Well, it was hot. I had only arrived in Queensland 2 days before and I was suffering from the heat. Even though it was only in the high 20’s. I met up with Hugh who was riding on a long bike recumbent tandem with his wife. We queued up along the beach front, and waited. I was with a group that decided that the shade of a pine tree was the best place to be. In front of me were the Cap Coast BUG with this splendid new tops. Later in the morning I asked what the symbol was of and it turned out to be the Singing Ship Sculpture. Apparently when it was first installed it howled like a banshee in a strong wind and still made quite a noise in a gentle breeze, so the local residents had complained and they changed it to make less noise. So sadly I never heard it sing.
We headed out in a large group that slowly strung out. I was taking it easy as it was a short ride and it was hot. I prefer to start at 7AM rather than 10:30 AM to at least ride in the coolest part of the day. I was passed by lots of people, including several recumbent riders I had not met before and Adrian and Jasmine. Before Lunch I stopped at the singing ship. At lunch I met Luke and Karen. Karen was riding the yellow trike and Luke a two wheeled recumbent. I spent a bit to much time gas-bagging and looked up to see pretty much every one had left. So I made a hasty exit.
I was now mostly on my own. Though there were a few others. I passed a woman with her daughter on a tag-along they were struggling and she had said that they were new to this arrangement. I hope they made it to the end. I was passed by two teenage girls. One with a her seat all the way down. They were too far gone for me to tell her to put up the seat, so I decided to mention it next time we met. A little later, an old couple, who were cycling instructors and stopped them, and they were raising the seat to the correct height.
Afternoon was a quick affair at Nankin before I headed out onto the road again. The sun was starting to go down. Which did not help the photography much. I went onto the bike track and rode over the bridge over the Fitzroy river that I had walked a few times a few days before. When I got to the camp ground I was one of the last. I had to pitch my tent in one of the few remaining spots.
I had some dinner, went to Epic Cycles and grabbed another spare tube so that now I had two. Then I went to my tent to rest. In this way I missed the first night briefing. I had forgotten about them. I did talk to some others after to find out that there was rain predicted for tomorrow. We should start early to avoid it. Thunder storms were predicted for Mount Morgan at 3PM. later in the evening I got up to visit the toilet. I brought in my towl and other drying, which turned out to be very fortuitous.
- 72.35 km
- 16.56 km/h ave
- 4:22:14 time
- 54 km/h max
One comment