The coast along this east side has pretty much no flat parts. It's just up and down the whole way, but I actually don't mind it too much. The inclines are not so large like a big mountain, so they're easily handled. However, I did seem to get tired pretty early on and I'm surprised I only did 60km since I was on the road almost all day. I woke up real early at 4:15 and the guy I met the night before sleeping in his car was also up. He offered to cook me breakfast which was super nice! Some eggs and sausages. We said goodbye and then a loa woman asked me if she could borrow my soy sauce for her sashimi, and in return gave me an electrolyte drink. She was asking where I was from and things, she seemed lovely. Her accent was sooooo country though, so she was hard to understand. After that I was just cycling along the hilly roads all day. It was a really hot, sunny day, so I took lots of small breaks just to breathe and rest. There were also lots of tunnels. My headlight wasn't turning on and I'd broken my tail light the day before (not sure how), so it was a little freaky being light-less in these tunnels. However, they were all decently lit and I had no issues - all the cars going past were quite courteous. Even one truck refused to go around me in the tunnel and just kept dstance behind me the whole time, which actually made me feel like they were protecting me. At lunchtime I made it to a port town where I tried the low allergen Mos Burger. It was pretty disappointing, but then I had some black pepper steak and rice on a hot plate from another place that was decent. I then got a coffee and charged my phone a little. This whole time I was almost dozing off, maybe a mix of lack of sleep, hard cycling and the heat. I had two little Swiss chocolates from an international store with my coffee. The coffee was actually from one of those automatic machines, which to me is an insane proposition for a cafe. Like, I'm paying $4 for a coffee with no barista???? You could never do that in Australia! It actually wasn't too bad though. At about 4pm I saw a cute little taco place along the road and their menu had gluten free corn tortillas available! I got three tortillas and a virgin mojito and talked the the lady about how her son plays the saxophone that was sitting in the corner. I told her the campsite I was going to and she said "wow that's far!" It was 23km away but also on the other side of three 200m+ climbs and descents. By now it was about 4:30pm. I then immediately stopped at the Lawson for a chocolate and I just knew I didn't want to do the rest of the cycle I had planned. That's when I saw a sign for a roadside station and decided that I would stay there instead. I found a great patch of grass to put my tent and chilled out. Then at 6pm a message blasted over the town speakers. All I head was "熊" (kuma) which means bear. I quickly googled the town name and bear, and sure enough there was a twitter post from just now that said a bear had just been spotted in town. I checked the location and it was no joke about 500m away. I figured I'd just hide inside all night then, absolutely shitting myself about it. All the others around me didn't seem to care. I asked the woman at the convenience store about it and she just laughed a little and said be careful! Half an hour another alert, the bear was still in town but now on the other side of town. At about 9pm, long after dark, I decided that I'd go to my tent and just sleep. I figured there were so many people sleeping in their cars here already, there were no other sighting alerts, and I had bear spray so there wasn't much I should realistically be scared of. I fell asleep pretty easily.