Duaringa to Biloela

Duaringa to Biloela = 155km (Duaringa to Dululu = 82km, Dululu to Biloela = 73km)
Cummlative total = 6033km

Duaringa to Dululu -
This was a very hilly day! especially along the Capricornia highway. Lucky there wasn't a strong wind for us but there was a fair bit of traffic on the roads, I suppose because it was a weekday. The shoulder along the highway was good and wide enough for us.
Some of the hill climbs were quite tough - 6% was the final one over the Gogango ranges and about 13km before Gogango itself.
Again we saw another wide load with a police escort ... and I am sure this is the last one we will see for a while!

I thought we would see the body later on for this giant scoop but we didn't.
Neil found me a pair of jandals alongside the road (I just seem to miss absolutely everything!). They are near new and only ab out a size too big for me but they are okay - as my pair was getting very thin.

Crikey look at the odd suntan on my feet! If you look at my right foot at the heel you can see just how too big they are - so it is a bit like wearing flippers when you walk in them but they will suit their purpose to get me home to Melbourne!
We had a cuppa at Gogango which is about 9km from our turnoff. Just as we were leaving Dunphy park (where we had our cuppa) one of the locals comes out for a chat and offers us cake - but we were just leaving and had already eaten. Why do they always do that after we have eaten!
We turned onto Leichhardt highway for Dululu - this part of the highway is only a minor highway but after Dululu the Leichhardt highway becomes the major truck route. But the 26km we were on was very quiet and was undulating for the first 8km and then flattened out for the final 18km.

Dululu and Biloela are in the Banana shire - now I am wondering why it is called Banana shire as there is NO bananas grown anywhere here!
We got to Dululu and it is a very small place - not even a shop to buy food - lucky we bought some at Duaringa as we thought there might not be any shops at Dululu. It does have a pub thou. The rest area is nice and I think it might be an ex caravan spot as there were concrete slabs everywhere and on our way in to the town there were very old caravan park signs. Relieved to get to the rest area and it does have power and showers for a $10 fee which is payable at the pub but we opted not to pay for that luxury!
We didn have a strange old man come over and chat to us and we couldn't quite understand him most of the time as he had a very strong European accent and then we finally figured out what he was talking about - Hendry virus is in the area! He kept mentioning bats (we thought he said bus) and horses and don't believe the Health dept etc. Sometimes I wish we were bush camping!

Dululu to Biloela -
We are fast running out of food - it has taken all my will power not to eat all our snacks and we have had to count out the bread slices again! The food bags are the lightest they have ever been and by the time we get to Biloela I think we will only have a handful of nuts and fruit left!
We are now on the Burnett highway and no road trains are allowed on here - and I can see why now - the road is narrow at times and a little worse for wear. It is very scenic and there is predominantly pastural land growing grain, seed or grazing cattle - especially Brangus (I assume a cross between Brahmah and Angus). It is relatively flat this part of the highway but about 20km from Biloela the road really deteriorates and becomes very patchy and full of pot holes.

We were both very relieved to get to Biloela and have decided to stay here an extra rest day. The campground is nice and while waiting for Neil to book us in you could see all these peacocks running around with the males flapping their feathers and I assume it is mating season. One peacock flew up on the roof in front of me and for 5 minutes Kouta just looked at it ...

... I am not sure what he is thinking but he did lick his lips a few times ...
and this is what he is looking at ...

there is no difference between unpowered and powered sites so we have a small site next to one of the 3 camp kitchens and since we are the only ones around we have taken over the kitchen! We are only 2km from Woolworths and had a field day in there in the Bakery dept with all their markdowns and bought quite alot of food!
Got back just in time as it started to rain (just a light rain) and became very cold and we had to get out all our thermals and since we have been in the heat for such a long time - when it drops below 20 degrees the body sort of reacts violently and demands warmth!

While waiting for our pies to cook a peacock displayed its tail for us.

Today it is cold again and only 18 degrees and it rained lightly most of last night and is very cloudy and grey at the moment - I hope it clears as we have alot of washing to do!

