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 021 - Proserpine to Home Hill

Day:  021

Date: Wednesday, 22 July 2020

Start:  Proserpine

Finish:  Home Hill

Daily Kilometres:  164

Total Kilometres:  2332

Weather:  Cool to mild and overcast all day with periods of rain

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Egg & lettuce sandwich

  Lunch:  Ham, cheese & pickle sandwich/Egg & bacon roll

  Dinner:  Chicken & vegetable pasta, apple crumble

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Flat ride with a gentle tailwind nearly all day

Lowlight:  Getting to within 15 minutes of our destination and having the heavens open.  Couldn't be bothered to stop and don my rainjacket, so arrived at the motel looking impressively wet.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We were quite apprehensive about today's planned ride of 164km because the weather forecast was for lots of rain.  Periods of rain drumming on the motel roof during the night only increased our concern.

As it turned out, though the roads were wet, it was not raining as we pedalled through the cane fields on our way out of Proserpine around 6:45am.  However, there was heavy low cloud cover and fog shrouded the nearby mountains.  Before long, it did start to spit with rain but not enough to get us very wet.  Pleasingly, the traffic was lighter than we have become used to on the Bruce Highway, and a following breeze and lack of hills also lifted our spirits.  Perhaps the day wasn't going to be as bad as anticipated.

After an hour and a half, we stopped in at a roadhouse and ate some breakfast.  Several customers commented that they had seen us along the way and the clerk was building up the size of a hill we were going to encounter to Julie (which didn't turn out to be big at all).  From the roadhouse we continued to make good time despite occasional light rain.

We pondered our pet hates as we rode, apart from the usual complaint about drivers passing too closely when there is no oncoming traffic and plenty of room to move out.  Mine was the poorly finished expansion joints on the bridges we cross, and there are many each day.  Almost inevitably on the road edge where we have to ride, they are either big bumps or large gaps.  Julie's pet hate is the placement of cat-eyes in the middle of the very narrow road edge which are hard to dodge when traffic is passing.  We might also have added, for today, the cold shower we got whenever passed by an 18-wheeler.

After skirting the regional town of Bowen, I scored a rear tyre puncture around 11am.  It wasn't hard to find.  A large screw had gone completely through the tyre and both sides of the inner tube.  We changed the tube, reinflated the tyre and took a short break before continuing on, not having lost too much time.  Around 1pm, we stopped at a roadhouse and bought some lunch which we ate in an adjacent picnic area.

The last 56km passed quickly and easily through cattle country with some very long straight stretches, though we were hit by some heavier rain just short of Home Hill, our destination (see above).  We arrived at our motel just after 4pm, checked in, and then I rode into the town supermarket and bought our usual microwaveable dinner.

Despite our apprehension and occasional rain, I doubt we'll have an easier 160km (100 miles) on this trip.

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