May 4, 2024
Day 1: Gladstone to Dingo Lane
We arrived in Gladstone on time at 11:30pm and got our bikes assembled and across the road to the motel with the only incident being that I lost my multitool after using it.
In the morning, Gabby came round about 8 and after some more inevitable fading we rode a whole 100m to an art gallery cafe next to a bike shop. Unfortunately the art gallery had a delightful display of artwork made from rubbish but no food. I got a replacement multitool from the bike shop and we set off on the next leg, 200m to the next cafe. Dave started strong by ordering crumbed brains for breakfast that were apparently alright. My pumpkin and haloumi roll was delicious.
Eventually we decided we had better start riding proper so we headed off to the main road to Mt Larcom, also a tour of Gladstone’s industrial precincts. The scale of pipes to deliver cooling water to the power station is enormous. There were lots of people taking in the view of the coal terminal/fishing in the creeks. The shoulder was good to Yarwun but then the road got a bit hairy. Nice country winding through hills imagining solar panels though.
It was a relief to make it to Mt Larcom. Dave and I had another surprisingly good coffee and filled up with water then we gleefully left the Bruce behind and headed west. Mt Larcom is a bigger town than I realised but we climbed out of the lantana covered outskirts soon enough, helped by a favourable wind.
We were not yet on the National Trail alignment so we’re following my best guess at a route and it turned out well with low trafficked bitumen or just graded roads through nice green back blocks country.
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We turned onto a less well graded dirt road and followed a trail of tiny planes stuck to trees to find a giant freight plane resting in a paddock of a wedding venue. That at least explained the tiny planes but still left quite a few questions.
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From there it was not far to the National Trail designated campsite at Dingo Lane. A mown road leads down to a pool in the creek which makes a knee deep crossing at the moment.
It was quite a rainy afternoon so Dave set up his tarp and we had lunch & read books under there for the afternoon. The creek was a good bathing spot but the mozzies were ferocious. Our lunch and dinner were quite close together but extremely gourmet with fresh bread, cheese, vegetables and even wine. This isn’t peasant camping!
Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 64 km (40 miles)
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