Dingo to Duaringa

Dingo to Duaringa = 40km
Cummulative total = 5878km

Big celebration today ... it is our 100th day of actual cycling!!! So it was only a short day to just down the road from Dingo to a place called Duaringa. We have joined up with the Capricornia highway and are following the railway line that takes all the coal to Gladstone (i think!). It is quite a reasonable road to cycle along - the shoulder is good and the traffic is not really that heavy (mind you it is a sunday). The ride to Duaringa was okay - hilly in some places and it always feels that you are climbing a hill but it doesn't look like it when you look around you - but you are as 5km out from Duaringa there is a nice gradual down hill and I thought as I was riding along that isn't it nice to have a down hill going into Duaringa ... well I was wrong as there is a nasty short, sweet and steep climb to the wee town itself!
We only saw one wide load today and again there was a police escort with it (same police as yesterday!) and this time it was another big mining machine - I reckon it is the machine that is at the base of a dragline as the wheels were removed completely from it ...

... actually if you look to the left of the photo you can see where the wheels normally would be - in fact I was thinking that if they had kept the wheels on it would have rolled along with the truck towing it and so take the strain of the truck itself!
At Duaringa there is a massive rest area that is open to the travelling public and has free(donation at the info center) showers (hot) and toilets and so we are tucked in the corner. It is a lovely spot.

it is free and we have been very fortunate since leaving the coast as we have only had to pay for 2 nights camping out of around 10! Tomorrow we will stay here and there is another rest area at Dululu so that is free as well!

another free accessory with this Duaringa rest area is the mossies - they are thick!

Middlemount to Dingo

Middlemount to Dingo = 132km (Middlemount to 12 Mile Creek Bush camp = 70km, 12 Mile Bush Camp to Dingo = 62km)
Cummulative total 5838km

We woke on Friday morning to a very thick fog but the night and the morning were very warm so it seemed strange to have a fog. We had only 8km to do before we hit the Fitzroy Development road and then we turned south to Dingo.

It wasn't a bad road a bit like the other mine roads (although there are no where near the amount of mines along this road like on the previous roads) and was flattish with a few hills here and there. For the first 40km we had no wind to speak off and then after our cuppa at 40km we had rain for around 50mins and it was only a light drizzle but enough to wet the road. Right behind that rain band was some shocking winds - I tell you we dropped to 10km per hour and even then that was a struggle! I would have to say the wind was around the 25 - 30 kph mark - it was ridiculously strong and coming straight at us.
It is often a dilemma (spelling?) as to what to do when this happens - do you stop and step up camp leaving a longer day the next day and if you do what happens if the wind speed is still blowing? ... or do you continue to push on and do what you said you would do and then hope like hell tomorrow is not as strong as today?!!! Well we were in the dilemma and at 58km (we needed to go 65km to make it the half way point for tomorrow) and there was an ideal camp spot and it was tempting but I thought that would leave 73km for today and if the wind still blew I knew I would struggle ... so we passed on it and continued for another 12km which took us over an hour to do and found a little track leading of the road to a sort of area that had been cleared alongside a fence line so we set up tent there.
Actually it was quite hard finding a bush camp as for the majority of this road they have burnt both sides of the road to create a fire break.

It was a nice campspot and made it an early night so we could listen to the football (geelong vs. carlton) and we managed to get quite good reception but alas we could only make it to half time before we both fell asleep!
We decided to set the alarm 30mins earlier this morning and rose at 5.30am thinking that we could get some km's in before the wind picked up but funny enough as we rose, the sun rose and so did the wind! It wasn't as bad as yesterday but it was blowing!
We managed to start at 7.30 and by 8.15am the wind was about as strong as yesterday! Fortunately we had also shed about 5kg of water each since yesterday so we managed to cruise along at 13kph which is a bit more respectable than 10kph!
There wasn't much traffic this morning but anyone that did pass we were sure they were going to vote somewhere! What did pass us was a wide load with a police escort which meant that everyone had to get off the road ...

This truck was carrying a 'scoop' which attaches to a coal bulldozer type vehicle and like I said to Neil lucky the truck has a tail wind as if it was going the same way as us the size of the scoop and the fact that it would be facing into the wind would mean that the truck would probably be going as slow as us!!!
A further 10km up the road we came across another police escorted wide load and this time it was the rest of the bulldozer!

if you look closely the wheels from the mining dozer is only about 75cm from the ground! which is not far when you consider just how big everything is.

