Belyando Crossing to Mt Surprise
7 May 2019
Master Map
Our usual riding practice is to have a cup of tea first thing and then hit the road for 100 kms or so (about an hour) before stopping for a late breakfast and coffee. That way we can usually muddle through until dinner time without major food stops. This day, our first possible stop would be for fuel in Charters Towers (nearly 200 kms up the road) so we had breakfast at Belyando Crossing before setting out.
Many of these outback places are staffed by young backpackers (who can get an extension on their working holiday visa if they work for a period in a remote area) or other itinerants. Presumably many of them are happy to work for lower wages, but it may also be that they're the only staff such places can get. The woman who sold us breakfast was not a backpacker; she was a New Zealander, with her husband, on an extended caravanning trip in Australia which they were supporting by stopping and working from time to time.
Pterodactyl has often suggested that we swap bikes for a while just because we can, but we've never really got around to it. This morning we did, on the pretext that he wanted us both to see whether his Dart Flyscreen made any difference. I think he wanted to see whether it was true black ones are faster. I finally got to take a picture of my own bike under way.
Pterodactyl on a black one. I couldn't catch him so it must have been faster.
For the record, I found the Flyscreen did make a difference. The wind hit my chest slightly higher and the noise in my helmet increased slightly as disturbed air pushed higher. It made me wonder whether a little screen might improve the burden of touring, at least on some days. I was to wonder about it further on the way home.
Lanyard cam is old and sometimes the shutter cover does not open properly giving this curious effect
A rest break at the Greenvale Roadhouse 400 kms up the road from breakfast
Just over 100 kms later another milestone clicked over. Two days, two milestones isn't a bad effort even in kilometres.
A late hydration stop at the junction of A62 and National Highway 1
I mentioned large trucks earlier and needing to be on the opposite shoulder when they passed. Imagine overtaking either of these beasts in the rain with 70 tyres pumping dirty water all over your visor. Imagine doing it wearing an open-face helmet?
Mt Surprise was a mandatory stop on our trip as it had been the scene of one of Pterodactyl's earliest paid jobs. It's for him to tell you about it, or not, but I can reveal that he lived pretty rough, camping near the creek running past the town boundary.
Riding into Mt Surprise
Near the site of the original camp. We probably would have camped there if the killjoys hadn't erected signs telling us it was banned
We pitched our tents in one of the two or three caravan and camping parks and had an early dinner. When we tried to adjourn to the pub next door for a good-night beer, we discovered the place was on an early closing regime and we were out of luck. We had an early night.
