|
Day: |
020 |
|
Date: |
Wednesday, 16 August 2006 |
|
Summary |
Riding 138km north from Hughenden on the
road to The Lynd Junction. |
|
Start: |
Hughenden |
|
Finish: |
138km north of Hughenden |
|
Daily
Kilometres: |
138 |
|
Total
Kilometres: |
2656 |
|
Weather: |
Mild early but warm to hot and sunny for
the rest of the day with north-east wind. |
|
Accommodation: |
Camping off road between Hughenden and The
Lynd Junction, Queensland . |
|
Nutrition: |
Apple and pastries for breakfast, peanut
butter roll for lunch, and peanut butter roll, gorp and muesli bar
for dinner. |
|
Encounters: |
Saw a few kangaroos and the first brolgas
of the trip. Also saw the first big anthills of the trip, a sure
sign of the tropics. |
|
Highlights: |
Porcupine Gorge was well worth a look and I
also remember one very pleasant break sitting on some rocks by the
side of the road at the top of a hill surveying the sun-soaked
Australian countryside with some handsome white-trunked gums nearby
and some craggy rocky outcrops in the near distance. Before going
to bed, I spent about 20 minutes just looking at the fabulous night
sky. With no ambient light and no moon, the Milky Way was brilliant
and you could see a myriad of stars in all directions. With just a
few bush night sounds and no other noise, it was just perfect. |
|
Lowlights: |
I had quite a few low-lights
today. Firstly, I had decided to get a cooked breakfast before
leaving town but couldn’t find an open café, so left without
it. Secondly, even though the first 25km was on sealed roads, a
strong headwind made it very hard work and sometimes my speed was
barely above 10kph. Thirdly, later in the day on the rough road I
began to strike the first long sandy sections and managed to fall
off twice in the space of 100 metres at one point and had a number
of other near misses. |
|
Journal: |
I didn’t get up until 6:30am and left
around 7:15am, planning to find a cooked breakfast on the way out of
town. However, despite visiting a couple of possible cafes, I found
none open, so called into the bakery to pick up some breadrolls and
then left. As soon as I got out of town the wind sprang up strongly
and it was very hard work for the first few hours. In fact, it was
hard riding all day and I started stopping every 10km for a break
instead of the usual 20km. The road soon became gravel and dirt and
varied from very easy to very difficult. I met a few road-trains
and it is obvious they cut up the unsealed roads more than other
traffic. The terrain was also getting quite hilly and the road
seemed to be gradually climbing which added to my woes.
During the day I encountered a number of tourists and several of
them took my photos and one lady even asked me to stop while she
changed her camera battery!
I detoured 2km from the main road
to a look-out over Porcupine Gorge around lunch time and enjoyed the
spectacular view up the sheer-sided gorge with a stream at the
bottom. There was a picnic table at the lookout where I had lunch
and chatted to some grey nomads sharing the same table.
After
Porcupine Gorge there was less traffic on the road and I had long
periods to myself. The countryside was generally forest with lots
of Brahmin cattle grazing all the way along and a few waterholes.
Towards the end of the day the road became quite cut up and
sandy in sections and I fell off a couple of times. It was often
very hard to judge how deep the sand was and, with the heavy weight
on my handlebars, it is very difficult to correct once the front
wheel goes off track. No doubt I will strike a lot more of this as
I head north.
Around 5:45pm, as the sun set, I began looking
for somewhere to camp. I hadn’t quite gone as far as hoped today,
but the going had been hard and I had started late, so I’m not too
fussed. I found a nice spot off the road, washed, set up camp, and
ate, before listening to the Kuwait vs Australia soccer match on the
radio whilst getting an early night. |
|
ADVENTURE LIST
Round Ireland
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Hume & Hovell Walking Track
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Via Alpina
(2012)
Australian Alps Walking
Track
(2011)
Land's End to John O'Groats
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Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2009)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2008)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2007)
Australia Tip to Top MTB
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Adelaide to Darwin MTB
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Sydney to Melbourne MTB
(2004)
Three Peaks Race
(2004)
Appalachian Trail
(1986)
Alpine Track
(1983)
|
