May 5, 2024
Day 2: Dingo Lane to Mt Morgan
The morning started with two utes coming through our campsite at 6:30 and continuing on up Dingo Lane.
Despite that early start we still managed to faff around for a while making porridge and packing up. I guess not camping like a peasant means there are more things to pack up.
It was a lovely ride once we got on the road with lots of grass around and some spectacular windmills.
Also transmission lines and old homesteads, e.g. Cecilwood, 1899, which had its own graveyard.
I said it was too early for morning tea at Dave’s suggested creek but we missed the next national trail campsite at an unremarkable creek so sailed on past a quarry on a bitumen road until we finally stopped for early lunch on the side of a side road.
Gabby pointed out the lukina plantation near the Dingo Lane creek and then I noticed it everywhere along the side of the road. Soon after lunch, we turned onto another dirt road running alternately parallel or towards the mountains.
It felt like a long way from anywhere but then we got to a collection of houses that were obviously quite easily accessed from the highway. In hindsight, we should’ve kept going north. Instead we turned west, and continued on through a gate that said road closed. For the first few kms it wasn’t too bad, just a bit muddy and weedy. Then the hill started. It was less than a kilometre to climb more than 200m so the gradient was insane, and it was a rocky muddy 4wd track. After the first uphill push, we devised a rotating strategy of two people pushing one bike up a section while the third rested. So we all covered each part of that road at least three times. It took us two hours to get up that kilometre. As Dave said, at least it wasn’t 30 degrees, or raining, but a cloudy day was really all we had going for us. I had deliberated about going to Mt Morgan at all or skipping around the base of the hills on the highway, and decided that a 350m hill couldn’t be that bad.
Reader, it was that bad.
Eventually we made it around a corner to a very suburban looking road which Gabby and I rode down getting splattered in mud while Dave’s tyre mud guards held up well. At the Burnett highway, the national trail route continues up another hill across the road but we decided we could not be bothered so slogged up a smaller hill on the highway before finally rolling into town. We stopped for a coke at the first pub we saw while we checked which caravan park Linda had sent food to. Unfortunately it was still another 3kms down the road.
However, we did get there, pick up the box of food from the friendly owner and set up our tents mostly before dark.
The Mt Morgan rodeo was on at the Showgrounds down the road but the entry cost was prohibitive so after silting up the caravan park grey water system with the intense amounts of mud, we struggled back up the hill to the Grand Hotel. Gabby finally got the parmy he’s been talking about but didn’t seem to like it much so I think the great parmy hunt will reach an inglorious end when Gabby admits he doesn’t actually like them. Only Dave could finish his meal but I took some of my pizza away in a box affixed to my rack with a strap from Dave.
I thought about writing this last night but the reception at our campsite wasn’t great, and I fell asleep instead.
Today's ride: 72 km (45 miles)
Total: 136 km (84 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 5 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |