Mackay

May 25, 2024 to May 26, 2024

Saturday the 25th of May 2024

The first task today was to watch the final of the European Rugby Challenge Cup. My team, the Kwazulu-Natal Sharks, versus Gloucester from England. For the record, Gloucester got a good spanking , giving the Sharks automatic entry into next season's European Champion's Cup competition.

Sharks 36 - Gloucester 22. I use a streaming channel called Rubu that gives me access to almost every televised rugby match on the planet.

Much of the first seventeen kilometers of today's ride came close to the warnings we got at Nebo. A narrow shoulder and quite a bit of traffic. However from the eighteen kilometer mark we enjoyed a great shoulder and an enjoyable downhill until just before Eton where we left the Peak Downs Highway and headed towards the Bruce Highway via Homebush on a mostly quiet country road.

Back at sea-level it is a lot more tropical - humid and windy. The section to the Bruce Highway was into a stiff wind and was hard work. Nonetheless we managed to pick up a few new birds along the way as would be expected with the change in the environment.

Narrow guage train line used for transporting cane. The privately owned Mackay Sugarcane Railways has about eight hundred and fifty kilometers of track and forty five diesel locomotives.

Once on the highway the wind was on our right shoulder for the last seven kilometers into the southern outskirts of Mackay. We're spending tonight at a busy caravan park but it is close to a big Woolworths so I have been able to rustle up a good meal of steak and salad with a bottle of Shiraz. A treat to have nice food again

We can't leave Mackay until I can get to a bicycle shop so tomorrow we will move onto another caravan park on the northern side of town.

Sunday the 26th of May 2024

This morning we realised there was little to gain from moving to another campground on the northern side of town. So we paid for another night, did our laundry, grocery shopping etc and had a relaxing day monopolizing the camp kitchen.

The only other users of the kitchen have been an a young Argentinian couple, who are here on a working holiday visa, and Daniel, a Pedi speaking South African guy who is working here on a scarce skills visa and sending all his money back to South Africa to support his extended family.

Tomorrow we head to the Cape Hillsborough National Park with a visit to a bicycle shop along the way.

Today's ride: 72 km (45 miles)
Total: 3,491 km (2,168 miles)

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