After my breakfast with Paul and Judy I hopped on the old bike and headed down a misty highway thankfull that I had made the stop at Waverley Creek.It had been a treat and set my mind in the right place for the second half of the "death stretch",the 170k south to Rockhampton.Unfortunately the weather had other ideas and I only lasted 10k before the fog closed in again and it became much too dangerous to ride.I know that the trucks appreciated the fact that I had pulled over as many of them gave thier horns a little honk and waved at me as they thundered by.
I was on the side of the road for about 40 minutes and managed to squeeze in a little nap as well as snapping a few shots of stuff looking weird in the mist.It really in pretty funny to think that I now think nothing of lying in the dirt on the side of the road with my helmet as a pillow and catching a few comfy moments of peacefull sleep.I guess we can adapt to just about anything when we are challenged enough,I just think there is not enough personal challenging going on in our modern world.That is a sad state of affairs as I just know how much people could achieve if they just let go of some of our modern notions and just tried to experience life outside the co
mfort zone.
Once the fog lifted and I was on the road the temperature started to climb for yet another day.Yes,I had a tailwind but the heat,combined with the dry landscape that I was riding through made for a tough old day.The first little milestone for the day was to make it the the Marlborough turnoff some 60k away by lunchtime. I did it without too much trouble but I did regret not starting the day with more water on board.By the time I reached the little truckstop a couple of kilometers past the turnoff I was out of water and feeling a little dehydrated.Thankfully the non-potable water at this place tasted better than all the other "not for human consumption" fluids I had been drinking for the last ten days or so.I figured that they just put those signs up to encourage people to buy bottled water.I also figure that we are all going a bit soft and that there is nothing wrong with drinking bore water.Mind you,if you saw what the inside of my water-bottles looked like you would give no respect for anything I have to say on the topic of safe food preparation practices. After a lunch of my special muesli mix and a curry pie from the truck stop I refilled all my bottles with the dodgy bore water and set off again into the Queensland heat.
That afternoon was a tough one and the combination of increasing heat and decreasing road surface to ride on stopped me in my tracks at about 4pm.I was just sick of fighting for my tiny little bit of highway.The shoulder was almost non existant and in my increasingly fatigued state I really found it hard to keep my bike on the road.As I crested another of the many hills I climbed that day I was lucky enough to spy a nice clear area off to the right,down a little railway access road.It wan't perfect but I didn't care,I just did my little tarp roll over some more long grass and set up camp.I had ridden 109k that day and just down the road I could see the 60k marker for Rockhampton.That would be m
y target for lunch the next day but dinner that night was the priority and it wasn't long before my little stove was heating up a big pot of pasta for me to inhale before settling back for a nice cup of coffee and a most beautiful sunset.
In spite of the non-stop train traffic I had a peacefull nights sleep and woke to a chilly,foggy and very damp morning.I packed up camp and headed off down the road as soon as I figured it was clear enough for the trucks to see me.It was the first day that I needed to wear my full fingered gloves and I wondered if that would become the norm as I slowly rode my way south and out of the tropics.
The ride into Rockhampton was a pretty easy one and as expected the road surface
improved the closer I got to Queenslands cattle capital.I rolled through town as fast as the horrendous traffic would let me and I was thankfull that there was a nice city bypass for me to follow as it made leaving town a whole lot easier.I did have a couple of close calls with a convoy of semi-trailers crossing a bridge or two and also had to deal with a few local idiots who thought cutting me off would be a fun thing to do.I've survived worse though and just brushed it all off as stuff that you have to put up with,anyway it was time for lunch and my belly didn't care what was happening to rest of my body,it wanted attention.I pulled into a big roadhouse and sat down to a sandwich and a couple of coffees much to the disgust of an elderly couple sitting not to far away.I guess I did stink a bit.
It was a long lunch as I figure I would make my planned stop at Raglan about 50k away quite easily.I figured that there was no rush and I even managed to fire off a few smart comments on Facebook and check out the state of the triathlon world on Slowtwitch.I knew though that I should not delay too long and after a quick chat and a small donation to the surf lifesavers selling raffle tickets outside the truckstop I was on my way again very,very happy to be south of Rocky.For me it was another small milestone and for the first time on my trip in knew that in a couple of days I would be halfway to Sydney.
The rest of the afternoon was pretty easy and I even had the time to have a coffee break late in the day with ony an hour or so of riding required to make Raglan that hight.The tiny little town appeared quicker that I expected and even more unexpectedly I found an abandoned gas station with lots of vacant land surrounding it.Perfect for a nights camp.I checked the place out and set my tent up behind a big shed which sheltered me from both the wind and the highway noise.It was not a pretty place I must say,in fact it was a little creepy but I was tired and it would have to do.The was another 117k in the bank and I went to bed actually feeling like I had started to make some progress on this little adventure.The next day would turn those thoughts around and slap me in the face.A little dose of reality rose with the sun the next day,a day I could have done without.