Well this is probably our last encounter with the mining industry for a while and I am sure glad we diverted to this way, as hard as it was, I think it was a better option than going along the Bruce highway!
Tomorrow I think we will have a short day to Duaringa - it is Sunday tomorrow and there will be no shops open so we will have to get out food from a servo station - there is very little here in Dingo and so we had to go to the servo to pick up some food - 2 loaves of bread and 12 eggs cost us $12.30! But at least it is only $20 to camp regardless if you ahve a tent or van - so we are hooked up to the power!

Dysart to Middlemount

Dysart to Middlemount = 68km
Cummulative total = 5706km

I didn't think I would be doing the blog tonight but we are here in Middlemount and they have a caravan park ... just!
We rose nice and early this morning and it was very foggy but it was incredibly warm over night and in the morning. The fog didn't clear until around 8.30am and even then it was still a cloudy day for a while but by 10am it was nothing but clear blue skies with a northerly wind - so it was a very hot day cycling today and poor Kouta he is struggling with the heat at the moment - I would say it got to 30 degrees while we were cycling along and right now in the early evening it is still very very warm. (better than the cold thou!!!).
The first 20km this morning was relatively easy and the legs felt a little heavy but the one day break did them good. Just out of Dysart we found $3.60 in coins alongside the road so that was a bonus!!! After Norwich Parks Mine the terrain became a little more hilly until the turnoff to either Middlemount or Tieri. We went left to Middlemount and up to that point we had a tailwind but once we turned left we had a headwind.
Just before getting to Middlemount we were looking for places to camp and before we turned off we found heaps of suitable places but the closer we got to Middlemount the less opportunities there were. We passed the Rodeo ground and thought that would be ideal and so we continued on for another 2km to reach Middlemount and we saw they had a caravan park so we went along and it is a Mac Village which is a miners accomodation park but originally it was a caravan park and they still have that part - so it costs $22 to camp regardless and that includes power and believe it or not the washing machines and dryer are FREE!!! so we washed absolutely everything!
Below is our site - not really a site but one of the only spots that has good shade but the people alongside us are not there so that is okay.

The park has 300 dongas for the miners and are building another 300. (the trucks carrying these are always passing us along the way!). Each donga is like a studio with a room, toilet and shower and costs the miners $110 per week (the rest is subsidised by the mines) and that $110 includes all daily meals and morning and afternoon tea - great aye! In this town of Middlemount there are 4 off these little villages but this is the only one with a caravan park ... which I don't think will be here for very long. I was most surprised that it has tourist sites and there are a few here - some are permanent and some just come for a holiday!
Not much to Middlemount but it does have an IGA supermarket, PO, butcher, chemist, clothes shop, newsagent, hairdresser etc.
Tomorrow we head along the Fitzory Development road to Dingo and it will take us 2 days to get there - I hope it is still a northerly tomorrow!!!

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!)

Proserpine to Mirani

Proserpine to Mirani = 122km (Proserpine to Calen = 74km, Calen to Mirani = 48km)
Cummulative total = 5383km

We had a lovely restful day at Proserpine and while chatting with mum and dad for a while in the afternoon Neil played scrabble with another camper called Rhona who also had a lovely natured dog called Meg of whom Kouta decided to ignore all afternoon and just slept (like he normally does!). After Neil I played Rhona and in the evening we each had a game against her ... now Rhona is a serious player and plays in tournaments and although she says she is in the lowest grade for these tournaments she is still a very good player - and she had a 'lazy susan' type scrabble board, a timer (which we didn't use) and list of 2, 3 anf 4 letter words and a collins scrabble dictionary the weight of one of my food pannier when it is full!
It was a cool night and all 3 of us got a good nights sleep after the previous nights storm - funny thing is the next morning after the storm everyone kept asking us if we got wet and they were most surprised when we said no - a backpackers van leaked so they had rain in the van, and believe it or not a caravan had rain water come through its' lights and a canvas tent had a bit of water but that was due to putting it up wrong in the first place and leaving a things up against it so water seeped through.

