Round Australia by bike - Day 015 - Mount Isa to Camooweal

Day:	015
Date:	31 May 2008
Start	Mount Isa
Finish	Camooweal
Daily Distance:	192km
Daily Speed:	25kph
Relative to Schedule:	-592km
Daily Podcasts:	Here
GPS Track	Here
Journal:	I got up at 3am and was on the road by 3:45am.  Despite the slack day yesterday and eight hours sleep my motivation was still low and I almost dreaded wheeling the bike out of the motel door to begin riding.  I guess it’s a combination of fatigue, missed objectives and the immensity of the task ahead.  I’m not daunted by the distances I have to ride, but dislike doing it when I’m not getting enough sleep.  On some nights, particularly when roadside camping, I feel like I have barely stopped riding from the day before when I have to start riding again.  One of my running heroes in the 1970s was Dave Bedford, the great and ground-breaking English distance runner.  He experimented with running vast distances in training and also, at one point, with running as many as five times a day.  When asked what this was like, he said that sometimes, as he completed one training run, he met himself leaving for the next one.  That’s how I feel some days.  Anyway, I feel the need to regroup and reassess and have decided to switch to the mode I used in last year’s attempt where I endeavoured not to camp and was prepared to have some very long days, and some quite short days, depending on where the towns are.  When camping, I tend to ride late and don’t sleep as well.  At present, I am two days behind a 50 day schedule.  I’m not going to bother trying to make up any time in the short-term.  Instead, I’ll stick to the daily targets as best I can and hope no bad days (headwinds or bike or body trouble) intervene to put me further behind schedule.  That’s the plan, anyway….we’ll see what happens. Once I got riding today, it wasn’t too bad.  The first three hours were in darkness, beneath a brilliantly starlit sky along a mostly flat road with barely any traffic.  I listened to the Test Cricket on my radio and around 6am thought of my friends back at Terrigal setting out on the monthly 10km running time trial.  It was cold in the shallow valleys but I resisted the temptation to put on more clothes.  There was a slight following breeze which gradually strengthened as the sun rose.  The countryside was most savannah lightly-timbered with scraggly trees and mostly covered with long brown grass.  Cattle could be seen here and there and I disturbed a number of eagles feeding on kangaroo road kill as I whizzed along making good time. After about 100km I stopped in a half-completed rest area and enjoyed some sandwiches for breakfast while warming myself in the emerging sunlight.  I guy driving in the other direction stopped and came over for a chat.  He was on his way from Darwin to Brisbane but was hoping to pick up some work in Mount Isa.  He told me that there was a Camp Draft (like a rodeo) on in Camooweal, my target for the day, and that the small town was very busy, making it unlikely I would find any accommodation.  Oh well, maybe I would be roadside camping after all, since the next habitation was 272km further on. I continued on to Camooweal, arriving at 12:30pm and tried the first place advertising cabins, but they were booked out.  However, at the second roadhouse, they had one basic cabin left and I took it.  First I had a big brekky and then had a shower and did my chores.  The little town is certainly busy with the Camp Draft.  On the way in I could see a large gathering of trucks, horse trailers and caravans off to the left, along with penned cattle and some horsemen, and the wafting sounds of a loudspeaker system.  In town, which is just a main street with two roadhouses, a butcher’s and a pub, there was quite a lot of noise emanating from the pub and various stockmen, many of them aboriginal, lounging around town in the required dress of boots, jeans, big buckles and beaten up hats.  There were also a number of young kids, some similarly dressed, patronizing the roadhouses, presumably on a rare trip into town.  I imagine it will be quite noisy here tonight. I plan to go to bed very early tonight and leave before 2am for the 272km ride to Barkly Homestead roadhouse, and then make a similarly early start the next day for the very long and challenging haul (374km) to Cape Crawford across the Barkly Tablelands along a minor road with no facilities whatsoever.

