Saturday, 28 July 2007

Motel in Ingham

Riding from Ayr to Ingham with a planned break in Townsville to fit new tyres.

4:20am

5:30pm

201

2,363

12,048

-51

210.0

24.30

Mild at first but warm later.  Mostly sunny. SE to NE winds.

Big Brekky for breakfast.  Vegetable pastie and sausage roll for lunch.  Fish and chips for dinner.

Met three motor bikers (Brad, Ross & Anthony) from the NSW Northern Rivers district on their way to the Kimberley via Cooktown while having breakfast.  They had seen me on the road yesterday and will probably see me again on their way west after they have been to Cooktown.

A somewhat lazy afternoon during which I had two ice-cream stops in the last 100km.

Taking three hours to change two tyres in Townsville.  Not only were they extremely hard to get onto the wheel (I had been warned), but twice I managed to break the valves on the tubes while reinflating them and had to repeat the whole operation.

An unsatisfactory day in many respects.  It started OK and I reached Townsville as planned a bit before 9:00am and began trying to find the bike shop to which I had sent replacement tyres.  I had a poor map and ended up doing a tour of Townsville before I found the shop.  Then, due to a number of misadventures (see above), it took me until noon to get on the road again.
 
I decided that I could not make it to Cardwell (164km further on) until well after dark, especially since there was a moderate headwind/crosswind, and I was a bit despondent about the tyre changing fiasco.  Also, there were still some minor clicks coming from the front crank and I wasn’t sure how much worse it might get if I didn’t get it looked at before turning west tomorrow (only one small bike shop in next 5,000km).  My mood was low and I decided a relatively easy afternoon that only left me 51km behind schedule was appropriate.
 
Accordingly, I didn’t push it, although a headwind made it a bit tough and I reached Ingham around 5:30pm and checked into a motel.  From Townsville the countryside had changed from dry to quite lush and the late afternoon sunshine on the green fields with a blue backdrop of the Great Dividing Range to the left was very pleasant.
 
Despite treating myself to an easy afternoon, I am quite pessimistic about my chances now.  I think I may be able to manage it physically, but am starting to worry that bike problems and my lack of mechanical knowledge and ability could be a show-stopper.  Nevertheless, I have resolved not to look for a bike shop before turning west (it would cost me at least a day) and, by tomorrow night, should have crossed the Great Divide and be well into the arid outback.  Fingers crossed the bike holds together.