I was on the side of the road for about 40 minutes and managed to squeeze in a little nap as well as snapping a few shots of stuff looking weird in the mist.It really in pretty funny to think that I now think nothing of lying in the dirt on the side of the road with my helmet as a pillow and catching a few comfy moments of peacefull sleep.I guess we can adapt to just about anything when we are challenged enough,I just think there is not enough personal challenging going on in our modern world.That is a sad state of affairs as I just know how much people could achieve if they just let go of some of our modern notions and just tried to experience life outside the co
mfort zone.Once the fog lifted and I was on the road the temperature started to climb for yet another day.Yes,I had a tailwind but the heat,combined with the dry landscape that I was riding through made for a tough old day.The first little milestone for the day was to make it the the Marlborough turnoff some 60k away by lunchtime. I did it without too much trouble but I did regret not starting the day with more water on board.By the time I reached the little truckstop a couple of kilometers past the turnoff I was out of water and feeling a little dehydrated.Thankfully the non-potable water at this place tasted better than all the other "not for human consumption" fluids I had been drinking for the last ten days or so.I figured that they just put those signs up to encourage people to buy bottled water.I also figure that we are all going a bit soft and that there is nothing wrong with drinking bore water.Mind you,if you saw what the inside of my water-bottles looked like you would give no respect for anything I have to say on the topic of safe food preparation practices. After a lunch of my special muesli mix and a curry pie from the truck stop I refilled all my bottles with the dodgy bore water and set off again into the Queensland heat.
That afternoon was a tough one and the combination of increasing heat and decreasing road surface to ride on stopped me in my tracks at about 4pm.I was just sick of fighting for my tiny little bit of highway.The shoulder was almost non existant and in my increasingly fatigued state I really found it hard to keep my bike on the road.As I crested another of the many hills I climbed that day I was lucky enough to spy a nice clear area off to the right,down a little railway access road.It wan't perfect but I didn't care,I just did my little tarp roll over some more long grass and set up camp.I had ridden 109k that day and just down the road I could see the 60k marker for Rockhampton.That would be m
y target for lunch the next day but dinner that night was the priority and it wasn't long before my little stove was heating up a big pot of pasta for me to inhale before settling back for a nice cup of coffee and a most beautiful sunset.In spite of the non-stop train traffic I had a peacefull nights sleep and woke to a chilly,foggy and very damp morning.I packed up camp and headed off down the road as soon as I figured it was clear enough for the trucks to see me.It was the first day that I needed to wear my full fingered gloves and I wondered if that would become the norm as I slowly rode my way south and out of the tropics.
The ride into Rockhampton was a pretty easy one and as expected the road surface
improved the closer I got to Queenslands cattle capital.I rolled through town as fast as the horrendous traffic would let me and I was thankfull that there was a nice city bypass for me to follow as it made leaving town a whole lot easier.I did have a couple of close calls with a convoy of semi-trailers crossing a bridge or two and also had to deal with a few local idiots who thought cutting me off would be a fun thing to do.I've survived worse though and just brushed it all off as stuff that you have to put up with,anyway it was time for lunch and my belly didn't care what was happening to rest of my body,it wanted attention.I pulled into a big roadhouse and sat down to a sandwich and a couple of coffees much to the disgust of an elderly couple sitting not to far away.I guess I did stink a bit.
It was a long lunch as I figure I would make my planned stop at Raglan about 50k away quite easily.I figured that there was no rush and I even managed to fire off a few smart comments on Facebook and check out the state of the triathlon world on Slowtwitch.I knew though that I should not delay too long and after a quick chat and a small donation to the surf lifesavers selling raffle tickets outside the truckstop I was on my way again very,very happy to be south of Rocky.For me it was another small milestone and for the first time on my trip in knew that in a couple of days I would be halfway to Sydney.
The rest of the afternoon was pretty easy and I even had the time to have a coffee break late in the day with ony an hour or so of riding required to make Raglan that hight.The tiny little town appeared quicker that I expected and even more unexpectedly I found an abandoned gas station with lots of vacant land surrounding it.Perfect for a nights camp.I checked the place out and set my tent up behind a big shed which sheltered me from both the wind and the highway noise.It was not a pretty place I must say,in fact it was a little creepy but I was tired and it would have to do.The was another 117k in the bank and I went to bed actually feeling like I had started to make some progress on this little adventure.The next day would turn those thoughts around and slap me in the face.A little dose of reality rose with the sun the next day,a day I could have done without.
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