Round Australia by bike - Day 014 - Cloncurry to Mount Isa

Day:	014
Date:	30 May 2008
Start	Cloncurry
Finish	Mount Isa
Daily Distance:	121km
Daily Speed:	23kph
Relative to Schedule:	-464km
Daily Podcasts:	n.a.
GPS Track	Here
Journal:	I slept in to 4am and got up feeling particularly grotty, not having washed for two days and having toiled into the dusty wind all yesterday in very warm conditions.  I quickly packed up and was on the road soon after 4:30am.  The highway was busier, with many road trains, but it was wide enough to make riding relatively safe.  The road was quite hilly, passing through a mountain range and, despite the following wind, I found myself fading on the hills with legs tired from yesterday. The low mountain scenery made for some good views and there were a number of long downhill rolls to enjoy, but I still struggled to make good time.  I reached Mount Isa, a major mining centre, dominated by smelters and smokestacks, around 10:30am and went to McDonalds for breakfast before picking up my mail from the Post Office.  By now it was around 11:30am and I needed to make a decision about whether to continue on to Camooweal (191km), which I would probably not reach until about 9pm, probably too late to buy supplies for an early start the next day.  I decided that I needed some body recovery time and booked into a motel on the northern side of Mount Isa with plans for an early start tomorrow.

Round Australia by bike - Day 013 - Burke & Wills Roadhouse to Cloncurry

Day:	013
Date:	29 May 2008
Start	Burke & Wills Roadhouse  - 90km
Finish	Cloncurry
Daily Distance:	271km
Daily Speed:	n.a.
Relative to Schedule:	-313km
Daily Podcasts:	Here
GPS Track	Here
Journal:	I woke soon after 3am and was on the road by 3:45am, feeling very tired.  Unfortunately, the southerly wind had got stronger during the night and it was an effort to make reasonable speed.  Around 5:30am, as always seems to happen to me, I got very sleepy but managed to keep myself going until the sun rose and my motivation rose. I reached Burke & Wills Roadhouse around 9am and enjoyed a hearty breakfast while watching their TV and the passing clientele.  It was turning into a sunny, warm and windy day and I restocked with fluids and snacks as it was becoming increasingly apparent to me that I wouldn’t reach Cloncurry (181km) at an hour when I could buy food.  I therefore needed enough to get me to Mount Isa, the next town. The afternoon turned into a great trial.  The road gradually climbed into higher country capped with occasional rocky tors and the headwind became ferocious.  At times I could barely manage to keep my speed above 10kph and I remember another time where I had to weave to dodge tumbleweeds roaring down the road towards me.  It was very tiring riding, with no respite, and I began taking a break every 20 kilometres to recover. Around 6pm I reached to isolated bush pub at Quamby and decided to stop for a meal and cold drinks.  It was a very authentic pub, with very few patrons (who had a few jokes about the wind at my expense), and the barman said I could camp in the grounds for free if I wanted.  I declined, saying I wanted to get at least to Cloncurry for the night   I ordered the only food on the menu, rissoles and vegetables, and sat on the pub’s front verandah watching the sun set while it was prepared. I then continued riding southwards into the wind towards Cloncurry, reaching the major road junction just to the west of the town around 9:30pm, completely spent.  It was too late to bother with a motel, so I found a bare patch of ground near the junction, spread out my swag and quickly went to sleep.  I should have the wind with me tomorrow as I head for Mount Isa, but have 313km to Camooweal, my target town for the night and have to make a call into the Post Office in Mount Isa to collect some things Sharon has mailed, including a spare tyre.  It could be a long day.

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.

Round Australia by bike - Day 011 - Mount Garnet to Croydon

Day:	011
Date:	27 May 2008
Start	Mount Garnet + 67km
Finish	Croydon
Daily Distance:	294km
Daily Speed:	24.9km
Relative to Schedule:	-197km
Daily Podcasts:	Here & here
GPS Track	Here
Journal:	I woke up at 3am and was on the road by 3:30am, feeling like I was still riding from yesterday.  By 5:30am I was weaving all over the road and too tired to continue.  I found a sandy spot off the road, put down my tent as a groundsheet, and instantly went to sleep, not waking until the sun rose around 7am.  I was still very tired but knew I had to get going. Thirty minutes later I reached the very small settlement of Mount Surprise, just as everything was opening up and got a big brekky at the quaint roadhouse café. I was still very tired, my right Achilles was very painful and my mood was low as I headed west across the savannah towards Georgetown, 91km away.  I worked out that if I continued on from Georgetown to Croydon (another 148km) I would probably get there too late to buy food, including for the next day, when I would pass no stores.  I was extremely tempted to stay in Georgetown and get a good nights sleep.  Staying there would have put me exactly a day behind schedule, but still on target to equal or beat the new record of 51 days.  However, a nice hamburger and chips for lunch along with the chatter and admiration of some tourists, decided me to continue on to Croydon.  I called the pub there to book a room and set off.  The rest of the afternoon was a real test.  I was exhausted, my Achilles hurt a lot, and I couldn’t deal with the thought of another very short night’s sleep followed by another very early start and another long day.  The country continued to be brown-grassed, lightly-timbered savannah with some low mountain ranges to cross. I now don’t think I have any chance of maintaining a 300km per day schedule.  It’s just beyond me, especially after losing time with the punctures.  I will stay in Croydon until the shops open in the morning, and get breakfast and supplied for the next 24 hours.  That will give me a reasonable night’s sleep tonight and hopefully my mood will be better tomorrow.