Proserpine to Calen -
It was cold in the morning but the sky was a clear blue and not a cloud in sight and it stayed like that for the rest of the day. It was a pleasant temperature to ride in - not too hot or cold.
Our first 20km where flat and hardly a breeze to speak off. After the first 20km it became rolling but still ridable and with a wide shoulder.
Just before we got to Bloomsbury we had a police car drive along on our side of the road going north and this forces all the cars of the road and he informed us that a wide load was coming - since both sides of the road was clear that meant a whopper was about to go through - I could barely hide my excitement! don't ask me why but I love looking at wide loads and when I the police person said it is 9m I told Neil to get the camera out!

I have no idea what it is but it was great ... it is just amazing the size of some of the things you see - we are assuming it is for the mines somewhere around Collinsville. But it did take up both sides of the road - I can't wait to cycle through the mine roads! Fingers crossed we get to see more of this type of stuff!
We took a cuppa after Bloomsbury and there was no where in the locality to pull over so we found an open sugar cane field and pulled up there.

And Mum with regards to what we were chatting about eating the sugar cane alongside the road I did try one!

LOL the ones on the road we just to unappetising to eat - too many cars had run over them!

The above photo is a view from our seats - not sure what range that is. But the Bruce highway followed alongside of it the entire way.

The traffic was okay today and since we had a wide shoulder we decided that it was the best day cycling for the past couple of weeks and we both enjoyed it alot.

We got to Calen around 2pm and picked up a loaf of bread at the general store/newsagency. I didn't go in but Neil did and it is run by an 85 year old woman who is very good at adding up without a cash register or calculator and writes the docket for each purchase on scrap paper! The tax dept would love her! Below is a photo of the store and inside Neil said there is just absolutely boxes of everything imaginable!

As soon as we got to the camp ground we remembered that we camped her last time. It is small and pleasant and we camped under a lovely tree with these nice flowers on them.

Calen to Mirani -

It was even colder last night - but I suppose because the days are so bright and clear that means the nights will be cold - but we were all warm in the tent - we don't mind the cold nights as long as the days are warm and this morning it was bitterly cold but once in the sun you soon warmed up!

We cycled along the Bruce highway for around 6km before we said bye to it and turned to go west and past Eungella national park region. I knew that the bulk of today was going to be in the hills since you go past a national park and usually a national park is all the hills and mountains that can't be used for farming or grazing!!! As soon as we got of the highway we immediately noticed the quietness and lack of cars - especially trucks! While along this quiet road we may have had a total of less than 10 cars pass us to Mt Charleston and after that maybe 20 to Mirani! It was fantastic - very hilly and undulating but we didn't seem to mind that we both felt good in the legs - it was just pleasant cycling all day!

the above photo is the type of country we were cycling through and it is nothing but either grazing or sugar cane fields - predominantly sugar cane.

Like I said it is very undulating with more climbing than going down. The road was okay to Mt Charleston (at 22km point) but after that it became a one lane road and at times 2 lanes when going around a corner. Not too many caravans use it (we did see a few) I suppose because of the narrow road but it is so picturesque!

above - a typical undulation!

... and we are still climbing - we did pull over for a cuppa at this point and not one car passed through over the 20mins! It was just so quiet there!

At around the 29km point you sort of go down a small hill and onto the plains and it is relatively flat all the way to Mirani and Eungella is to your right as you ride along.

Below is a photo of the range (the small one in the front not the bigger one at the back!) we just came over!

and below is a photo of where we are about to go!

so as you can see it is relatively flat for the final 18km to Mirani. It is a small town on the road to Eungella national park. The caravan park (council) is full mainly with people that have picked up work in the region for a while - so we think it will be quiet tonight? It does have a covered bbq area and a hot/cold water tap at the sink to do dishes and some power points which I am using at the moment. Not too sure when the caretaker will come to collect fees - there is really no information when you come in ... Neil is hoping we get to stay for free!

We head for Nebo tomorrow and so most of our day will be cycling through the cane fields and our view will be a bit like the photo below!

It will be cold again tonight as the day has been very clear - it was a hot sun when standing in it but okay while riding as you create a sort of breeze as you ride along. Below is a bus that is not far from our tent - I like the outback mural on it - it has Northern Territory number plates.

I can see from the tent that it has a full kitchen fridge and more than likely it is fully equipped with everything!

Tomorrow we will start our 3 and 1/2 day ride to Dysart - so 3 nights in the bush and 3 nights without a shower! should be there on Tuesday.