Chapter 5

Disclaimer: This story is for NaNoWriMo ‘08. You may distribute it, but entirely under the permission of me. Please leave a comment or send an email to jamie.spurs@gmail.com with the subject of NaNoWriMo for permission. Enjoy!

The next morning, spirits were high as they entered the restaurant. They were determined to do something constructive today, and decided upon a mountain bike expedition. This proved a slight problem for Alex, as he hadn’t ridden a bike in a decade. But he decided to give it a go anyway. The route took you across all terrain, from suburban streets to distant peeks, and riverside walks to crowded to city centers. The trip cost $400 each, which was about £116. They were going with several other ‘groups’, which all in all equated for around 40 people. Everyone was given an identical bike, a map between five and a compass. 

“Screw this”, whispered Charlie, and he removed the iPhone from his pocket and opened the Google Maps application.

“And no PDA or Internet technology”, said the man who was leading the expedition. He was tall, skinny and had long, thin, greasy hair. He was a typical Fairy Tale wizard in that sense, but his voice was musky, and out of place in a body like that. And he had unbelievable strength. Most men his age would find it a small miracle to get onto a bike, let alone ride on across the southern ‘point’ of Australia. “Now then, if anyone gets lost, these watches have a kind of distress signal. Just press the MODE button three times and stay where you are. One of our remote helicopters will come and find you. Please remember to stay in your designated groups, and I hope to see you all in the hotel at the end!”

“Well, he was cheery”, Tod said, trying to break the silence amongst the small crowd of people. Everyone stared at him. “What?!” He shouted.

“Nothing..” Everyone replied, each with a different level of Sarcasm in their voice, ranging from nearly none to the how flaboodle*

They set out along the mountainous road which overlooked the coastline, the sea air brushing past their face as if trying to finally welcome them to Australia. The boys were the longest to keep riding, until they took refuge in a bus shelter when a flash storm hit the streets. According to the locals, this happened a lot round here, so they’d better get used to it. When the rain didn’t stop they decided to call it a night. One of the shopkeepers kindly let them use his food storage room, but only if they washed first. 

Next day, they set out, but, after just three minutes, went back to the shop to retrieve the map. Alex had forgotten it, and, as punishment, the boys made him go into a store and buy a really girly magazine. I’m sure he bought WaGz Monthly, but aren’t entirely sure. The rest of the day was plain sailing, with the odd bip on the radar of awesomeness, but nothing too major. They managed to catch up with another cycling team, and found out they’d been third. Until now. They pulled a sneaky move and overtook them on the straight, and then came into the pits for a fuel up and tyre change. Only kidding. They’d overtaken though, and were now in hot pursuit of the leaders. I say hot, but they actually didn’t give two monkeys and sat down under a canopy to eat dinner. 

“Yum, this tastes very nice” Alan remarked sarcasticly.

“Quit moanin’, it’s all we had” replied Alex. Turns out a good meal was all the needed to get to sleep and within minutes they’d dozed off. ZZZZZzzzzzzz………….

*Apologies for the made up word, but I couldn’t think of anything!