HEAT,HILLS AND BANDIT CAMPING

During that night in the truck pullout I got the shock of a lifetime when my tent was lit up like daytime thanks to a trucker who parked his rig right next to my tent.I thanked the lord that I chose to put my tent under a tree because heaven knows,he may well have parked right on top of me if the tree wasn't in his way.It did wake me up enough that there was little point in going back to sleep as it was near 5am and 20 minutes away from my alarm going off anyway.
I got out of my tent to find yet another heavy dew had coated my tarp and so as the sun rose I stripped the tarp off and spread it out on the ground to dry.Bad move!!Above me,in the tree were a bunch of very noisy birds who had woken up about the same time as I but for these guys it was bath time and they used the heavy dew in the tree to wash with.As they rubbed up against the leaves the moisture fell off in heavy drops onto,you guessed it,my dry tent.Bloody hell!!I had gone to all the trouble of covering it with the tarp and those bloody birds snuck in while I wasn't looking and soaked the place.Grrrrr...
After packing everything away and having a quick bite to eat rolled my rig out toward the roadside when I noticed a few small thorns(or Bindi-eyes as we call them here in Oz)stuck to my bullet proof, $130,you-beaut German tyres.I removed the ones from my back tyre but of course as I picked the one out of my front tyre I heard the unistakable sound of air escaping rapidly through a puncture hole.Damn,damn and double damn.Bloody Germans and their bullet proof tyres!! Not much to do now but to change it and why not brew some coffee and enjoy the clear morning while I was at it.
The rest of the day passed without incident as I contintued ever southward with the assistance of a very hot tailwind.I had made a prediction at Bluewater that the winds would turn around and the headwinds that I had fought for the first week or so would begin to help me.How right I was but to an extreme degree.The winter in the north had failed to materialise and with the weather patterns shifting around to cause north -easteries the heat began to rise.I didn't mind so much but the road temps did start to climb into the 40 celcius range and in the afternoon heat I began to suffer mightily.Around 3pm I started to fade badly and a quick look at my bike computer told me that I had just passed the 100k mark for the day.That was all the convncing that I needed and I pulled over right then and there and made camp.
The chosen spot was about eight meters from the highway but hidden by some very thick long grass.It was on that grass where I made my bed.I found that if I lay my small tarp out on the grass and rolled around on it for a little while,the grass flattened out quite nicely and formed a comfy matress for me to set my tent on.This became the standard practise for my campsites where soft ground was not available.Having the small tarp to protect my tent from underneath and the large one to protect it from above made for a very secure and dry little house.After all, I did spend a huge part of each 24hour period in there so it needed to be a comfortable as possible.The noise of the trucks however,would take a little longer to get used to.
Next day,I was off again early for the run past the small town of Proserpine which is the gateway to the famous Whitsunday Islands,one of Queenslands tourist meccas.I rode the 37k into Prosipine pretty quickly and stoped for a break at the only gas station on the highway.The heavy fog that had been around early in the day had made it a very humid ride and I was soaked by the time I sat down in the shade and had a coffee.I could tell that it was going to be a hot day and as I rolled south through endless fields of sugar cane the northerly winds blew in again and pushed me along down the highway.
That afternoon was really a bit of a chore as I soon became weary of the same sights and even more weary as a result of the ever increasing temperature.I still had trouble beliveing that we were having such a hot winter and could not get my head around the fact that it was getting hotter the further south I rode instead of cooler as is the norm.There was no fighting it though,once I rolled into some hilly terrain mid-afternoon I was toast,well almost.The last 15k of the day were hard but I had seen a sign telling me that there was a rest area ahead and so I pushed on until I finally reached the Palm Tree Creek rest area at around 4pm. I rolled in and was a bit pissed off to find that camping was not permitted there but there was no way I was moving anywhere.I had ridden 126k for the day and I was hot,tired, stinky and in no mood to pass up a night in this pretty park.So as the coffee was brewing I set about washing my clothes and hanging them up to dry in the stiff afternoon wind.
It was during that time that a met an old couple from Oregon in the U.S who pulled over in their van and started wandering around the bushes seemingly lost.I walked over and asked if I could help but they told me not too worry as they were geo-cachers looking for a cache at a hidden location in the park.WTF!!Turns out tat they spend their holidays touring the world geo-cacheing(trying to find purposely hidden objects with hand held GPS units).I can't say that it would emy idea of a fun way to see the world but then again most of what I'm doing 'aint fun most of the time.So,whatever floats your boat I okay by me.
Just as darkness was enveloping the park in rode a dude on a touring bike all kitted out like mine(minus the trailer).It was another long distance cyclist who was heading north from Sydney to Cairns.His name was Eduardo and he is a young Swiss guy who had already cycled through Europe and parts of Sth America.He told me that he once drove across Australia and promisd himself that he would ride it one day.Well he was hard at it ploughing into endless days of hot headwinds. I showed him where I had hidden my tent uner the cover of a big tree and he put his tent next to mine before we sat at the park picnic table and shared stories about each others adventures.Soon though,it was time for bed and we headed off to our respective nylon bedrooms for a well earned sleep.The next day,I was to enter what used to be called "The death stretch".