Long Ride - Day 11 - Mackay to Rockhampton (Yeppoon)

Long Ride day 11 - Mackay to Rockhampton

Heading to bed last night the plan was to go beyond the planned destination of Yeppoon to the town of Seventeen Seventy, to allow us enough time to look around and also to get to Bundaberg with enough time to visit the distillery before heading to Hervey Bay.  What happened was almost the

complete opposite.

 

Setting off bright and early we had breakfast in Mackay, I for once went the healthy option, trying to stay away from bacon and eggs.  The fruit bowl and banana smoothie was delicious but would it be enough.

 

We refuelled, checked the tyres and then hit the road.  And almost immediately the bloody cane fields started, oh well, we plugged on.

 

Heading down the Bruce Highway, the skies began to darken, a quick shower but nothing to bad to complain about.  We continued on with the idea that we would put the wet weather gear on if it looked like getting worse, it actually looked like it might clear.  With this in mind we stopped at St Laurence for a quick refresh, I needed some food, the fruit bowl was delicious but nowhere near enough.  The rain was holding off.

 

We continued on and within ten minutes a rain storm of biblical proportions was unleashed.  Crocodiles were climbing trees to get away from it, some bloke called Noah was turning his fishing trawler into the almightiest of cruise liners.  Stupidly we continued on.  Within minutes we were soaked to the bone, thankfully it wasn't too cold, just yet.

 

My jeans were soaked all the way to the crutch, my seat had formed a puddle, and at one stage a tough of flatulence squelched, I prayed that it was nothing more than the moisture in my pants and not a wet fart brought on by the fruit.  Could this day get any worse?

 

A few kilometres on, and the almightiest of road kills was on the side of road.  Even through the rain it's odour was so pungent that it made us gag, it was the worst I have ever smelt.  Oh please don't let that be my bowel, I thought to myself.

 

We fought on and eventually reached Marlborough, we needed fuel so pulled into the service station, absolutely dripping wet.  A decision was made to look for accommodation, this day was a write-off, it was becoming unsafe to continue on.

 

We rode away from the servo and headed back to the road to Marlborough, immediately this seemed wrong, the road was rough, in fact I don't think it had been touched since it was built, at a time when Henry Ford was still pumping out the T Model.

 

The town was no different.  As we rode through looking for some place to get dry curtains fluttered, eyes appeared from behind blinds, door closed quickly.  It was a strange place, the real village of the damned.  There was no place to stay so we agreed to refuel and then make the final 100 kilometres to Rockhampton.  Are we bloody stupid?

 

Bloody rain.  It was relentless.

I stayed at the rear and could barely make out the taillights in front of me, my Ugly's had filled with water and if my eyes weren't watering the damn bloody goggles were fogging up.  I couldn't see a thing which, was probably a good thing considering the condition of the road and the trucks hurtling towards us in the opposite direction.

Battle scars ... a rock hit me right in the
middle of the head.  And is my hair still
rubbing off?

By now I'm pretty sure hypothermia was setting in, despite the misery of the rain and cold I was starting to fall asleep, then 'thwack' a bloody great rock hit me right in the middle of the forehead.  Shit, it hurt but woke me up immediately.  Right lets get to Rocky and stop whinging.  After all we are doing this for people who, or could, go through much worse.

 

We pulled into Rockhampton and went straight for the nearest caravan park.  The one we chose is a corker.  It's set in like a topical rainforest and has the best cabins I have ever seen, you could actually live here.

 

Local flooding was forecast for Rockhampton.

Standing in a pool of water we checked in, the receptionist couldn't help but laugh but was good enough to get through the process quickly so we could get out of the wet gear and warm up.  The shower was one of the best I have ever had, so hot my hands tingled.  Other body parts returned to normal pretty quickly.

Trying to dry.

There was no time to talk to people today, the plan was just to get to our destination safely.  Tomorrow we will head towards Hervey Bay, via 1770 and Bundeberg, the weather forecast is looking much better.

 

We only got as far as 330 kilometres today taking the total 4,483.  But we did make it safely.