Round Australia by bike - Day 006 - Miriam Vale to Marlborough

Day:	006
Date:	Wednesday, 25 July 2007
Accommodation	Motel in Marlborough
Summary	Riding from Miriam Vale to Marlborough
Start Time:	4:20am
Finish Time:	5:15pm
Daily Map Kms:	276
Total Map Kms:	1,627
Map Kms To Go:	12,784
Map Kms ahead (+)/ behind (-) schedule:	0
Daily Odometer Kms:	277.3
Daily Average Speed:	26.13kph
Weather:	Mild temperatures, partly cloudy with mostly easterly winds.
Nutrition:	Big Brekky for breakfast, foot long tuna sub for lunch and barramundi, chips and salad for dinner.
Encounters:	Chatted with a truck driver while having breakfast.  He does a run from Brisbane to Rockhampton and return and had seen me labouring up a hill yesterday afternoon.  Like me, he is an ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) listener and said he occasionally phones Macca, who has a famous national Sunday morning program focussing on the Australian bush.  I got the impression he may call Macca this Sunday about our encounter (but I may have misunderstood).
Highlights:	Finishing in daylight.
Lowlights:	Putting on my still very wet knicks, top and socks at 3:30am as I prepared for the day’s riding.  I had washed them out the previous night but couldn’t come up with a good way of drying them (always a problem).
Daily Pictures:	Here
Daily Podcasts:	Here & Here
Journal:	I had a good start to the day, with mainly flat roads, not too much traffic and an occasionally following wind.  I rode 95km without stopping to Mt Larcom where I had the Big Brekky and chatted with a truck driver enjoying the same. After that the road became very busy as it was the only route between two sizeable and growing cities, Gladstone and Rockhampton.  There was often no room to cycle to the side and I felt trucks pass very close on several occasions.  In the worst instance, a semi-trailer carrying an oversize load came up behind me as a truck came the other way.  The former sounded his horn and I headed for the bush (gravel, actually) and just managed to stay vertical. There were more signs of civilization with several new housing developments seemingly stuck in the middle of nowhere.  The road also paralleled a railway track which carried plenty of traffic including some very long coal trains heading for the port at Gladstone (which I didn’t visit as it was off the right some kilometres away).  The scenery was a mix of grazing land and lightly timbered forest.  Everything seemed very brown and dry, despite most creeks carrying some water. My route passed through the busy Rockhampton and I got some lunch at a Subway there before heading off for my last 105km leg to Marlborough.  The traffic was noticeably lighter and had large flat sections through pastoral country interspersed with occasional lightly-timbered low mountain ranges.  In the distance were higher mountains in most directions and it looked like it was raining on some. I reached the only motel in Marlborough where I had booked the last available room by phone earlier in the day.  It’s my most luxurious room yet, though not very expensive.  There’s no take-out food nearby, so I planned to eat in the motel restaurant.  However, the cook never turned up and one of the owners cooked me a meal instead, which was nice of them. Wireless reception is not too good in Marlborough so my aerial is earning its keep tonight, the first time I have needed it. All in all, it was a satisfying day in that I covered plenty of kilometres without feeling as tired as yesterday.  I feel that my legs are stronger in the afternoon but I still lack sufficient sleep.  Given where the towns are, it looks like a shorter day tomorrow and hopefully a long sleep tomorrow night.