Mirani to Dysart

Mirani to Dysart = 255km (Mirani to Boundary Creek bushcamp = 73km, Boundary Creek to Coppabella = 70km, Coppabella to Peak Downs Mine = 65km, Peak Downs to Dysart 47km)
Cummulative total = 5638km


This is a photo of our camp spot at Mirani where we ended up camping for free as no one came to collect fees in the evening so we got out of there early the next morning before someone could come around!
It was a cool night last night but the morning was a bright clear day again and we began by taking a back road to Eton where the first 9km was sealed and then as you go over the small range it becomes 4km of unsealed road (both maps that we have said that it was sealed where as the UBD map on the computer said it was partly unsealed!) and the rest of the 10km to Eton was sealed.

Neil wasn't happy that it was unsealed - we have come across alot of mis information along this trip and different maps are always contradicting each other and even on the internet there is alot of mis information.
We picked up water out of Eton and then started cycling along the Peak Downs highway - it was a Saturday and the traffic was quite heavy but there was a shoulder albeit small but the traffic was couteous to us and were able to get on the other side of the road when overtaking. From Eton you are climbing for about 10km and it is a nice gentle climb and then you are struck by this sign!

You could hear the trucks grinding down their gears and going up and down this steep hill range in first gear! It is 1.5km of 11% gradient and it nearly killed me! Some of the trucks were going just as slow as us going up. We made it up without walking but with 2 quick stops to catch our breath back.

The above photo is a view from the top of the small range and from there for the next 30km it was undulating. Just up and down, up and down, up and down!!! The undulations were quite steep and the shoulder was always narrow going up the hills and wide coming down. The road surface is excellent for cars but chunky and bumpy for the bikes - everything rattled from here right through to Dysart!

We were having trouble finding a camp spot as there is just no tracks leading of the road. In the end we found a drive and went on someones farm land near Boundary Creek and in the end it was a lovely spot for us.

That is the bridge along the highway that goes over the creek that we were camped next to.

The next day we began riding a little later as it was beginning to get hard getting out of bed - the legs were quite stiff this morning from all the climbing! We stopped at Nebo (16km down the road) and picked up water. Neil went to the toilet and came back with his hair all wet so I thought there was a shower in there but it wasn't he just washed his hair with the hand wash creme in the toilet - he said it was refreshing so I decided that I would do the same and it was and our hair smelt exactly like toilet hand cream! The ride to Nebo was quite goo - a slight tailwind and a little bit of undulatioin to the Glenden road turnoff and then flat to Nebo. At the turnoff there is a huge accomodation area full of flash dongas for all the mine workers and even at Nebo there was another one and each one had 3 Greyhound buses stationed there to transport the workers to and from the mines.

From Nebo the road becomes flat for a while to where you merge with the highway that goes to Sarina south of Mackay. Along the way I saw a snake about 1m and an orangey/brown colour - I was riding in the shoulder closer to the road and there it was curled up on the grass edge with the shoulder and it moved away as I squealed and went past it - neil didn't see it and for the rest of the day I road out in the lane on the road - bugger the shoulder!

Just before our turnoff we saw our first coal train ...

Now these are very long - around 1.8km long and just go on and on and on! On this one Neil counted 120 carriages but most will average around 136 wagons.

the above sign is at Coppabella and tells you all about the coal trains although I do dispute the last statement of 20 trains per day.

Once we turned west we had a headwind and for the next 50km to Coppabella it was very tiring and hard riding with the rolling plains. Again we found it hard to find a path of the road and in the end we found a dirt service road just outside Coppabella and camped on it and all night the trains went that is why I dispute the 20 trains a day ... more like 4 an hour!!!
So the next morning we woke up still tired from a broken sleep and stiff legs, when we finally got going we had to climb 3 hills between coppabella and the turnoff to Dysart. Basically you are gently climbing (and sometimes no so gentle in the climbs!) or going down hill there is no in between!

Along the way to the turnoff we came across this coal mine belt - the road goes over it so the photo is taken in 2 stages. (funny enough I remembered it from last time we rode along this road but we were going to Mackay)

Below is where the coal is mined and put on the conveyer belt which is then fed down below the road ...

... and further down to the trains waiting at the bottom where they fill up each coal carriage.

We stopped for a cuppa about 7km before the turnoff and that regenerated the legs a bit more and at the turnoff there was a shell station so we topped up with water and bought a Billabong ice block each and that was nice as it was starting to get quite warm - Kouta just looked at me while eating my ice block so in the end I saved a little bit for him on the stick.