Round Australia by bike - Day 010 - Cairns to Mount Garnet

Day:	010
Date:	26 May 2008
Start	Cairns
Finish	Mount Garnet + 67km
Daily Distance:	259km
Daily Speed:	n.a.
Relative to Schedule:	-146km
Daily Podcasts:	Here
GPS Track	Here
Journal:	I was late getting away despite rising at 3am because the internet connection that wasn’t working the previous evening now was.  I did my internet chores and left about 4:30am quickly cycling through the sleeping Cairns out to where Highway 1 turns inland to begin the climb to the Atherton Tableland.  It was dark, lightly drizzling and busy, but I made reasonable progress on the winding narrow road as it climbed through the dark rainforest. Near Kuranda there was a spectacular view over the darkened Cairns with the first daylight appearing through the offshore clouds.  The road then leveled out a bit although it was always climbing as it crossed the Tableland, with the odd frustrating descent (because you knew you would have to recover any lost elevation).  The Tableland is a very fertile area with many different kinds of fruit and vegetables grown, not to mention coffee, tea and nuts, all available at frequent farm gate stalls.  There was also lush dairy pasture and, in pockets, dense rainforest which lined the road like an impenetrable green wall, but through which, you could glimpse vines, deep leafy floors and all manner of trees and shrubs. I stopped in the busy little town of Atherton and had a big brekky as well as buying a couple more tyre tubes and a new rear vision mirror (the last just dropped off for no reason),  The road continued to climb higher and higher across the Tableland and the headwind and rain became stronger.  It got cold. I finally reached the huge wind turbines that mark the southern edge of the Tableland and turned westwards, looking forward to some downhill along with warmth and dryness as I headed to The Outback.  I reached Mount Garnet around 4pm and had an early dinner of sausages and masses of baked vegetables at a roadhouse, fitted my mirror and headed into road train country.  I had been hoping to get 300km up today, but there was too much climbing and headwind to have any hope of that. I decided to ride until about 9pm and then camp by the road, which I did.  I wore quite a few clothes and wrapped myself in a space blanket in my one-man tent and it was OK, although a bit cool.

Round Australia by bike - Day 009 - Ingham to Cairns

Day:	009
Date:	25 May 2008
Start	Ingham +10km
Finish	Cairns
Daily Distance:	223km
Daily Speed:	25.4kph
Relative to Schedule:	-96km
Daily Podcasts:	n.a.
GPS Track	Here
Journal:	Although I was comfortable enough sleeping on my picnic table, my sleep disturbed by a huge truck which parked next to my table and left his engine idling in my ear.  I eventually got up a little before 4am and quickly packed up and left.  It wasn‘t raining and I listened to the Test Cricket from the West Indies on my radio as I headed north to see how much time I could make up on my schedule.  I passed through the beautiful Cardwell on the ocean just before dawn and continued north.  I was still very tired and was dozing while riding as I approached Tully where I ate a much-needed Big Brekky.  It had been raining for the last hour and now looked to have set in for the day.  This is the wettest part of Australia and looked it.  Dense tropical growth gave way to cane fields and banana plantations in places.  Everything was very green, including the jungle clad mountains nearby, some of which rose to about 1,000m. I decided to make Cairns and a good night’s sleep my target for the day, hoping to arrive early enough to do a load of washing and catch up with my cousin, Phil, and wife, Denise.  There were quite a few hills in the afternoon, but I tried to maintain a good speed despite continuing rain, narrow roads and lots of traffic.  My right Achilles became increasingly painful and I ended up stopping and lowering my seat a centimeter, which seemed to ease the pain a little.  Hopefully that will help resolve what was becoming a worsening problem. I found a motel on the way into the centre of Cairns, got my washing done, and met Phil and family for a hasty early dinner.  I have a solid climb over the Great Dividing Range first thing tomorrow, so it is unlikely I will make up any time on my schedule deficit.