Day 502 | Near Death Rock: guess what? another creek bed

63 km | zzOz total: 16,247 km

Strange not having to pack much up, that couch was pretty comfy too, I removed myself quite early.

Today really was special, OK there was that stretch near the start where I had to drop the panniers to continue walking my bike up a short haul saddle, rocky with soft loam underfoot, not exactly firmly fixed on the hillside but once I was up it was glorious riding, spectacular views in all directions all the way to Hawker. The track was undulating over this landscape, bereft of major vegetation thanks to the sheep, the panorama all the way back to the abrupt Rawnsleys Bluff.

After some time in Hawker, talking to Lewy at Hawker Bicycle Hire, now Hawker Bike Bits, the insurance proved prohibitive, and checking out his wares, a few tyres, tubes and other useful bits to get you by, and some bikes in the process of getting stripped out the back on an as-need basis. I don’t require anything, the seat is solid as a rock, I used a few washers in the middle of the seat clamp to avoid further deformation of said clamp, and could really torque it up. Also there had been considerable filing of burred teeth yesterday on the clamp/ seat post interface, all seems to have worked and my seat feels secure for the first time since I left Mareeba. Peter’s Brooks seems to have even been fully broken in, must have been through all those good vibrations of the rocky trails I’ve been following since Leigh Creek.

I heard from Lewy that there has been a dispute with some possessive landholder and trail markers have been removed, I know where I’m going, I avoid an uphill section in the soft stuff, preferring 15km on the main road then on the road to Craddock, I spot the disputed shortcut through the farmer’s paddocks and cut down there, past a campsite from my earlier north bound trip, and save an hour pedalling maybe.

The dirt road you then end up on is terrific, no shrubbery, it’s still sheep country, a few ks of climbing gradually then 10 km downhill, no traffic out here, the sun is low, the wind has died, me cranking down at pace on a smooth road until I get to the creek at the bottom, and as you know, these flat bottomed creeks, in this case with a full selection of flat stones, make ideal campsites.

Just don’t park immediately beneath those huge Red River Gums, ever prone to drop massive limbs.