Now I know what clothes feel like when they have been through a wash cycle. We have been soaked, spun around (on a brilliant piece of road), and then put into a hot air dryer, what a day.
Up a bit late this morning, about 6.30 then packed had some breakfast and loaded up for a day of riding west. I was looking for a Shell garage as they might have Shellite for the cooker but at Gordonvale got caught in the first shower of the day so quickly detoured into the Caltex to take shelter in their forecourt and fuel up and get the jacket on the tank bag. We then headed down the road from Gordonvale to Atherton on Gillies highway. The road was a bit wet which made for a cautious approach but what a brilliant piece of motorcycling road. Very smooth surface and tight corner after tight corner as we climbed up onto the tablelands around Atherton. It got a bit cold and I was not full of beans for some reason. We stopped to look at a wind farm in full flight as it was quiet windy, and sure enough they are very noisy, with the wind really whistling through the blades. They are big structures up close. Carried on to Ravenshoe on some nice roads where we stopped for a Coffee, I needed a pick me up. Ended up having feed of Mashed Spuds, Pie and Pashed Peas, which was very tasty. Had a chat to the local Policeman and his mates, who I suspect were of duty Police, having a Coffee at the same place. They asked where we were headed, I described the route up to Mt Isa and he said “Ahh yes Mount Isa, now that will be good. The definition of happiness is Mount Isa in your rear vision mirror” Perhaps Mount Isa is not so great, will have to wait and see.
Rejuvenated with a couple of strong coffees the wind returned to my sails and to match the clouds faded and the road started to straighten out, which was a shame as this had been a very enjoyable twisty road. We started into the big brown and the land started to get dryer and dryer until we were clearly into the Outback Queensland. I think what marked the transition to the outback was the signs warning of road trains, 53m long! Not long after seeing this sign we came across our first Road Train, and sure enough it was very long. The driver helpfully waved us through and there was no drama as it was two lanes at this point. As we rode further into the big brown landscape the two lanes disappeared and turned into one central lane of tarmac and a wide verge each side.
Passing cars was no sweat, as the oncoming car drove with one wheel on the tarmac and one in the gravel on the side and we rode along our side of the tarmac. We went through a few areas of gravel that went on for several kms and this had me concerned that we were on the wrong road. It was an excellent surface all the same and it did not slow us down that much. We rolled into Mt Surprise and it really was a surprise, in that there was no mountain to see, perhaps Mt stands for something different? Perhaps in the eyes of an Aboriginal navigator this slight rise represents a mountain? Who knows? We spotted a couple of BMW GS bikes with NZ stickers on, at a café and thought we would go and say G’day after fuelling up, but by the time we had filled the tanks they had moved on.
Our first encounter with a truck on the one lane roads was easy in that I saw it from a couple of miles away and pulled to a stop at a bridge with two lanes and took a few photos to kill the time until he roared past. The number of termite mounds had steadily grown and there are absolutely swarms of the things around here, clearly this type of hungry ground and dry conditions does not affect the termites. A lot of very droopy cattle also filling the paddocks and frequently on the roadside. The next encounter with a truck was as we were flying along and we adopted the calm approach of running a routine test of the ABS system (slammed the brakes on) and pulled off the road completely to continue at a slow roll, while the Truck flew down the central tarmac without even slowing, this seemed to work. I am not sure what the accepted practice is but this was clearly the cowards approach and suits me just fine.
This was the hot air dryer part of the day and man was it getting hot. All of this black motorcycle riding gear is pretty hot and adding to this a building heat in the day anyway made it pretty uncomfortable. I worked out a couple of positions to maximise cooling, one was having my jacket half undone and leaning back to get into the turbulent air, of course holding my elbows up increased circulation also, but the best was having the windscreen down, visor up, elbows out, jacket unzipped half way and holding my head tilted to one side which directed the air down through my jacket. It was still like being in a giant tumble dryer or hair dryer.
At about 3.45 I saw my first live wallaby, then more and more of them as they were getting quite active and frisky. We carried on to Croydon with more and more Wallabies spotted and looking vaguely interested in the road for some bizarre reason, so this was a bit unnerving. We arrived at Croydon about 5pm and were both very pleased to stop at the pub for refreshing ale after a quick ride around to find accommodation. Noticed that Croydon has the oldest shop in Australia, and works out that it has a rich history with a gold rush story to set it off. There used to be 60? Pubs here and now there is only one, an old wooden building which is not lined and has big gaps built into the structure and a concrete floor, quite a hard case and character some building, which is also Haunted to boot.
We stayed in some motel units at the back. There were heaps of frogs in the toilet and shower block. Danielle would be beside herself with excitement, so I took a few photos of them. Had a swim in the pool and went for a short run in the fading light with many crickets calling which once again lead to an imagination overdrive about rattle snakes and Crocodiles, this despite me knowing that there are no rattle snakes in Australia, or are there?
The other Kiwi riders were here and we met them in the bar, a friendly couple that we spent the evening with Ken (missed his second name) and Dick Hubbard, the ex mayor of Auckland and Cereal man. We enjoyed hearing of Ken and Dick’s adventures so far with them doing a lot of off road riding on their GSs up to cape York. I quizzed Dick on the secret to his success and He did not seem to mind and in fact was quite enthusiastic to discuss his story which he must have retold thousands of times. They are doing a loop of Australia also but will break it up with a trip home for business and weddings etc. A good way to go. Dick gave some helpful advice about tyres in Darwin, apparently there will be a Ulysses AGM just out of Darwin on the 18th which will lead to thousands of bikes descending on the region and will make accommodation and bike parts tight. Dick had the contact details for BMW Darwin so I will call ahead and order tyres, which I will probably need by then. Meal at the pub then early to bed. Another tiring day, but very interesting riding, and a real change in scenery.
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