After riding my mountain bike from Adelaide to Darwin in 2005, I was keen for another such adventure, but one that returned to the kind of back roads I travelled when riding from Sydney to Melbourne in 2004. I hatched the idea of riding from the southernmost tip to the northernmost tip of mainland Australia, and rather than riding along the main (coastal) highway, try and ride a straight-line route that would necessarily take me on back roads and through a variety of terrains and climates.

Wilsons Promontory to Cape York by bike - Tambo to Barcaldine

Day: 016
Date: Saturday, 12 August 2006
Summary: Riding from Tambo to Barcaldine.
Start: Tambo
Finish: Barcaldine
Daily Kilometres: 207
Total Kilometres: 2163
Weather: Cold early (3°C) but warm and sunny for the rest of the day with variable winds.
Accommodation: Motel in Barcaldine , Queensland .
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Some snacks
  Lunch:  Two pies lunch
  Dinner:  Works burger for dinner (what a healthy day!).
Encounters: I saw quite a few (live) kangaroos and a pelican on one of the inland billabongs I passed.
Highlights: Reaching the halfway point, although it’s hard to believe that I am only half-way when I’m already so far north into Queensland .
Lowlights: This was a pretty tough day.  The weather is getting quite warm during the day and being the third 200km day in a row, I’m beginning to feel quite tired.  It will be good to have a few shorter days and, assuming the gravel roads aren’t too bad, I might take half a day off in Hughenden in three days time.

Journal:
It was again very cold as I set off and my feet and fingers again froze for the first couple of hours.  I hadn’t really been looking forward to this third 200km day, but seem to be managing.  The scenery continued to be predominantly rolling open cattle grazing country with occasional timbered areas.  I decided to ride straight through to Blackall (100km) and have a late breakfast and reached there about 11:15am.  There wasn’t much choice for food and I finally ended up just getting some pies from the local bakery and buying a couple of pastries which I kept for afternoon tea.

Around noon I set out on the 107km to Barcaldine, my target for the day and just kept plodding along, taking a break every 20km.  It’s getting warmer and I have noticed I am drinking a lot more.  When I hit the back roads from Muttaburra to Hughenden, which may take me a couple of days, I will need to make sure I carry quite a lot of water.  I will save some of my Diet Coke bottles to use for extra water.

I got to Barcaldine around 5:30pm after riding the last 40km through quite picturesque forests.  There was water in some of the watercourses and some attractive billabongs off in the forest in a couple of places.  It doesn’t look too drought-stricken around here.  I found a motel in the middle of town and got take-out for dinner.  I may start an hour later tomorrow in view of the shorter day (150km).
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