Day ten: Getting the bike fixed in Goulburn

Tuesday July 14, 2009, 5 km (3 miles) - Total so far: 767 km (477 miles)

I woke up still in quite a lot of pain having dark thoughts about getting my bike fixed but still being unable to ride on to Sydney. Before that could happen I needed to actually get my bike fixed though, so I dragged myself out of bed and scouted around for a decent bike shop. 'The Greengrocer' (which was actually a combination greengrocer-bike shop) had been recommended to me by the motel manager, so I went and spoke to the mechanic there. He had a replacement derailleur hanger, so I wheeled my bike up, quite hopeful that everything could be fixed.

It took a while, but after he put a new derailleur in and put the bike back together, things were looking rosy again. In fact the bike rode better than ever. I guess it was just a $140 lesson to take better care of my bike (he agreed that the incident was probably due to the dry chain).

For the rest of the day, I mooched around, eating junk food and using the free internet at the tourist info office, while still feeling very unwell. The guys made it into town at about 4pm and I rode up to meet them at the caravan park. I was quite relieved to find that cycling didn't give me any pain. It sounded like they'd had quite a trouble free ride despite leaving very late without my nagging to get them going:P