a ride! It was like a secret postman’s insight tour. He explained not so common facts of the land we passed, we saw the backstreets of his post route and he pointed out fancy letterboxes on the way. He even told us of the weird and wonderful things he delivers in the post (including sedated honey bees).

This was by far better than any tour bus I’ve been on!

He dropped us half way to Clare.  When we made in to Clare, were pretty quick to get settled.

The postman saved the day!