Day 52

Date:- 5 May 2010
Distance:- 61.62 Km
Distance to Date:- 2701.9 Km
Start:- Gin Gin Caravan Park
Finish:- Granite Rock Rest Area
Comment:- Big test day today. Up about 6am, put the computer and phone on charge while I had breakfast. Packed up and on the road by 8.15am.

Reasonable road as far as Queensland go. Sometimes you have a shoulder to ride on and sometimes you didn’t, but the traffic was medium to light although there were quite a few escorted (Oversize) trucks and a couple with police escorts.

Rolling hills for the first part of the journey and a couple of hills that needed special attention. The road seemed to flatten out for the last 15km into the rest area.

Met a younger couple who were cycling from Cairns to Melbourne. We had a bit of a yarn about each of our endeavours. I think they said they had been on the road about 18 months including riding around, Argentina. We hope to communicate via blogs and Emails. I feel they have a wealth of experience about travelling across the top.

I feel I am back to normal except for my right hand where I had the three stitches. It didn’t seem to matter how I held the handle bar it was quite uncomfortable. Braking, fortunately the front brake which I don’t use much, but changing down gears on the cluster was difficult.
I had my riding gloves on but I think some extra padding may alleviate the discomfort so I will try that tomorrow. It can only get better.

Stopped for my snack break about 12.15pm at a truck stop about 38 km from Gin Gin. Back on the road and heading for the Granite Rock Rest Area. Arrived at the rest area about 3pm, chose a spot and put my tent up and organised myself for the night. Still have a problem with the lower frame on the tent and can survive without it. I just had to shift my “office” to under cover as a shower of rain hit. Quite refreshing actually. We may have a few showers overnight as forecast.

I haven’t spoken to the navigator (Evon) yet but the Boyne River Rest Area (84 km) or Calliope (104 km) are two alternatives or any where in between. I will need to do a wash up so the caravan park at Calliope may be the destination of choice.