Another early start today - 5:50am. Main reason being we had a 300m climb over 6km first thing and we wanted to do it in the cool morning. We figured it was a bit like going up Norton Summit but with a bike, kit and water weighing in at 35kg so a bit more difficult - especially as according to the map we would encounter grades up to 15%. Turns out that was wrong (I could explain why, but as the elevation is derived from satellite it’s a bit complex) and the max grade was only 6%! But we were thankful for such an early start as we ended up having the best breakfast ever on the other side. From there we made our way to Tetebatu taking several detours to avoid the main west to east road across the island as much as possible as it is very busy carrying all the inter island traffic. We did have to suffer the fumes and noise for about 2km.
Lots of hills and heat but very enjoyable.