|
Day: |
016 |
|
Date: |
Saturday, 12 August 2006 |
|
Summary |
Riding from Tambo to Barcaldine. |
|
Start: |
Tambo |
|
Finish: |
Barcaldine |
|
Daily
Kilometres: |
207 |
|
Total
Kilometres: |
2163 |
|
Weather: |
Cold early (3°C) but warm and sunny for the
rest of the day with variable winds. |
|
Accommodation: |
Motel in Barcaldine , Queensland . |
|
Nutrition: |
No breakfast, but some snacks along the
way, two pies lunch, and a works burger for dinner (what a healthy
day!). |
|
Encounters: |
I saw quite a few (live) kangaroos and a
pelican on one of the inland billabongs I passed. |
|
Highlights: |
Reaching the halfway point, although it’s
hard to believe that I am only half-way when I’m already so far
north into Queensland . |
|
Lowlights: |
This was a pretty tough day. The weather
is getting quite warm during the day and being the third 200km day
in a row, I’m beginning to feel quite tired. It will be good to
have a few shorter days and, assuming the gravel roads aren’t too
bad, I might take half a day off in Hughenden in three days time. |
|
Journal: |
It was again very cold as I set off and my
feet and fingers again froze for the first couple of hours. I
hadn’t really been looking forward to this third 200km day, but seem
to be managing. The scenery continued to be predominantly rolling
open cattle grazing country with occasional timbered areas. I
decided to ride straight through to Blackall (100km) and have a late
breakfast and reached there about 11:15am. There wasn’t much choice
for food and I finally ended up just getting some pies from the
local bakery and buying a couple of pastries which I kept for
afternoon tea.
Around noon I set out on the 107km to
Barcaldine, my target for the day and just kept plodding along,
taking a break every 20km. It’s getting warmer and I have noticed I
am drinking a lot more. When I hit the back roads from Muttaburra
to Hughenden, which may take me a couple of days, I will need to
make sure I carry quite a lot of water. I will save some of my Diet
Coke bottles to use for extra water.
I got to Barcaldine
around 5:30pm after riding the last 40km through quite picturesque
forests. There was water in some of the watercourses and some
attractive billabongs off in the forest in a couple of places. It
doesn’t look too drought-stricken around here. I found a motel in
the middle of town and got take-out for dinner. I may start an hour
later tomorrow in view of the shorter day (150km). |
|
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