Round Australia by bike - Day 012 - Croydon to Burke & Wills Roadhouse

Day:	012
Date:	28 May 2008
Start	Croydon
Finish	Burke & Wills Roadhouse  - 90km
Daily Distance:	244km
Daily Speed:	n.a.
Relative to Schedule:	-271km
Daily Podcasts:	Here & here
GPS Track	Here
Journal:	I got up at 6:30am and wandered across to the nearby café for breakfast once I was packed and ready to go.  Croydon seemed like a neat and tidy outback town and I watched everybody getting ready for their day while I ate my breakfast at an outside table.  I then went into the grocery section of the small store and purchased enough food and fluid to get me to the next store, Burke & Wills Roadhouse, 347km away. I left town shortly before 9am and spent the next 155km cycling along a perfectly flat road through the timbered savannah with a slight following wind.  There were a few cattle amongst the trees and I actually saw a herd of about 100 cattle being driven by authentic drovers who gave me a wave as I passed.  The road also paralleled a railway line used by the Gulflander motor train once or twice a week and I actually saw the two-carriage train trundling along with tourists hanging out of the window through the trees. I reached a road junction just south of Normanton around 3pm and turned south.  I decided I didn’t want to detour into Normanton, 7km from the junction, and set out towards the Burke and Wills Roadhouse, 200km to the south.  The breeze became a headwind and my speed slowed.  The countryside became more undulating and the road descended to cross a few rivers.  The trees gradually cleared so the land became vast brown paddocks with occasional Brahmin cattle.  I was treated to a beautiful red sunset and continued riding until just before 9pm when I reached a roadside rest stop where quite a number of caravans and campers were stopped for the night.  I found a sheltered concrete picnic table and spread out my swag on the concrete floor and was quickly asleep.  My hope for tomorrow was to get to Cloncurry at a good hour so that I could get a shower and have a good sleep.