Old Men in the Morning.

July 30, 2021

Blackbutt to Yarraman

Blackbutt Showgrounds appears to host an inordinate number of old men, all dressed in flannelette shirts, who putter around the grounds very early in the morning:

Man 1: carefully rearranged the rubbish from all the bins into just two, then brought a very shiny new end-loader into which he carefully loaded the bins and drove away very slowly, returning with the loader after some minutes having delivered the bins to (presumably) their collection point.

Man 2: drove around the showgrounds on a ride-on mower not (as far as we could tell) doing any mowing. At one point the mower ran out of fuel but he was equal to the challenge, refuelled it, and kept on 'mowing'.

Man 3: drove his ute in close to us in the undercover area, where we were shivering in the sun after shivering all night in our 3-season not-winter tent. "Are we in your way?" we asked. He puffed happily on a cigarette. "Nope. Just having a smoke before I head off." Which didn't answer why he was there in the first place.

If you camp at the Blackbutt Showgrounds, don't expect to sleep in after 0700. Other than that it's clean, spacious, has lots of firewood, and everyone is very friendly.

I might add, if you camp there in winter expect to get cold.

Today was a very exciting day because after 140km grinding uphill we got a taste of how the other half lives: downhill with a tailwind, and relish it we did, especially when we were passed by bikers plugging uphill into the wind.

Last week's rain was still evident, which added to the fun.

There were no intact bridges in this section, so some pushing was necessary for unfit and heavily loaded cyclists such as us.

Cooyar CK is at the bottom of the downhill, with flagstones in place to enhance your crossing experience.

It's all uphill from Cooyar Ck, and we made it to Yarraman to celebrate...

...we finished all 161km of the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail!!!

Off we went to the Yarraman Caravan Park, which perches on the hill above town with beautiful views over the rolling green paddocks and far away mountains. Of course you have to get up there first to admire the views, and let me tell you getting up there took some doing. Along the way we ditched any plans we might have had to walk back into town to do our shopping. We're going to be eating whatever is left in our panniers thank you very much, because neither of us is willing to take on that hill again.

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Today's ride: 20 km (12 miles)
Total: 239 km (148 miles)

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