Now he really enjoyed licking the ice block!

At the turnoff the road becomes a little quieter - basically the only things that pass us are mine cars with their serial numbers or mine worker cars going home for their 4 day weekend!

So the road was still lumpy and bumpy and a little flatter all the way to Peak Downs Mine which was 24km away and then another 6km to get through it.
along the way we saw this sign and thought that was okay but there was another sign on the other side of the Peak Downs mine that contradicted this!

below are a series of photos that we took along the 6km stretch that runs through the mine itself - don't worry it is cut off from the public with high fences but you can still see a little bit.

The cranes in the background are doing something along the lines of preparing the area and laying draglines (I think) for a huge coal mine machine that will eventually dig the coal out.

as you ride along you can see huge topsoil piles that look like mountain ranges! and these are formed so they can actually get to the coal itself. In the distance you can see what looks like tiny dump trucks trucking the soil to the top of the pile but close up they are huge whopping great big trucks!

this is a machine that is digging the coal out and in the crane photos above - this is the machine they are laying drag lines for.

Eventually the road leads to the front gate of Peak Downs Mine but just before it you can see in to the part of the mine where they dump and process the coal.

here is a truck that carries the coal and dumps it in a stock pile and from there it is carried up and along some belt and spat out into another pile ...

... and from there it goes along and spat out onto yet another pile and then goes onto a coal train (well that is the general idea I am not too sure what is happening to the coal as it goes from pile to pile!)

but it was marvellous to watch and the size of everything is just 'larger than life'!!!

They even hard a yard of spare tyres!

and believe me those tyres are absolutely huge - you can only fit 2 on a B Double! and even then they have to have a wide load escort as they are wider than the lanes on the road!

the above photo is a typical coal truck and unfortunately I had nothing to compare it to so you can see just how big the trucks are ... HUGE!
Remember the sign at the start saying how we are entering a blast area but the sign was inactive we below is the sign before you reach the mine from the south ...

... a bit late to tell us now that we had been through it! I think someone forgot to make the sign inactive!
We camped about 1km from the mine on the top of the first hill and we could see the mine from our tent.

this is what we could see from our tent door - and believe it or not it wasn't that noisy - just a low hum throughout the night - even the train wasn't loud but I think that was further away compared to where it was when we stayed at Coppabella!

we woke the next morning (our 6th straight day of cycling) and certainly regretting that we didn't have a rest day at Mirani! From our campspot to Dysart it was up and down all the way and there was nothing left in the legs and to make matters worst we had a strong headwind so what was meant to be a short easy day turned into a short hard day!

Yesterday Neil found a shade miners hard hat extention along the side of the road and all last night he was trying to improvise and put it around his helmet. Below is the result ..

believe it or not it is stuck to the helmet with sticky tape and lasted about 2 hours before he didn't like it and took it off the helmet!!! It actually looked like the flying nuns hat piece of her habit!!!

It was a relief to get to Dysart and unfortunately our woes didn't end there - Dysart campground has been made into a Mac village which is donga accomodation for the mines!!! OMG I thought and we were getting ready to camp out in the bush and even had a rest day in the bush as I don't think we could have made it to the next caravan park which is another 2-3 days cycling!

We sat in the park to have something to eat and for me to chat with the whanau and Neil went to the shops again just to get some mark down pork butterfly steaks for lunch and he came back in a car with a woman and I am giggling to the whanau saying that Neil has just cruised by in a car with another woman and they are thinking OMG Neil has left with another woman etc. and then all they can think of is that he has run off with the pork chops!!! But he did come back and he had been taken to the local sports ground - the council woman took him up there to show where to camp and to get the key from the groundsman for the toilets and showers!

so here we are alongside the soccer field and we have water for me to do all our washing - you can see it hanging all over the place on the 2 bikes and on a make shift line between 2 trees! We have toilets (we are using the womens, even Neil, as the mens is a bit dirty!) and the shower is something to remember - it is in the change rooms and it is full of dust and dirt and foot balls everywhere and the shower itself is a bit worse for wear but it is a shower and it is hot so I am not complaining!!! And they don't mind us staying here for a rest day - which is today!

Tomorrow we head for Middlemount (which we assume also has a Mac village for miners and not travellers so we will go bush again) and then 2 days to Dingo (which has a caravan park!)