Flea The Race

 

Day	2	Date	10th May 2015
Distance Total Distance	46.6km 136.4km	Weather	Overcast, Dry, 16°C, No Wind
Rolling Time Total Rolling	03:06:12 09:07:14	Terrain	Mostly Flat
Climbed Total Climbed	232m 1,405m	Spend	Coffee 3.50 CAD Tea 2.80 CAD Sausage roll 3.50 CAD
Average Speed	15.0k/h	Sleeping	Kit & Devon’s Lawn
Max Speed	57.2k/h

 

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Today was an easy day, I didn’t hit the road until 10am then I rode 15km into a small town called Duncan, here I decided I would stop for coffee so I asked a guy where was good to go, he directed me to Coffee on the Moon a funky cafe in the centre of town.  I sat here for 2 hours tapping away on my laptop pretending to myself I didn’t have any cycling to do.  After Leaving the cafe I cycled onwards 20km to the corner of Shwanigan lake, on route I aparantly rolled by the “Hub of the Universe” named Cowichan Station Village, this is a pretty big claim and I guess it was the hub of my universe while I was there, I found a river here by a bridge that was pretty nice with lots of frogs which I finally got to meet!

I kinda figured at this point I wasn’t going to make it to Victoria today so I took my time cycling along, when I hit the start of the lake I found a picnic area with benches so I stopped off made me some coffee and cooked up some snacky noodles to keep the hunger away.

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I’ve figured out that trying to find a place to camp beside a lake isn’t going to happen easy as everyone wants to live by the lake, the lake is effectively cordoned off by private properties for most of its circumference.  I found a place on the map that looked like it would be fairly quiet so I headed for it, it’s a road that links the lake to the Trans Canada Highway.  I hadn’t anticipated a fairly steep 90m climb out of the lake so when I got to the top I was toast and ditched the bike, sat on a rock sipping the coffee I made earlier just chilling to catch my breath.  I was here about 5 minutes when a guy in a pickup stops by and asks if i’m ok so I tell him i’m just catching my breath after that shitty hill I’ve just climbed.  We get chatting for a minute and I find his name is Kit and he lives close by on a farm sitting on the South-West end of lake Shwanigan, he offered me a place to pitch my tent for the night and the use of his shower, first impressions said he was a decent guy so I gladly accepted his offer and before I knew it my beast of a bike was in the back of his pickup and we were headed for his home.

When I got there I first met his 2 dogs, followed by his wife Devon, then their Angora Goats, 3 Lama and Cat.  Kit and Devon have a deadly house sitting on 5 acres with a little bit of everything from perfect green lawn, hen out houses and surrounding forest, its really beautiful here and such a nice place to relax for a few hours.

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I found a nice place to pitch my tent between their house and the woods at the back, had a me a shower, Devon cooked a top notch dinner with creamy mash potato (she musta somehow known I was coming!), roast pork, broccoli and side salad with white wine followed by apple crumble and ice-cream…jackpot!

After dinner I got a tour of Devon’s workshop, Humming Bee Farm where she dyes and spins the Angora Goat Wool that they breed on the farm.  This started as a hobby that worked its way up to something really impressive, she weaves, knits and sells the wool that she spins, the colors in the room are amazing and the main weaving machine looks like a beast!  My little sis Emma would be green with envy.

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We watched a some TV before I head off to my tent around 10pm where I organised my photos and videos that I captured over the previous days.  I also took a recording of the night sounds which were awash with frogs chirping.

I got to say thanks so much to Kit & Devon for this completly unexpected experience, this is definitely going to be one of the highpoints of the trip 🙂

Time for bed….zzzZZZZzzzzz!