We were up & on the road by 8.30am into some undulating country & then into one fairly big climb. Ray waited for me at the top & I though I could see California in the distance but it must have been a mirage. But a road sign told us there was a 4 mile downhill all the way to Port Jarvis... pure heaven!!! Cycled through Port J, crossed the Delaware River and entered Pennsylvania. Cycled on to Milford which was gorgoeus & reminded me of Glenbeigh. After some food there we headed South towards Stroudsburg. The going was great. The plan was to recross the Delaware into New Jersey & head 15 miles South parallel to the Delaware and stop at a campsite 3-4 miles outside Stroudsberg. Once we crossed the river we hit much more difficult country with a lot of climbing in heavily forested land. The day was cool which was a bonus. 1 hr later we came to a steep climb & I had to stop for some food. It was like my legs had given up. We thought we'd be finished by 2pm after easy roads. It was like I'd switched off mentally & wasn't expcting the more difficult wee climbs that appeared in front of us. Even after the food I still had to walk up the climb. Thankfully we went intop som nice downhills after that for a bit. Six miles down the road, according to both our maps we were to take a right at Milbrook which would take us towards Stroudsburg. Finally we reached a cross at a sign for Milbrook & took the right. It felt like we were on the home run now. However we just seemed to keep going & going with one big climb, I was just hanging on. Then Ray shouted to me at a Diner & said we'd all ready passed. I almost laughed & thought no f***in way, but then the area suddenly seemed very familiar. A cold shiver went down my back as we both realised we'd done a complete circle!! two hours later we had gone backwards on the road. The shock of that moment will stay with me a long time. Neither of us could belive it & we both said nothing for a few minutes and just stared at the ground. I'll tell ya the morale at that point was very low, I just couldn't comprehend how we had gone wrong!! It took a few minutes to get the resolve to get going again. The Diner was closed but people were working inside so we went in to ask what was in the area. After a few minutes of confused directions & a 2nd visit in to ask for water one of the Workers knew of a campsite on the Pennsyl... side of the river. It meant completely backtracking but it was the easiest option & we happily took it. 1hr later we were at the campsite. We checked & after an abortive attempt at a campfire put up the tents ate and soon slept.
The Diner was closed but we just then heard
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