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 017 - Rockhampton to St Lawrence

Day:  017

Date: Saturday, 18 July 2020

Start:  Rockhampton

Finish:  St Lawrence

Daily Kilometres:  174

Total Kilometres:  1887

Weather:  Cold early, then sunny and warm

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Chicken, cheese & mayo sandwiches

  Lunch:  Chicken salad sandwiches

  Dinner:  Chicken Kiev, chips & salad/Rump steak, chips & salad, apple pie & ice cream

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Julie's longest ever ride

Lowlight:  The last three hours of a long day when a headwind made life tough.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We left soon after 6:30am in cold conditions, but not quite as bad as yesterday.  It was going to be a big day to get to our booked hotel in St Lawrence, 174km away, and we were determined to be focused on the task at hand.

The elevation profile, which Julie always checks religiously, showed that we were to gradually climb for the first half of the day, to Marlborough, and gradually descend for the second half.  What the elevation profile didn't tell us was that we would have a light tailwind for the first half, which passed fairly comfortably, and a light headwind for the second half which negated any downhill benefit and made the last part of the afternoon a bit of a grind.

Apart from breakfast at the roadhouse at Yaamba and lunch at the roadhouse at Marlborough, there was pretty much nothing else but brown grass cattle grazing land alternating with lightly timbered forests, and low tree-covered mountains in the near distance on both sides of the road.  The traffic was moderate, but not too bad.  Less trucks than yesterday.  The only excitement of the day occurred when Julie upset a magpie and was dive-bombed a couple of times.

We were very pleased to finally arrive in the tiny village of St Lawrence, and check into our basic room in the very atmospheric old pub.  Corrugated iron everywhere, a long verandah, a long trek to the bathrooms, and a jukebox blaring old tunes to entertain the small number of baby boomers, some staying in the hotel and others camped out the back in their caravans.

After showers, we ate in the pub while planning out our next few days, and were glad to get to bed after a long tiring day.

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