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 022 - Home Hill to Townsville

Day:  022

Date: Thursday, 23 July 2020

Start:  Home Hill

Finish:  Townsville

Daily Kilometres:  102

Total Kilometres:  2434

Weather:  Mostly sunny and mild

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Egg & lettuce sandwich

  Lunch:  Chicken & bacon melt sub

  Dinner:  Southern fried chicken & vegetables, custard danish

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Early arrival in Townsville giving us plenty of time to leisurely attend to a few chores during the afternoon, including dropping our bikes off for a service, a haircut and beard trim for me, some correspondence for Julie, laundry and some trip planning. 

Lowlight:  Finding Julie had a flat rear tyre as we left our motel accommodation this morning.  We found a glass splinter that had caused a slow leak, replaced the tube and hit the road, more determined than ever to swap our tyres in Townsville to some tried and trusted Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres, as already intended.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Thunder crashed, lightning flashed and rain poured for a good part of the night.  We heard in the morning that a nearby town had received 93 millimetres of rain overnight.  When we eventually got going, after repairing a flat tyre (see above), there was a lot of standing water evident as we pedalled through Home Hill (and for the rest of the day).

The previous evening we had received an email from a friend, Graham, informing us that Home Hill was his home town and that his family had been pioneering sugar cane farmers in the area, and may be mentioned on a town memorial.  We did a bit of research and worked out where the memorial might be, and visited it on our way out of town.  It was informative, but unfortunately we could not find any specific mention of Graham's family as hoped.

Leaving Home Hill, we crossed the long and historic Burdekin River Bridge before passing through the larger town of Ayr and turning west towards Townsville through cane fields with the imposing Mt Elliot in front of us.  For about one and a half hours we got payback for our tailwind of yesterday as we pushed into a headwind that made for hard and warm work.  We persevered until we reached a roadhouse we had targeted for breakfast and were very pleased to take a break.

From there, the road swung northwards and the headwind abated as we passed along the base of the mountain.  There were long stretches of roadwork, and some sections of alternating single-flow traffic governed by traffic lights required feverish pedalling.  It made for faster travel and we reached our next planned stop, the Alligator Creek Roadhouse, and had a Diet Coke and a few jelly beans.

Then it was just an hour into the city of Townsville where we got an early check-in from the friendly motel lady, unloaded our bikes, showered, and then rode our bikes a few hundred metres to the specialist bike shop where we had booked a service a week ago, arriving 30 minutes ahead of schedule!  After a chat with the friendly proprietor, we left the bikes, and walked down the road to get some lunch followed by a lazy afternoon catching up on some chores (see above).  We have tomorrow off and will collect the bikes early afternoon.

By

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)