Julie and I were supposed to be hiking the 5,000km Continental Divide Trail in the US in 2020, but COVID-19 derailed that plan. Instead, we will have an adventure in Australia, circumnavigating the country on our bikes, a distance of about 16,500km taking approximately five and a half months. We will use minor roads where possible and occasionally catch ferries across rivers and inlets to avoid busier inland routes. We will camp some of the time and stay in motels, hotels, etc, at others. There will be stretches of up to five days with no accommodation or resupply available, so we will need to be self-sufficient.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 012 - Yarraman to Wondai

Day:  012

Date: Monday, 13 July 2020

Start:  Yarraman

Finish:  Wondai

Daily Kilometres:  77

Total Kilometres:  1248

Weather:  Cool and mostly sunny with a fresh breeze

Accommodation:  Cabin

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Egg & bacon pies

  Lunch:  Toasted chicken melt sandwiches

  Dinner:  Southern style chicken, fudge & ice cream

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  The post-lunch 25km ride along the beautiful rail trail from Kingaroy to Wondai.  The sun was shining, a cool breeze was at our back, the surface was tarred, the scenery was quintessential Australian rural, and we knew we would be stopping early for the day.

Lowlight:  None really

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

It was a cool morning when we emerged from our motel room wearing our still-very-wet shoes and walked a hundred metres to the town bakery where we hoped to buy some breakfast to take with us.  Sadly, the baked goods pickings were slim, so we settled on a couple of hot egg and bacon pies (which were very tasty) and quickly ate them standing in the chill wind outside.

Then we headed out of town soon after 8am, and any fears of being too cold soon evaporated as we laboured up the first of several long hills on the busy Burnett Highway.  After 5km, we reached a back road we had planned to take to avoid the highway, but found it labelled "Private - No Entry', so ended up staying on the highway.  The hills and traffic continued until the downhill run into Nanango where we stopped in a picnic area for a break.  Nanango was typical of the country towns we are starting to see, with very nice visitor facilities and parks, often including free camping for RVs and caravans for up to 48 hours.  The streets are wide, the house blocks are large, and the pace seems slower.  I think we are going to see more of these.

From Nanango we turned off the Burnett Highway towards Kingaroy on a slightly less busy road which featured a long steady climb over a small mountain followed by a steady descent into the large regional town of Kingaroy, famous for peanuts and as the home of Jo Bjelke-Petersen, a larger than life Queensland Premier for 20 years.  Julie stopped at a roadside stall to buy some peanuts for later consumption.  We also bought some toasted sandwiches in town and then set off on our final leg of the day along the excellent rail trail that runs from Kingaroy to Kikivan.

A little out of town, we found a bench by the trail in a beautiful sunny spot to eat our lunch, and then rode the last 25km (see above) to our booked cabin in Wondai, arriving around 2:45pm after picking up dinner supplies at the small town supermarket.

It's Julie's birthday today, so it was good to have an early stop after three long hard days.  We celebrated her birthday with a microwaved dinner and some fudge and ice cream.  (I did offer that we could eat at the pub in town.)

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