Day: 031
Date: Sunday, 27 August 2006
Summary: Riding from Coen to Moreton Telegraph Station.
Start: Coen
Finish: Moreton Telegraph Station
Daily Kilometres: 189
Total Kilometres: 3910
Weather: Warm to hot and sunny with south-easterly winds.
Accommodation: Guest house room at Moreton Telegraph Station campground,Queensland .
Nutrition:
Brunch: Bacon, eggs and chips
Dinner: Two pies
Encounters: I saw a few kangaroos later in the day.
Highlights: The two hours I spent eating brunch, with a follow-up ice-cream, on the shady verandah at the Archer River Roadhouse were very pleasant. It was very busy with many travellers passing through. I spent some time chatting to a farmer from Beaudesert who was helping out at the Roadhouse as part of his vacation. It turned out he knew a girl I knew who had married a local farmer there. I also chatted with some aborigines who were on their way back to Bamaga from Darwin , and to some German tourists.
Lowlights: The last hour’s riding of the day was the lowlight of the trip. Originally I had not intended to ride as far as the Moreton Telegraph Station, but the road was better after Archer River and I was making good time so I decided to try for Moreton and a shower. However, the last hour was mostly in darkness and the road deteriorated into sandy corrugations for most of the way. It was very hard to keep balance with limited visibility and, at one point, I fell off twice in five metres. What made it even more surreal was that there was a controlled burn of undergrowth stretching for many kilometres along the left-hand side of the road so there were flames just off the road and an orange glow all along (which didn’t help to illuminate the track at all!). I was cursing and, to top it all off, I lost my treasured wrap-around sunglasses which had done a great job of keeping the dust out of my contact lenses for the whole trip.
Journal:
I left soon after 7:00am and had a mix of good road and bad road on another sunny day to the Archer River Roadhouse where I stopped for a relaxing brunch. Since my intention had only been to ride another ~60km and then camp, I was in no hurry to leave and enjoyed watching the passing parade and chatting to some of the people.
I left around 1:00pm and had relatively good road for the next couple of hours with a slight following wind which helped me make good time. I began to think that I could get to Moreton Telegraph Station where there was a campground if I continued at a good pace, rather than looking for a suitable creek to camp beside (since I had decided not to carry lots of water).
The plan worked well and I made good time through the partly timbered grazing land. After the Weipa turn-off there wasn’t much traffic either, so it was quite pleasant. However, with about 15km to go it was virtually dark and the road deteriorated and I did not enjoy the last hour’s riding through the sandy corrugations. I eventually reach the campground about 7:45pm and was welcomed by the owners and some of their guests, who all thought I was mad (I thought I was stupid for taking such a long break at Archer River if I was going to attempt this far). Anyway, they offered me a room in their “guesthouse” where the only other occupant was, Katie, an English backpacker who was helping out around the campground. They also heated a couple of pies for my late dinner. After eating and a shower I felt much better. Having come this far today, I think I’ll now get to Bamaga/Seisia in two days and reach the Cape on Wednesday. Tomorrow I will tackle the Old Telegraph Track, which should be fun. It would be more fun if I hadn’t stupidly lost my good sunglasses today!
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