The Big Lap – cycling and driving
Justin Milne We are in Croydon, another ex-gold mining town. It’s a just bit bigger than Georgetown but seems to have a similar history of gold rush, boom and bust in the late 1800’s. Athough it’s easy to believe there was a bit more money made here. There seems to have been a bit of recent money spent … Read more
The country has changed really rapidly. A couple of days ago we were in the lush green, cool dairy country of the Atherton Tablelands but as we headed West, through the rain shadow, it seemed to take just a few miles before the country changed completely. I imagine it’s the standard “inch a mile” decline. … Read more
Anna had another heavy day of climbing but she just seems to get fitter and happier every day. We are camped in a gravel pit at the junction of Highway 61 and the Savannah Way which we will turn onto tomorrow. It will eventually take us through to Normanton which is the furthest North we’ll … Read more
A big day for a few reasons. First of all we “turned left” and are now headed more or less to the West towards Normanton on the Gulf of Carpentaria. Second, this required a big ride with a massive climb for The Athlete. As usual, she has taken it in her stride. A shower, a … Read more
Today Anna did 172 Ks. Big effort and there’s more to come over the next few days. I caught up with her for a brief pit stop on the way but by then she had just about crushed it with only 45 ks to go. She really seems to be very bike-fit. When she gets … Read more
Some of you have asked questions: “How does the “machine” work? How is the route planned, how do you find a gravel pit, hundreds of kilometres away, and then find each other there.“ Firstly, Anna does most of the work on this. She plans the route because it matters a lot to her but less … Read more
Today we are camped in Townsville in a really big caravan park, part of “The Big 4” franchise group. It seems OK so far. I meet nice people in caravan parks, always friendly and ready to have a chat. There was Sean yesterday who is driving an older Dodge Ram. They have a Cummins 6 … Read more
Day 21 We covered about 130ks today and Anna seemed to do it very easily. We planned to camp in a gravel pit near the highway but judged it way too loud and dusty. So we moved down a dirt road and stopped on the side of that while Anna made some calls. Spike and … Read more
Today we took it easy in Sarina. We went to a place called the Sugar Shed which is next to the big sugar mill here. There was a guided tour through a mini version of the mill to explain the whole sugar growing and refining process. Like all these things it was a bit cheesy … Read more
I’m not entirely sure why my humans have decided to live in this caravan but like most things in life, I don’t get much choice. I just go for the ride and try to make the best of things. This little bit of madness on their part has changed my routine enormously, but not altogether … Read more
Day 18 – Og-somewhere The Park we were in last night was absolute crap. Worst so far. We were jammed in and then a bloke with a boat arrived and squeezed in between us and the van next door. This was entirely the fault of the park owners who are not only greedy but stupid. … Read more
An unremarkable day – which is good because we are really settling into things now. Packing up, driving to the next location, chatting with the caravan park people whilst checking in, negotiating the caravan into its appointed slot shopping, filling with diesel and adblue. The most remarkable thing however was that we crossed the Tropic … Read more