I left by 8:00 am on gravel track. Instead of following the MRT on the levy, I dropped down to the gravel road. For the next 20 km, I had shade and protection from the winds. In the middle of nowhere. I didn’t see another vehicle for the first couple of hours. Eventually a truck pulled up next to me to ask where I thought I was going? They offered to put my bicycle in the back of their truck to get me back on asphalt. Tempting, but I declined. They also told me the bridge on the route I had chosen was out, but that I should be able to get around the barrier. It took removing some panniers, but I managed to cross, saving me a significant detour.
I had revised my plan from the night before to get to Greenville, an additional 30 km from my original campground destination. But the rest of the day were roads, large and small, with traffic ripping past me– nervewracking.
Moving off the levy didn’t even provide more shade.
Headwinds made progress slow. As an example, into the winds I was moving 12-13 kph. At one point the road twisted, and for a few kilometers I was moving 23!
By early afternoon I realized I was unlikely to get to Greenville before 6:00 pm, leaving little margin for error.
So I re-re-routed back to the Store/RV site that offers camping. While the bathhouse is meager, there are hot showers, unlike the last two.
It’s not much, but I spent the evening sitting on a dock at the lake across the street.
