Moree to Goondiwindi – 82 miles

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In line with the crime concerns I reported earlier the security in Moree involved the motel locking a gate to stop any vehicle or person entering or leaving the property and its surroundings! I’m stood there at just before 6am waiting for the owner to unlock! I’d wanted to get off as early as possible. In the end he didn’t appear at 6am and five minutes after I’m calling him on his phone. Dishevelled and obviously just out of his bed he hurried toward the padlock on the gate to release me.

The temperature was a sublime 18°C (65°F) first thing and after stopping to buy a sandwich I was straight onto the highway heading north. At 5am many cafes and kiosks open in all these towns. Your average tradesman disappearing up the road to start work wants a coffee, that is, there’s business to be done in the hospitality sector. Given the hour of day they start I’m always impressed that they’ll stand around for 10 minutes waiting for their beverage. Clearly proper coffee or no coffee is the call.

I was headed to Goondiwindi but just before that was my first and only stop, Boggabilla. That turned out to be a very long way away. In the meanwhile there was no shade and nowhere to lean my bike up if I stopped and sat down before that settlement. I say shade because by 9am the sun’s well and truly out and hitting mid 30s. Later the temperature crept into the 40s. I was carrying lots of water, I was covered by a big hat and other exposed flesh was underneath sunscreen. The only thing I couldn’t stop was the complete enervation of being out on the bike for seven hours straight.

The road stretched before me. This was a good shoulder but note how rough the surface looked. Recent work on the highway had all been to degrade the quality of the surfacing to this roughness. The distance from the road of the trees meant no shade. Were there optional routes? Well sort of. I could have got north by following the suggestion of Google or Garmin for bicycles on very minor road but they would have been less direct, still approximate to this route and no less exposed. I’d have just had less trucks and a longer ride. No point.

Most trucks moved over onto the other carriageway as they passed at 60 or 70mph. I never knew exactly when the truck would actually get past me, Would it be a truck alone, a truck with one trailer (‘Long Vehicle’) or with two trailers (‘Road Train’). Professional drivers are good and aware of the impact of their vehicles. They will give you space if they can. On more narrow roads where the truck couldn’t move over the draft created by one going past you, six feet away, at 60mph could be sold as an exciting fairground experience!

So some time later I got to cross into Queensland and into Goondwindi. The clocks went back an hour. I’ve little to tell you about my day. The concentration on keeping the bike going forward straight and not wandering into the carriageway whilst dealing with variable shoulder quality was itself tiring. However, I was never in danger and just kept pedalling. My legs or butt didn’t hurt and I was fine but getting more drained. The option to camp was disappearing. My early starts were essential but getting to a campsite early afternoon was hopeless. What would I do until about 8pm when the heat started to fall.