Ah the best laid plans of mice and men.
We new we had a long day ahhead of us so we were up early and on the bikes by 7.30. The ride out of bundaberg was great the weather was perfect, the roads were quiet and we were making great time.
Our first port of call was 1770 for morning tea as we didn't get there the night before. What a great little place, we had good coffee and great muffins from the cafe at the boat ramp and we met some wonderful people who were very interested in what we were doing and had done something similar through africa. I could have stayed there for a lot longer but we were keen to take advantage of the great time we were making.
the 1770 boat ramp parking area
Our exact location: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-24.172,151.8833&ll=-24.172,151.8833&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
As we approached rockhampton the landscape started to change, the endless sea of cane fields gave way to vast expanses of open grasslands peppered with scraggly trees on our right and on our left, hills straight out of a fred williams landscape occassionaly punctuated by a splodge of violently mauve bouganvilia (i'm sure that's not how you spell it but it will have to do).
The road out of rocky was much the same only bigger. The spaces were bigger and the road straighter. There was plenty of time for your mind to toddle off on its own and when it returned and asked what it had missed, you couldn't answer as it was all so similar you couldn't remember whether or not you had given it any thought previously. So your mind would inevitably toddle off again in search of something else to do. Having said this, there is a stark beauty to the place which i think comes from the monochromatic colouring.
The straightness of the roads meant that we were making cracking time and we were looking at arriving in serina well before dark.
For quite sometime we were able to see a large plume of smoke in the distance and i was curious as to what was burning. It wasn't long before i found out. Almost exactly half way between rocky and mackay we were brought to a halt by a bushfire that was burning on both sides of the road. So we made our way over the the rest stop to rest and to wait. The rest area was very good, it had fresh drinking water, pretty clean toilets, shaded tables and chairs and a nice grassy area for our tents if push came to shove and they didn't open the road until after dark.
the waverley creek rest stop
However they did open the road and the big fella was ready before me and was in the second wave of traffic to be let through. I however was in the fifth or sixth so ended up about 40 minutes behind and approaching serina in rapidly failing light. By the time i got there it was dark and after a good game of phone tag i finally made contact with the big fella only to find out he was in mackay and had only just managed to snag accommodation, so it was back onto the bike and off into the dark.
the bushfire thatb held us up
By the time i got there we had been on the bikes for about 12 hours substantially longer than we had planned but after acouple fo beers it was all good.
Tomorrow is a relatively short trip to townsville, but i've said that before....