An Australian lap attempt.....anti clockwise

[OnHellas]

Meet Freddo the Frogs Australian cousin.
Caramello Koala......nice.

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[OnHellas]

Tomorrow morning we head off from Townsville in to a more remote area.
The tent may even make another appearance, if it does I’ll try and remember to capture photographic evidence.

Our stay in Townsville has been enjoyable. Yesterday I checked the bikes over and all seems well, a bit of air in some of the tyres was all that was needed.

After lunch in the cabin we rode in to town to visit the Great Barrier Reef HQ. The building houses the worlds largest man made reef.
There was certainly some interesting stuff to see. Some of the fish are a bit different to the goldfish I had as a kid.

Today’s attraction was more up my street. The Watpac 400 Australian Supercar race on the street/park circuit in town.
A full day of track action with classic Aussie touring cars, plenty of muscle, racing Utes (sadly no longer the V8’s of old but modern diesel powered stuff like the Ford Ranger) and of course the V8 Supercars.

Super they are, big, loud, fast and colourful. 70 magnificent laps of horsepower.
I’ve seen them in the tele over the years but nothing beats seeing them in the flesh.
One thing about the race meeting that really stood out to us was the distinct lack of litter. Everybody put their rubbish in the bins provided. A fair bit different to a crowd at Brands Hatch or Donnington Park that’s for sure.

Anyway, if to the outback (ish) in the morning......that’s it for now.

[OnHellas]

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[OnHellas]

The first thing that we needed to do on leaving Townsville was to fuel up the bikes.
We planned to head in to the Outback and fuel stations are much further apart. As we were in the outskirts of town we ended up circling around to find petrol.
Oh, and my headlamp bulb decided to give up. Quite a useful feature on my bike is that the trip meter changes to say LAMP if the bulb has blown. We have a couple of spares but as we were in a petrol station it was just as easy to buy one. A quick and simple job, one that I’ve done a fair few times over the years. The hardest part of the job was getting the new bulb out of the damn packaging......

Anyway, fuel tanks full and lights all present again, we set off up the Hervey Range Road. Wow! It wasn’t long before there were no more buildings and the traffic was virtually nonexistent. There was a nice climb with a few interesting bends climbing up the Hervey Range.
We both agreed that it was nice to be away from the town, and the crowds of the race circuit from yesterday.
After 75 miles we turned right and within 5 miles or so came across the first proper Aussie Road House of our trip.....a sign out the front gave the news ‘Sorry, No Unleaded’.

We had a cold drink and set of again for Greenvale. That was the next Road House and the first opportunity of accommodation. We took advantage of the fuel available and ordered a sandwich for lunch.
How hard can it be? Over an hour later the gourmet feast (not) was ready.
It’s funny how some things or people can wind you up, waiting wasn’t so bad as it was busy, but the attitude of the order taker. Not for me to say the least.
However, as things often seem to work out, he’d done us a favour. Deciding that we couldn’t deal with any more of that, all ideas if staying there went out the window.

Oasis Road House at The Lynd was next. Only another 32 miles and what a place. Happy smiley staff. A very tidy place. Nicely tended lawns and plants. Lawn that we could camp on. But they had a room available. It wasn’t a very close run thing although I reckon we did actually discuss should we shouldn’t we for a minute or two.
Decision made, we should......take the room.
There wasn’t an en-suite though so it was halfway to camping, wasn’t it?
Another thing that we’d started to see were the proper Road Trains. We encountered four or five along the way, one of them pulling four trailers. We passed that one on a stretch of road only wide enough for a truck. We had to drop off on to the dirt shoulder. The truck did the same the other side which was polite of him, but boy the dust!
It’s an obvious thing but ‘he with the biggest vehicle rules!’

The temperature dropped a lot over night, there wasn’t a frost but it was cold in the room, especially as we’d left the window vent open. I reckon that we would actually have been warmer in the tent.
Never mind, there were hot showers and bacon sandwiches on the menu. What’s not to like.

We didn’t too up with fuel again having only done just over 30 miles from the last fill. The next petrol station was 140 miles up the road so we had more than enough. They had petrol when we got there but I had thought back to the ‘No Unleaded’ sign from yesterday. Something we need to think carefully about for sure. At the speeds we’ve been riding it seems like we’ll have up to 240 miles of fuel range. Obviously depending on wind direction etc. We also have a 6.6 litre RotoPax fuel can with us. A comfort blanket it may be but I think that we will start to fill it once we head west towards the centre in a week or so.

