Goal achieved.........a ride around the island

The one thing I wanted to do before we left the island was to circumnavigate it on two wheels. Not too hard to find your way, because apart from a few little tracks inside the middle, it's just one big loop of a road. Or a wider gravel-ly track that calls itself a road but is a bit gauged out in places with a few creek crossings and plenty of sharp steep hills (not one for the little old subaru). After a recent drive around the island after lots of rain lately, the roads were looking particularly worse for wear, which was playing on my not-completely-bike-fit mind a bit in the preceeding days.

Anyhow, goal achieved a couple of weeks back as a group ride to promote White Ribbon Day and PNG's new Family Violence Law, where domestic violence has actually become illegal (coming in line with the Sorcery Law where you can still be charged for sorcery-like activity). 

Setting off slowly and nervously at the crack of dawn (to try and dodge the heat as much as possible), I was a little nervous about my ability to get up all those bloody big hills. But 70-odd km's, 10 litres of water (and a few sneaky electrolyte and caffeine tablets), 14 very steep gravel-covered hills (having to walk up 4 of them), passing through countless villages where everyone seemed to be gathering before and after church (and for some of the more energetic of the parishoners, running alongside us and slapping us on the bums), and finishing off with a surreal ride through the blazing midday heat of the mine (at which point I felt somewhat delirious and asked a riding companion if she thought the brown sludge being conveyor-belted along the way resembled Willy Wonker's Chocolate Factory), we made it! Goal achieved. And it was great to see the island from a bit of a different perspective than a Landcruiser window at speed.