Day 60: Long short day

Last night we talked over delicious pasta dinner and homemade coconut cream pie before bed. I stayed in the most comfortable bed in the entire world and slept in past 5.30 for the first time in a while.

We had breakfast and chatted some more and Gay didn't leave for work until 10am so I mooched and we talked and I caught up on a few things. No wonder Lucy didn't set off early yesterday, the house is too beautiful and inviting! 

Thankfully it was a bit cloudy today and the temperature didn't get into the 30s until the afternoon. I only had 50km to ride today - and no crazy massive mountain - so I felt pretty relaxed about the day ahead. Silly me.

It took me two hours to ride the first 12km. The hill was so steep and I wasn't ready for it to go on for so long! I kept stopping by the road to drink water and eat snacks. My legs were tired for the first time in ages. When I finally got to ride downhill, I then had to go back up again. And down and up, and repeat. The wind was blowing fiercely and I probably don't have to bother telling you by now that it wasn't blowing in a favourable direction for me. I did go past an interesting little lake filled with so much salt and minerals that it looked crusty white and has been used by Indians as a medicine bath for centuries. Could have done with a soak myself.

At 1pm I made it to the swimming spot that Kevin had recommended. It was lovely! I crossed an old railway bridge, parked my bike and had lunch by the water, wading in every now and again to cool off. There were some Indian families there, kids jumping off the bridge, parents keeping watch. 

After my picnic, two touring cyclists rode over. The guy was painfully thin with straggly hair and a beard and the girl was chubby with dreads and blackened teeth. They both looked almost homeless in their shabbiness. They were riding around BC, fruit picking on the way. 

Two more fruit pickers showed up and parked their lawn chairs on the beach next to me, talking in Quebec french, smoking weed, hauking up phlem and gobbing in the water. Nice. The fruit pickers have a bad reputation for stealing and starting fires and I'm beginning to see why haven't met anyone with anything nice to say about them. Two more of their mates showed up with a music player and I decided to move on.

More up and down into the crazy wind, so hot and dry! It really feels desert-like here. The steep mountains are basically screeslopes with a few trees clinging to them and the valley of orchards is irrigated by river water.

I struggled on at 9km/h down a gentle hill and stopped at a fruit stand to load up on sugar and fluids before the last few kilometres into Keremeos. There were lots of fruit pickers about, almost all shabby-looking, some in a homeless kind of way, some in a hippy sort of way.

In Keremeos I spotted another tourer who didn't look homeless and stopped for a chat. Mitch is actually riding to a fruit picking job though so I guess I shouldn't be so quick to judge. He gave me some tips for tomorrow and set off for the next town whilst I went for Thai food.

The wind is still howling but at least it's keeping me cool! Hope it calms down by the morning though.