October cycle tour map

October cycle tour map

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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Duaringa to Biloela


Duaringa to Biloela = 155km (Duaringa to Dululu = 82km, Dululu to Biloela = 73km)
Cummlative total = 6033km

Duaringa to Dululu -
This was a very hilly day! especially along the Capricornia highway. Lucky there wasn't a strong wind for us but there was a fair bit of traffic on the roads, I suppose because it was a weekday. The shoulder along the highway was good and wide enough for us.
Some of the hill climbs were quite tough - 6% was the final one over the Gogango ranges and about 13km before Gogango itself.
Again we saw another wide load with a police escort ... and I am sure this is the last one we will see for a while!

I thought we would see the body later on for this giant scoop but we didn't.
Neil found me a pair of jandals alongside the road (I just seem to miss absolutely everything!). They are near new and only ab out a size too big for me but they are okay - as my pair was getting very thin.

Crikey look at the odd suntan on my feet! If you look at my right foot at the heel you can see just how too big they are - so it is a bit like wearing flippers when you walk in them but they will suit their purpose to get me home to Melbourne!
We had a cuppa at Gogango which is about 9km from our turnoff. Just as we were leaving Dunphy park (where we had our cuppa) one of the locals comes out for a chat and offers us cake - but we were just leaving and had already eaten. Why do they always do that after we have eaten!
We turned onto Leichhardt highway for Dululu - this part of the highway is only a minor highway but after Dululu the Leichhardt highway becomes the major truck route. But the 26km we were on was very quiet and was undulating for the first 8km and then flattened out for the final 18km.

Dululu and Biloela are in the Banana shire - now I am wondering why it is called Banana shire as there is NO bananas grown anywhere here!
We got to Dululu and it is a very small place - not even a shop to buy food - lucky we bought some at Duaringa as we thought there might not be any shops at Dululu. It does have a pub thou. The rest area is nice and I think it might be an ex caravan spot as there were concrete slabs everywhere and on our way in to the town there were very old caravan park signs. Relieved to get to the rest area and it does have power and showers for a $10 fee which is payable at the pub but we opted not to pay for that luxury!
We didn have a strange old man come over and chat to us and we couldn't quite understand him most of the time as he had a very strong European accent and then we finally figured out what he was talking about - Hendry virus is in the area! He kept mentioning bats (we thought he said bus) and horses and don't believe the Health dept etc. Sometimes I wish we were bush camping!

Dululu to Biloela -
We are fast running out of food - it has taken all my will power not to eat all our snacks and we have had to count out the bread slices again! The food bags are the lightest they have ever been and by the time we get to Biloela I think we will only have a handful of nuts and fruit left!
We are now on the Burnett highway and no road trains are allowed on here - and I can see why now - the road is narrow at times and a little worse for wear. It is very scenic and there is predominantly pastural land growing grain, seed or grazing cattle - especially Brangus (I assume a cross between Brahmah and Angus). It is relatively flat this part of the highway but about 20km from Biloela the road really deteriorates and becomes very patchy and full of pot holes.

We were both very relieved to get to Biloela and have decided to stay here an extra rest day. The campground is nice and while waiting for Neil to book us in you could see all these peacocks running around with the males flapping their feathers and I assume it is mating season. One peacock flew up on the roof in front of me and for 5 minutes Kouta just looked at it ...

... I am not sure what he is thinking but he did lick his lips a few times ...
and this is what he is looking at ...

there is no difference between unpowered and powered sites so we have a small site next to one of the 3 camp kitchens and since we are the only ones around we have taken over the kitchen! We are only 2km from Woolworths and had a field day in there in the Bakery dept with all their markdowns and bought quite alot of food!
Got back just in time as it started to rain (just a light rain) and became very cold and we had to get out all our thermals and since we have been in the heat for such a long time - when it drops below 20 degrees the body sort of reacts violently and demands warmth!

While waiting for our pies to cook a peacock displayed its tail for us.
Today it is cold again and only 18 degrees and it rained lightly most of last night and is very cloudy and grey at the moment - I hope it clears as we have alot of washing to do!

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