May 16, 2024
Day 13: Bowen River Hotel to Burdekin Falls Dam
Today seemed to take ages to pack up which didn’t bode very well for a big day to the dam. Neither did the fact that Gabby’s new tyre seemed soft when we left. But eventually we got on the road and headed off into a lovely landscape.
We rode through a gap in the hills and came onto a floodplain with cool ridge lines with cliff faces to the south. The road was quite good but it was trending upwards so we were going pretty slowly heading for the hills.
there was water flowing over the road in one creek.
I really enjoyed the ride.
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When we finally got to the hill, it made us go even slower, although it was at least steep enough to be bitumened.
The first car of the day passed us on that hill. We stopped at the top of the steep bit for a break, even though it was 12 we decided to push on further til lunch. I was getting pretty sceptical we’d make it but after a few more kilometres through the Leichhardt ranges, we started trending downwards and went much quicker. The views were not as good though as we were inside the hills. Eventually we made it to the national trail campsite on a fairly average creek for lunch. A few motorbikes passed us and maybe a car or two, but it was generally very quiet. We had a nice enough lunch in the creek watching some pigeons.
We had about 40k to go at 3pm and it was a bit up and down, so really we should have known it would take too long.
There was a lot of water in the dams which are listed as alternative national trail campsites but there were also a lot of cattle and they were in the first half of the ride, when it seemed like we might still have light.
It was nice riding in the late afternoon anyway.
I came across a pig eating ancient road kill kangaroo and several live kangaroos. The final 10k to the dam were a total killer, massive up and down hills! The views over the dam at sunset once we got there were incredible. It’s such a massive body of water with so many peninsulas. I was stressed about my lack of good lights so hustled on but Gabby stopped to take photos.
this meant I was ahead of him and when I got to the final uphill before the dam, I couldn’t see him for ages. I was just hatching a plan to dump my panniers and go back and find him when I saw his flashing light so I made it off the dirt in some light. It was very surreal to ride in the last light down to the narrow road beneath the dam wall. It is absolutely huge from below especially when sunset lit from above, and there was still water thundering out of the dam, misting the road. Luckily we made it across the bridge over the roaring river and then had another almost soul destroying climb up to the caravan park. It’s very different from Eungella, much more regimented and not on the dam shore with a bigger toilet block and even a swimming pool but it’s empty.
We found a campsite with the help of a friendly caravanner. I got some dinner soaking while Gabby showered and tried to become human again. I think it mostly worked.
Today's ride: 101 km (63 miles)
Total: 903 km (561 miles)
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