The road was littered with roadkill. Mainly Kangaroos but we also saw a high wild boar. It certainly concentrates the mind. At one point I was wondering what the lump was by the side of the road thinking it was something else that had gone to meet its maker when the perfectly healthy Roo bounced away. I hadn’t read that situation overly well and was still doing about 35/40 mph when I went past it.

The train of thought here is that a kangaroo will set of in the direction that it is facing, they won’t instantly turn. Turn away from danger, they just start bouncing.

[OnHellas]

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[OnHellas]

Above pics....we did camp....I’ll get to that bit of the story in a bit.

Sarah on her bike. Riding the dirt road around Lake Tinaroo

An amazing green fig tree. I’ll try and explain, again, when I get to that bit of the story.

[OnHellas]

Time for a cream tea? Nope, I had salad...booo

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[OnHellas]

Sorry, the WiFi allowance ran out.

So, the Roo moved in the correct direction for me and on we went.
Just past Ravnshoe (is that pronounced Ravens Hoe or Raven Shoe?) There was a small turning sign posted as a scenic route not suitable for caravans. We took the turn and the narrow road passed through rolling fields with black and white cows in them. It looked very much like my home county if Kent. The of Wye near Ashford.

We came out at a town called Millaa Millaa, stopped for a cuppa and a sandwich and decided it was time to sort out somewhere to stay for the night.
Sarah didn't seem impressed with any of the places that I suggested and although time was ticking by she wanted to ride another hour or so to Lake Tineroo. Apparently the campsite was nice.
We went there.
It was. Nice, the campsite.
We stayed for a couple of nights and took a ride around the lake on the dirt road. Very easy going as it was so compacted.
We saw the Cathedral Fig Tree. A photo is above I think. Anyway, I didn't know that these trees start with the seed being dropped in the branches of another tree. They then grow, sending roots all the way to the ground eventually killing off the host tree.
As usual the photos don't do it justice but it was a wow thing to see.

We left Lake Tineroo this morning with the plan to ride the 190 miles to Cooktown and camp again.The roads rolled through changing landscape with a few climbs and descents to enjoy.
Some of the views across the southern part of the Cape York Peninsula were stunning.
The first campsite we tried was full so we've ended up on the edge of town on a site sorrounded by The Bush. That's what the sign says anyway.
We have booked in for three nights as the excitement of doing some washing is mounting.

The next question.........North to Cape York??? 850km of washboard dirt road and sections of tarmac........or stick to the original idea and head south again back to Cairns via the coast road and Port Douglas. Some of which is dirt......??

We don't want to 'miss out' on the Cape, but we certainly don't want to wreck the bikes, or ourselves. There is a long way to go yet.

[OnHellas]

Yesterday, Thursday the 12th, was time to wash some clothes.
The excitement never stops does it....??!
Four $1 coined in to the machine, some washing powder collected from a hotel room a few weeks back and we were good to go.
The washing line was hitched between bike and tent and we wandered off in to town.

There is an ANZAC memorial here as in most towns that we’ve been in. Always a bit somber and a reminder of just how lucky we are.

There’s a good cake shop in town, I do like a nice cake, so we took advantage of the power sockets to charge up our phones.
How did we survive without them.
I’ve recently deleted my Facebook account as I just seemed to waste so much time looking at it. ABR isn’t a waste of time..of course.

The hours passed by and we had a nice day of wandering, finished off with a supermarket visit for supplies.

This morning, Friday, sees us back at the sink washing clothes. We had breakfast at a nice wooden picnic bench.....there was tree sap on it......it’s not my shorts that are being washed. Bugga!

Apparently alcohol or nail varnish remover is the thing to get it off. Today’s plan has taken shape it seems.

I’ve just been speaking to a group of six 4wd guys that have just returned from the tip. Cape York, not the rubbish dump.
Anyway, they reckon that even the easier route along the ‘Development Road’ has bad corrugations, lots of big holes and bull dust.
We want to have a go but just not this time. It’s a shame but as I may have said before we hopefully have a long way to go.

There’s no glory in destroying us or the bikes. That’s what we reckon anyway.

I must say that I’m grateful for you guys saying thanks for my posts, at least I know that someone is reading my drivel.
I know a lot of it seems a bit doom laden, it’s not meant to be. It’s just my humour that I hope comes across. I’m not really a Motorcycling Victor Mildred, quite.

Cheers guys, more to come soon all being well.

[OnHellas]

We climbed up Grassy Hill today. It’s where Captain Cook went to try and see a way out of the bay after stopping to repair his stricken vessel.

London is that way, I did wave to you guys in the U.K. but it was the middle of the night for you lot......

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