ANZAC Day

5:20pm at my campsite in the caravan park, sitting outside my tent watching the sunset, and listening to M.A.S.H. on the TV band of my radio. Overall it was a good day, especially considering when I woke up at 6am it was POURING rain. I can tell you that listening to the rainfall on your tent in the early hours of the morning is NOT a motivating sound. I did not want to cycle in the pouring rain, or even worse, pack my tent in the rain! So I settled in as much as you can in a one-person tent, and proceeded to read my book. By 8am it was still raining and so I was planning to move to a hostel for the day and at least spend the day inside somewhere. So I took a shower, and when I came out the rain had stopped and the clouds were breaking.
Hmmm, what to do? Well I decided if I was going to pack up all my stuff either way and it wasn’t raining anymore, I might as well cycle.

So I had a late start, but I finally left Hervey Bay at 10am. On the way out of town I stopped for a double espresso just to get the energy going and man, that kept me jazzed all day! I’ve got to do that more often. I did 25 km before I even looked at the computer! I was on a great back-road for the first 40 km, but unfortunately I had no choice but to take Highway 1 for the last 30 km. It’s only a 2-lane highway, but it’s the only road running north-south. Not the best shoulder,
but I think because it’s ANZAC Day (he Australian Memorial Day) that the traffic was lighter than normal. Just before I got on the highway I stopped at a fruit stall and bought a bag of mandarin oranges for $1. The 2 guys working there could not believe that I was cycling through Oz on my own, and they gave me their address and asked me to send them a postcard when I get to
Cairns. Pretty funny.

It was a miracle that the rain held off all day. I got to Childers around 2:30pm, and stopped in the center of town to have a look, although nearly every store was closed because of the holiday. I did stop at the Palace Hotel, I think the name was, where 15 backpackers died 2 years ago in a fire. The building has been restored and on the second floor there is now a memorial to the victims with photos donated by their families.

Continued on from there to the caravan park, which happens to be full of backpackers who are working in Childers as fruit pickers for some extra cash. I talked to one guy here who said the work is really tough and they treat you like a slave and the money is crap. No thanks!

Supposed to rain a lot tonight. Hope I don’t get washed out!

Distance: 71.88 km
Time: 3 hours 38 min
Avg Speed: 19.7 km/hr

Anzac Day Parade

Beautiful backroads

Wow that’s a sunset not to be missed

Add comment April 25th, 2003