The Road Less Travelled Pt 2

After catching up on some much needed sleep following the marathon car drive, it was time to enjoy the luxuries of spare time and sunny days. I am by no means an outdoor person, and I'm definitely not the athletic type, but when the suggestion of a quick bicycle ride to breakfast came up, I had my little bike out before anyone blinked.

We were visiting relatives in an area of town that I'm not at all familiar with, so when I was told the nearest cafes were "just around the corner", I was thinking a 30 minute round trip at the most. It wasn't long before I was completely distracted by the diverse scenery, from lush rainforests to dry native bushland, all with occasional glimpses of the ocean.

One hour later however, we had yet to reach anything even remotely resembling a cafe. In fact, aside from the occasional house, the only other building we had come across was a gorgeous little church.

Luckily nobody was in there, otherwise they would have found out the hard way why my bicycle is named after Gordon Ramsay.

We finally surrendered to technology and searched for directions on my trusty GPS-enabled phone, and it was only another (!) 15 minutes before we had finally reached our breakfast destination. It was now lunch time.

Fortunately for all involved, the lunch was definitely worth the wait and the view was to die for. Pelicans sailed by aimlessly, oblivious to the sheer amount of complaining they had so narrowly avoided.

It wasn't until we were riding back that I realised why one should never trust a man who says something, anything, is "just around the corner". Thinking I was only going to be in the sun for 15 minutes or so, I hadn't put on any sunscreen. Within a few hours, my arms and the backs of my hands were red raw.

Worse still...I had been wearing a sleeved blouse. Oh yes, the infamous sleeve tan. I could almost pass for a real cyclist. Lunch had been good, but not good enough to warrant an embarrassing month-long tan line.

But at the very least, I've learnt two important lessons:

1. Never trust a man's sense of direction or notion of time.
2. Always wear sunscreen.