Day 50

Date:- 3 May 2010
Distance:- 90.09 Km
Distance to Date:- 2640.2 Km
Start:- Burrum River Caravan Park - Howard
Finish:- Gin Gin Caravan Park
Comment:- Awoke this morning to kookaburras laughing and roosters crowing. Had breakfast, then packed up. I was then invited to have a cup of tea and a couple of slices of toast with a couple who had spent the long weekend in Howard.

The Day I Would Like to Forget

As I was packing up one of my aluminium tent poles broke. I will try to fix it tonight.

On the road by 8.15am and rode about 8oo metres back to the Bruce Highway and turned right and off to Childers. Good road, sun shining, some cloud cover and little or no breeze. I wasn’t really with it today. My legs felt heavy and I didn’t feel I was travelling very well.

About 5 km from Childers the wind picked up to about 5 knots from the SE. Fields of sugar cane and some citrus orchards were evident. About 2 km from Childers were a couple of small hills and the shoulder of the road had disappeared. Not nice. Really made my day.

Stopped at Childers for my snack break and purchased a sleeve for my tent pole. Back on the road again and heading for Gin Gin. There was a very nice Rest Area about 5 km north of Childers called Apple Tree Creek Rest Area.

I had ridden about 20 km when the next incident happened. Riding down a hill doing about 25 km an hour in the narrow break down lane, when a bulge in the bitumen appeared. I steered to the left of it but unfortunately hit some loose gravel and lost control and over the handlebars I went. Both panniers came off, the handle bar bag and three water bottles dislodged themselves, and my rear vision mirror snapped off. I received abrasions to my lower left jaw and upper right chest and a rather sore right hand. Well I shook myself off, replaced all my gear, checked the bike and every thing seemed to be in order and set off again.

Struggled through another 10 km when I looked behind and some dark clouds were fast approaching and sure enough it started raining. I spotted a bus shelter at a school nearby and sheltered there till the rain passed. While there I checked myself out in particular the palm of my right hand and there was a nasty gash about 20mm long and deep. I applied antiseptic cream and dressings to it and when the rain had stopped set off again.

Another 5 km down the road I detected something loose on the bike, so stopped and had a look and I had lost a screw out of the luggage rack behind my seat. That was quickly rectified with a temporary cable tie.

Finally got into town about 5.15pm and found a Caravan Park. Booked in and set myself up and off to the shower. After my shower I was concerned about the injury to my right hand so off to the Causality Section of the local hospital. To cut the story short the duty doctor inserted 3 stitches into the wound and sent me on my way.

Walking back to camp I stopped for tea at a local café then continued back. Now I am doing my diary before I forget although I would prefer to forget.

Not sure what I will do tomorrow at this stage.