Meeting the locals

May 8th, 2003 at 12:00am

Well I’ve had a bit of a break from the bike for the last week. I’ve been staying at the caravan park at Tannum Sands trying to recover from a cold/flu-type thing that really knocked me out for several days. No energy to even think about riding. Don’t worry though, it wasn’t SARS.

Luckily I met some really nice guys in the park who looked after me and kept me company while I recovered. One of them, Simon, invited me to spend the weekend with his family who are from Kingaroy, which is officially in the middle of nowhere, halfway between the ocean and the outback of Queensland, and I thought, hmmm, how many backpackers get to say they’ve seen Kingaroy,’the peanut and navy bean capital of Australia’, so I decided I had to go. It was a great time getting to meet real Australians and lots of locals at the pubs in Kingaroy. On Saturday we drove out to Simon’s sister’s house in the mountains near the Sunshine Coast and they had some friends over for the weekend so I got the chance to hang out with more Aussies. Everyone was really friendly and nice and they all made me feel right at home.

We got back to Tannum on Monday afternoon which was ANOTHER holiday, this time Labor Day. Somehow I managed to spend another 2 days recovering, mostly because I just didn’t feel like getting back on the bike every morning. Yesterday afternoon I felt’normal’ for the first time in over a week and finally felt like I had the energy to ride. So today I was off.

It was only 57 km from Tannum to here, but it was the only logical way to break up the 130 km stretch to Rockhampton. So tomorrow I’ll have 75 km to’Rocky.’ And conveniently enough, Simon’s father owns a farm supply store here in town and he’s letting me sleep in the shop tonight. They’ve got a kitchen and shower here which is all I need. I’ve spent the afternoon sitting around here with Vera, the girl who works here, watching the locals come in for their farm tools and bits and pieces. I don’t think they’re very used to seeing an American girl who’s cycling round Oz on her own in the farm supply store I can tell you! Great place to meet locals though.

Anyway tomorrow I’ll be off again. By the way, I crossed the 1,000 km mark on the distance done in Australia today!

Distance: 56.01 km
Time: 2 hr 56 minutes
Avg Speed: 19.0 km/hr

Now thats a tourist attraction

View of Glass House Mountains from Maleny

Sunset at Tannum Sands

Entry Filed under: Australia,Cycling,Hervey Bay