OCT 1, 2004

When I woke I discovered that it was just pouring, and so we decided to see if we could get the train out to Hornsby. We stopped in at the backpacking place again and posted a few more emails (again for free), booked our flights for November (to Tasmania and back), and then dashed off through the rain to catch the train. There we discovered that bicycles are allowed on the suburban trains for free during non-peak hours, but that we'd have to pay the child's fare for peak hours. Fortunately we were in non-peak hours. After a shortish train ride we arrived in Hornsby where the rain was coming down in sheets!! We tried to find accommodations and ended up in a small (overpriced) Inn but at least it was dry. I haven't felt so cold and wet in a long time despite the fact that Manitoba's summer was pretty cold and wet.

Then I contacted Kevin whom I'd met over the Bicycling Forums and we finally met in person. We dropped some of our things off at his place and he and his family fed us supper (very nice of them ... thank you!!). We returned to the Inn to catch some sleep before the ride.

We were trying to put mudguards onto Rob's bicycle but unfortunately they didn't work. Kevin has also graciously allowed us to store the stuff we won't be taking on our 1200K here.

It has been pouring buckets here and is very cold and windy. We had been hoping to camp here but unfortunately there's so much water on the ground and descending from the sky that it was impossible. So we ended up taking a room in an inn near the railway station where we will start the ride. It was much more expensive than I would have liked but it is warm and dry which seems very important to me right now.

I HOPE we will be doing the 1200K which starts tomorrow at 6 am. However if it is still pouring buckets and so cold and windy out there when we head out for the check in, I think we will be inclined to pass. We're both feeling a little discouraged about it all right now. We'd like to do this 1200K and Rob has said he'll be quite disappointed if we don't, but neither of us feel very prepared for it and this rain is just miserable. Rob does feel some better from his cold but still ... riding in all this rain wouldn't do it any good.

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