June 24th: Pentland to Charters Towers – 102 km
Day 254
Oh benevolent gods of cycling, how shall we repay you for such a perfect day? We have already paid homage by toiling into the wind, on hot dusty days, through water scarce deserts without abandoning our cycles on the roadside. But this, this is too much you are far too generous. Perfect cool weather, tail winds, long winding downhills through dense forest with the roads to ourselves. It’s noon and we’ve done 70 km, our average speed is 18 kph. We communicated our excitement in hushed tones, as if the cycling gods will hear us and take all the rewards away. Let’s not pretend that this is the work of our weak mortal bodies, lest the cycling gods punish us for our arrogance. We change our tone and louder we announce, we are so fortunate to have perfectly smooth roads, a strong tail winds and so many downhills. I think it worked. The wind was picking up.
Quick with lunch, back on the road before they change their mind. Still bloated from lunch we mount our trikes, now traveling uphill at a mere mortal speed of 16 kph. We climb and think we have reached the top, but it’s just a crest before another hill. The gods are testing our faith. We show the cycling gods we are devout subjects and we power up the hills, not allowing our pace to slacken, and then as we round one last bend we see that we are now on top looking out over the valley. Oh joy! To be saved.
At 30 kph we rush towards salvation, which looks a lot like Woolworth’s and a cozy caravan park. It’s only 2:30pm and we’ve come 102 km, and have time to shop, shower and settle in for a few days of much-needed rest. We have now only to cycle 2 days before we reach Townsville which is 130 km away, where we will give our steeds a new pair of shoes and add climbing shoes to our luggage. Hopefully the climbing gods will be as beneficent.
